Ed. note: App of the Week picks are now being curated by the editors of Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. Click here to read the full app review.
checkology Virtual Classroom
What’s It Like?
Checkology® Virtual Classroom is a news- and media-literacy learning platform created by the News Literacy Project. Checkology’s aim is to help students more critically navigate today’s ever-changing media and digital landscape. The site boasts four modules that each contain lessons, student challenges, and discussions. The lessons’ panelists are journalists from the New York Times, Buzzfeed, and the Washington Post, to name a few. There’s also a “check tool” that allows students to evaluate the credibility of any piece of news they may be uncertain of, following the news-literacy principles they learned throughout checkology’s lessons.
Price: Free
Grades: 7-12
Rating: 4/5
Pros: Unique site allows for exploration of multiple lessons, while the check tool allows students to evaluate credibility of news.
Cons: Lessons can be a bit too long and repetitive at times.
Bottom line: With “fake news” a pressing concern, checkology’s literacy lessons offer essential, if not totally comprehensive, skills to help students evaluate sources.
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