Are conspiracy theorists and anti-maskers anti-fact? Are people doomed to confirmation bias and ideological bubbles? Or is there a deeper dynamic at play?

If these or similar conundrums have arisen in the course of your teaching and scholarship, please join us on January 29th from 10:00 to 11:30 for “Teaching Truth and Trust in an Era of Digital Dissensus.” Mike Caulfield, director of blended and networked learning at WSU Vancouver and nationally recognized digital literacy expert, will discuss the roots of our current “digital dissensus” and explain how our approach to education may be making the problem worse.

In doing so, he will address the following questions: How do we design education for a world where information is plentiful, and attention is the scarcity? How do we encourage analysis and engagement in our students without having those same impulses gamed by bad actors? What epistemic stances and heuristics serve the public in a world where expertise is niche and very little is directly verifiable, and where facts are atomized, separated from analysis, and reassembled in bizarre and dangerous ways?

If you are interested in attending, please register via the following link. For more information, please reach out to WIC GTA Alex Mahmou-Werndli at werndlia@oregonstate.edu.

As a follow-up to this event, the WIC program is planning to partner with OSU Librarians and host an informational literacy workshop. Stay tuned for more information!