For educators · Lesson plan

Spotting techniques online

Grades 9–12 Duration Two 50-minute periods Standards DE, NJ, TX, CA, IL
Objectives
  1. Recognize the digital-era techniques: bot amplification, sock puppets, engagement bait, rage farming, cheap fakes
  2. Distinguish misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation by content and intent
  3. Apply a source check to a viral post: who posted first, is the account what it claims, where is the original
  4. Explain how platform ranking rewards the techniques
Procedure

Before class

Read the Digital-era family and the glossary entries on misinformation and disinformation. Prepare three screenshots of viral posts, anonymised, that show different techniques; avoid live political controversies and use commercial, sporting, or entertainment examples where possible.

Period one: the techniques

  1. Hook (5 min). Show a post with a very large share count and ask how many of those shares were by people. Students will not know; that is the point.
  2. The family (20 min). Present the digital-era techniques in groups: the fake crowd (Bot Amplification, Sock Puppets, Synthetic Personas), the bait (Engagement Bait, Rage Farming), the fake footage (Cheap Fakes, Deepfakes), and the laundering (Algorithmic Laundering, Spoofed Outlets). One example each from the technique pages.
  3. Three words (10 min). Misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, with the table from What is propaganda?. Students sort six short cases into the three boxes.
  4. Screenshots (15 min). Groups analyze the three prepared posts: which techniques, which box, and what would you need to know to be sure.

Period two: the check

  1. The source check (15 min). Teach the four questions as a routine: who posted this first; is the account what it says it is (age, history, followers, name); where is the original (reverse image search, the outlet's own site); what does the post want you to feel before you think. Demonstrate on one of the screenshots.
  2. Practice (20 min). Students apply the routine to posts of their own choosing, from their own feeds, and record the answers on a worksheet.
  3. Why it works (10 min). Explain ranking in one sentence: platforms show more of what gets reactions, and the techniques are built to get reactions. Discuss what a platform would have to change for the techniques to stop working, and why it has not.
  4. Close (5 min). One habit each student will adopt. Write it down.
Assessment

The six-case sort, the group analysis of the prepared posts, and the worksheet applying the source check to the student's own examples. Assess for correct technique identification and for completion of all four source-check questions on at least two posts.