We live in a society where we are constantly bombarded by information online. This can come in many forms, but often includes news. However, we have to be aware of the information we are reading and the bias or inaccuracy of that information. It is valuable to read news sources, because they keep us up to date on current information, and they are valuable in getting us information quickly. However, it isn't always right to assume that everything we read online or hear on TV is correct. We have to take into account how much information is out about the event, how recently it happened, what types of bias the source has, etc.
In the classroom it is important for me to model being a close observer of anything we read online. If I am demonstrating doing artist or art history research, it would be valuable to have an accurate source, and an inaccurate source. I could then model how I could look through each to see which may be correct. I could model for students how to throughly look at the information, the author of the source, the date of publication, etc, to see how accurate the information likely is. This is a way to model for students not only artist or art history research, but how they can do this with all the information they are constantly being shown.
In an art classroom, it could also be valuable to embed this into the curriculum. Students could do research on contemporary and or historical artists as inspiration for their artwork. They could write in their sketchbook some values of the source they are looking at, some possible limitations (bias, inaccuracy, etc), and why they will or will not use the source for information. This gets students thinking about the information they are given through online sources.
Resources:
For information on all things digital citizenship for educators: https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship
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