Teemu Valtonen University of Eastern Finland, 
Matti Tedre University of Eastern Finland, 
Kati Mäkitalo University of Oulu, Finland
​Henriikka Vartiainen University of Eastern Finland, Finland
Overview: 
With recent changes in media, where information is shared like a virus, “fake news” resurfaced as a more powerful adversary. One of the reasons “fake news” is so pervasive is that it has become easier to make it look more credible and dynamic. “Fake news” is designed to be sensational, interesting and believable, it often includes real facts. Machine learning algorithms aid in dissemination of “fake news” and polarization of opinions.  “Coping with the world of algorithmically created and distributed news is a challenge to existing media literacy education” Media literacy needs to emphasize individuals’ active inquiry and critical thinking, people’s skills, and ability to reflect and analyze media input.
The article also discusses the algorithms that run online media platforms. They are proprietary to the companies who own the social media platforms, they are well hidden and get a user their personal media feed that is tailored to their personal preferences. They are using “attention engineering” to manipulate people’s emotions without their awareness.
Here is a list of Technologies and Educational themes and content I’ve found to be important to share: 
 
Tracking 
How are people tracked in the physical world (phones, health devices, instagram photos with geolocation data, credit cards, utilities, security surveillance, etc.) as well as in virtual worlds (twitter posts, facebook face recognition, loyalty cards, software updates, calendar events, etc.)—and how these are combined to make an extremely accurate profile of you, the consumer.

Recommenders and optimization
How do recommender systems use tracking data from massive numbers of people to very accurately predict what you might be interested in, based on people with similar interests, as well as on content similarity—and how is that information used for marketing, political and social purposes, provision of instant gratification, and facilitating addictive behavior.

Dynamic content generation
How is natural language generation used, for example, to create large farms of “followers” in social media, to create news and fake news that appeal to users’ interests, to design bots that are able to carry out conversations, and to automate journalism. 

Deep learning
How do computers learn to do tasks by looking at large numbers of examples; tasks such as translate text between languages, spot fraudulent credit card transactions, paint or compose music in specific styles, and recognize faces, speech, or objects in photos. 

Reinforcement learning
How do computers learn, by themselves, to take the right actions in complex, unstructured environments, such as keep up a conversation, drive a car, land a plane, learn to play games better than people do, find optimal settings for media content and customer retention, and optimize logistical operation

Attention engineering
How are social media adapting and tailoring their content to maximize the time users spend on their services through, for example, amplifying negative emotions and excitement, magnifying polarization, and finding an optimal balance between gratification and unpredictability.

Content filtering/ curation
How do web 2.0 platforms learn to curate content that the user is most likely to click or to filter content that is likely to drive the user away; for instance, search engines and video-sharing websites adapting to the user’s earlier choices, and newspaper comment sections filtering out potentially offensive or objectionable comments.

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I found this table to be a comprehensive and informative tool for discussion of media literacy in “post-truth” times.  The authors suggest these areas to teach as a part of the ICT skill set of a modern digital citizen. 

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​With the shift towards the knowledge society, the change of working conditions, and the high-speed evolution of information and communication technologies, peoples' knowledge and skills need continuous updating.
Learning based on collaborative working, creativity, multidisciplinary, adaptiveness, intercultural communication, and problem solving has taken on an important role in everyday life.
Integrating education technology into our classroom is an easy and productive way to differentiate instruction, increase student engagement and motivation, improve outcomes, and add some variety and interactivity to your lessons. I introduce you Flipgrid as one of the best tools that enhances student’s classroom experience and encourages work ownership and social interaction.
Flipgrid
Flipgrid’s platform allows teachers to encourage student reflection, collaboration, communication, creation, and critical thinking through their easily accessible platform - which is now FREE for EVERYONE! Teachers can use Flipgrid in a number of ways in their classroom to get a clearer picture of what students know and where they need help. Teachers create a grid in Flipgrid and then post topics for their students to respond to using video. Teachers can determine the length of the student submitted videos and can allow students to comment and react to their classmates’ videos, and can even share grids/topics/student videos through email, link, and QR Code!
After discovering Flipgrid as high school math teacher I immediately asked the question, “How I could use Flipgrid in my math classroom?”
 
