Course | Outsmart AI to Spot Misinformation and Evaluate Sources

Instructors

Charlotte Cheng
Charlotte Cheng is the STEM Education Program Manager at KQED. Her expertise is creating effective and engaging content for kids at the intersection of education, media, and technology. Charlotte has also taught in a variety of K-12 classroom settings and one of her workshops was featured on ABC News.

Rachel Roberson
Rachel is KQED’s program manager for humanities professional learning. Previously, she was an English and social studies classroom teacher and teacher leader in San Francisco, Oakland, Austin and internationally. Before becoming a teacher, she was a newspaper reporter in the Bay Area.

Rik Panganiban
Rik Panganiban is the Manager of Online Learning at the San Francisco-based public media station KQED. He supports educators’ professional growth through KQED Teach, an online learning platform with more than 10K registered users. Previously, Rik served as the Senior Manager of Digital Learning at the California Academy of Sciences.

Generative AI can help people make all sorts of media that looks and sounds convincing. So how can you – and your students – spot misinformation in the age of AI? This course will teach you the techniques used by professional fact checkers to evaluate all kinds of media for accuracy and reliability.

In this free, hands-on course you will
• Explore strategies to recognize reliable and unreliable sources no matter how they were created
• Practice lateral reading and other fact-checking methods centered on a topic relevant to you and your curriculum or content area

Learning Objectives

Explore how generative AI intersects with misinformation and how to respond as an educator, including:
• Understanding how AI is used to create different types of mis- and disinformation
• Considering whether or not AI should be used to find the most reliable sources
• Practicing current best practices to assess the accuracy and credibility of online sources that may have been made using AI

Who Should Take This Course

K-12 educators in all subject areas who want to develop skills and confidence with media making and media literacy.

Course Features

Learn online at your own pace with step-by-step videos and hands-on activities. Join live events with instructors and peers. It’s completely free!

Certificate of Completion

Earn a Certificate of Completion for 3 hours of professional development. Then apply for graduate units from one of the university partners.

Course Curriculum

Introduction
• Welcome
• How We Talk about GenAI
• Introduce Yourself!
• Need Help?

KQED’s GenAI Guidelines for Youth Media Creation
• GenAI is a Part of Media Literacy
• Intro to the KQED GenAI Guidelines
• Accuracy

About AI and Misinformation
• A Brief History of Misinformation
• What is a Deepfake?
• What is a Hallucination?
• The Dangers of Cynicism and Distrust

How to Fact Check AI
• Lateral Reading Quick How To
• Reverse Image Search
• Can I use GenAI to Evaluate a Source?
• Lateral Reading in Action

Now It’s Your Turn
• Quiz
• Assignment: Evaluate Potentially AI-generated Media
• Assignment: Quiz the AI!
• Exit Ticket
• What Next?

Unit

Unit may be available for this course and may vary by country or institution. Please verify eligibility with KQED Teach.