As digital misinformation proliferates, whether people have the knowledge and skills required to effectively search for and evaluate online information can be gravely consequential. However, developing and evaluating approaches to teach these skills—what we refer to as online information literacy—presents challenges because the issue transcends typical disciplinary boundaries in educational research and practice. Teaching students to evaluate current, contentious online information and misinformation may be particularly challenging.
Despite these challenges, scholars have made progress in understanding the problem of misinformation broadly (e.g., Kuo & Marwick, 2021; Lazer et al., 2018) and in developing pedagogical solutions (e.g., Guess et al., 2020; Kohnen et al., 2020; McGrew & Byrne, 2021; Sinatra & Lombardi, 2020). Still, there is much work to be done. In particular, research is needed to understand the structural elements and contextual issues related to online information literacy. Structural elements include educational (e.g., disciplinary boundaries and silos, pressures on teachers due to testing or politicized environments), societal (e.g., political polarization, systemic racism) and technological (e.g., online algorithms and architectures) structures that affect both the proliferation of misinformation itself and our ability to craft pedagogical responses. Studying contextual issues requires a deeper look at the personal and community contexts that affect how we teach about and interpret online information, including one’s identities, emotions, beliefs, and social networks online.
This special issue will address the structural and contextual elements of online information literacy. The manuscripts can be conceptual articles based on critical analysis and significant review of literature (systematic or scoping reviews), empirical studies (quantitative or qualitative), methodological reviews, or policy analyses that relate to the topic of online information literacy pedagogy.
Topics of interest for this special issue include, but are not limited to the following:
- Classroom-based interventions to teach online information literacy in ways that address the structural and/or contextual issues outlined above
- Algorithmic solutions to problems created by misinformation that have a pedagogical component
- Methodological approaches to studying or evaluating efforts to build online information literacy or counter misinformation
- Gamed-based learning approaches to teaching online information literacy
- Critical analyses of histories or educational policies related to misinformation pedagogy
In keeping with the journal’s aims and scope, all articles should address teaching and/or learning, broadly conceived, and discuss related implications. Education is inclusive of formal educational environments ranging from PK-12 to higher education, and informal learning environments, such as museums, community centers, and after-school programs.
