How do you fix a problem like the rampant disinformation found on the internet?  Most educators would probably say with knowledge, but the reality is that knowledge alone rarely fixes problems.  What is typically required to fix a problem?  Knowledge plus tools.  Therefore, our team set-out to create a tool that could be applied to help individuals determine whether their sources of information were reliable or not.  Originally, we were going to create a learning activity that taught students the different logical fallacies, but the reality is that a digital learning activity is not a tool.  It is not something that the student user is going to use again and again, whereas with a learning tool, the hope is that once a student learns to use it, they will continue to use it as they build their skills and learn to apply their knowledge in different ways.  This type of tool becomes useful, and “usefulness” for the student user is what I believe to be the most important aspect of “educational usability”. This reflection is an excerpt from my Final Project Retrospective.

Not only does this artifact help to demonstrate my own digital literacy in understanding how to sort quality information from disinformation, but it really helped me to think about alternative methods for helping people develop digital literacy and critical thinking skills.