Using a Game-Based Approach to Enhance Adolescents’ Skills of Discerning Misinformation

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 3:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Gaming as Community, Public Pedagogy, and Skill Building (Table 4)

Abstract

In the post-truth era, equipping individuals with the requisite skills to differentiate misinformation and reliable source in the evolving information-driven society has become an essential issue. Although this need has been widely acknowledged, educational approaches for youth, especially adolescents within school context are not addressed enough. This study employs a quasi-experimental design to investigate using a game-based approach to enhance adolescent students’ skills of discerning misinformation based on news posts. The preliminary results reveal the effectiveness of the this approach in enhancing adolescents’ susceptibility to misinformation, and indicate the educational potentials to teach adolescents’ skills of discerning misinformation at school.

Authors

• Jun Xie, University of Hong Kong

• Frank Reichert, University of Hong Kong

• Yameng Zhang, Chinese University of Hong Kong