Here is a few ideas I brainstormed to use Flipgrid with math that can help us get started.  

1. Weekly Math Problem. This could be done as a review or about the current topic. For me, I’ll be teaching Algebra 1 and Quantitative reasoning, so it can be e a great way for my students to interact with each other.
2. Find the mistake. Post a video or picture of a math problem that was worked out incorrectly and has the wrong answer. Students must then find the error and explain in their response how to solve it correctly.
3. Would you rather…? Have seen www.wouldyourathermath.com? It’s a website put together by Classroom Chef co-author John Stevens. On the site are tons of scenarios posted that challenge the students to think, solve some math, choose a path and justify their reasoning. The best part is that new ones are continuously added and you can search them by categories!
4. Student created math tutorials. I can see this happening two ways. The first option is to have students add math tutorial responses on a predetermined math skill. Then share the filled Flipgrid Topic as a resource for others to use. The second option is like a “math help hotline”. Provide a topic where students can post questions or calls for help. Other students can respond with a short how-to tutorial. For either one these options, a screencasting app could be used to create the video and then just upload those videos to Flipgrid.
5. Student – Created Assessment. Have your students create questions for their classmates to answer. With Flipgrid’s response feature, you can view responses before posting them so you don’t have to worry about other students “copying” a response. And you can directly address any issues through comments to students.
6. AppSmash. Appsmashing is the process of combining two or more apps, and Flipgrid makes appsmashing easy! Students can record a video in Snapchat, Instagram, Adobe Spark, Chatterpix or any other platform and then upload the video to your class Flipgrid.  Be prepared for some of the most creative responses you’ll ever see!

 
These are just some possible ways I’ve brainstormed to use Flipgrid to enhance the mathematical discussion and learning in my classroom.

Here is my Book Review

Collaborative learning teams attain higher-level thinking and preserve information for longer time. It is widely accepted that we retain approximately 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss, 80% of what we experience and 95% of what we teach others. But why is this so?
Learning is a social experience and students who develop good social skills become successful in life because they have the ability to deal with people.  We study and develop new ideas through books, technology and personal experiences. Collaboration is a processed that requires soft skills, those skills can be learned by direct instruction or by implicit learning. Collaboration allows for more challenging project – based assignments, various levels of differentiation, it helps students develop confidence and self-esteem as well as strengthen their social skills. The amount of social interaction between people has increased with the explosion of social networks like Facebook and Twitter. However, it’s still important that we teach communication and group work at a face to face classroom level, so students learn of the importance of personal interaction.  

    7 Principles for collaborative learning in high school classroom:

1. Establish group goals and individual accountability.  This keeps the group on task and establishes clear purpose. 
2. Keep groups midsized A moderate size group of 4-5 is ideal.
3. Establish flexible group norms.  Collaborative learning is influenced by the quality of interactions.  Interactivity and negotiation are important in group learning students. Students are set to create their own norms. 
4. Build trust and promote open communication.  Building trust is essential.  Students who provide and receive explanations gain most from collaborative learning.  Open communication is key.
5. Decompose larger tasks and create group roles.   The students might have turns to choose their own role and alternate roles by sections of the assignment or classes.
6. Create clear grading rubrics.  A good way to ensure the group learns together would be to engage in a pre and post-test.  In fact, many researchers use this method to see if groups are learning.  An assessment gives the team a goal to work towards and ensures learning is a priority
7. Use real-world problems. Project-based learning and using open-ended questions can be very engaging. Real world problems can be used to facilitate project-based learning and often have the right scope for collaborative learning.

 
Tech Tools that Support Classroom Collaboration.
I used Wakelet to make a small collection of tools that I use for collaboration in my classroom. You can use Wakelet in a flipped classroom. Pair it with Flipgrid or Screencastify to design a lesson that does more than deliver a lecture or set of instructions. Use it for research. Kids can save links to content and record themselves discussing the information and how it relates to their topic. Or use it to tell a story. Collect content from all over the web to tell a story about a current or historical event.
 
​​Collaborative learning is a fun and energizing break for students from the more traditional teacher-lecture model of education. Student collaboration in the classroom is an excellent educational enhancement. Collaborative lessons will make a memorable impact on your students, and they are well worth the time and effort to plan and implement.