In our modern times, with a 24-hour news cycle, glancing social media headlines, and polished websites run by the most partisan of groups, it looks like all that glitters is not necessarily gold in the news business.

Enter the term “fake news”—two words used toward both credible and non-credible media alike. How can educators tell the difference? And how do you teach students to discern facts from opinion, or downright fiction?

Join us on Twitter Thursday, February 9, at 8:00 p.m. ET when Renee Hobbs, Patrick Larkin, and other guests will talk about how to find accurate reporting and how to approach critical and media literacy in the classroom.

Hobbs is professor of Communication Studies at the University of Rhode Island, where she directs the Media Education Lab. The lab’s mission is to improve the practice of media literacy education through both studies and service. She is the codirector of the URI Graduate Certificate in Digital Literacy and is the founding coeditor of the Journal of Media Literacy Education, the official publication of the National Association for Media Literacy Education. In addition, she wrote six books and more than 150 scholarly and professional articles, and she created award-winning multimedia curricula, including Mind Over Media: Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda. 

Larkin is the Assistant Superintendent for Learning in Burlington Public Schools in Massachusetts, a NASSP National Digital Principal Award Winner, and former Massachusetts Assistant Principal of the Year who led the first 1:1 iPad high school implementation in the state. He has recently taken a close interest in the “fake news” phenomenon and is a writer for Education Week.

Come armed with your questions and best strategies in encouraging students to be critical readers and thinkers. Don’t forget to use #ILAchat to join the conversation and follow ILAToday and Hobbs on Twitter.