Mission:Information is an open-source and interactive curriculum that helps teens develop media and web literacy skills, and have some fun while doing so. This curriculum was created as a way to help teens deal with fake news and misinformation that they might encounter online. A main goal of this curriculum is to empower learners to become strong consumers, producers, and distributors of news and media.
This curriculum was initially developed by Nucleus Learning Network, Open Austin, and The Austin Monitor in partnership with Mozilla. Currently, this project is run by Sarah Morris from Nucleus Learning Network. This project follows Mozilla's Community Participation Guidelines. Visit the link to learn more and check out the project's Contributing guidelines for futher information.
See the following documents for detailed information on how to get involved with the project, what types of skills you need to get involved, resources to learn more, and next steps with the project.
- Engagement Ladder - see details on how to get involved, how you can contribute, and what skills are most needed
- Project Vision and Roadmap - see the story behind Mission:Information and learn about future goals
- Global Sprint Exit Ramps and Next Steps - see ways to stay involved after the Global Sprint
Sarah Morris from Nucleus Learning Network is currently a Mozilla Open Leaders Fellow and is working on a new computer science lesson to supplement the original three Mission:Information Lessons. This new lesson will help learners gain a new perspective on misinformation and fake news by focusing on algorithms, and will help learners continue to strengthen their media and web literacy skills.
Here are some ways that you can get involved!
- See the Project Docs above for more detailed information about ways to get involved and skills needed
- Provide feedback and ideas here on GitHub, on Gitter, or via this Google Doc.
- Get involved with the Mozilla Global Sprint on May 10-11.
- Get in touch with questions or ideas via email or Gitter.
- Get involved with the Mission:Information project more generally. See below for more details!
During the sprint I am looking for more people to test, provide feedback, share ideas, remix and expand, and, most importantly, build community around this topic. See the Issues page for ways to get started and disucssion topics. See this Google Doc where we can brainstorm and share ideas around a new lesson on algorithms.
If you make a contribution during the sprint (thank you!) you'll receive a virtual high-five and a shoutout in an acknowledgement page (unless you prefer not to be included).
As a current solo project owner I'll be available as much as possible during the Sprint, but there might be some lag times in responses! I'm located in the US in the Central Time Zone and will be available during buisness hours (8am-5pm) to answer questions.
This open-source curriculum project is hopefully the start of something bigger. The three existing lessons serve as a foundation to help teens develop media and web literacy skills, but there is a lot of room to grow. Here are some ways to get involved.
- Remix, and adapt this project to use with your learners
- Help guide the project by providing feedback with this brief survey
- Build upon this project with lessons, apps, remixes, etc.
- Visit our Legit-O-Meter site to learn more about the an online app being developed for this curriculum, and discover ways to get involved
- Test out this curriculum with your learners and provide feedback
- Check out the Mission:Information project portal for news, updates, and related materials
- Get in touch with questions or ideas via email or Gitter.
Glad you asked! Here are some plans and next steps to continue to grow the Mission:Information project in 2018 and beyond. If any of these avenues of work sound interesting, please get in touch!
- Find ways to connect this curriculum to younger learners, whether by adapting it, creating additional lessons, or connecting it to existing resources
- Create additional lessons and activities that delve into other facets of misinformation, including data literacy and online security
- Develop additional assessment and evaluation materials
- Explore opportunities for collaborations, partnerships, and events!