As an organization, we are eagerly seeking ways to expand civic education and adequately prepare our youth to inherit democracy. Fortunately, valuable resources to help educators develop the capacity for civic engagement are on the rise.
One organization, iCivics, founded by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, has spent the past 10 years developing age-appropriate, fun educational civics video games and exercises for educators to integrate in the classroom and for children and families to use on their own.
In an era where the truth of digital information is hard to glean, young adults are in critical need of both the right mindset and sufficient skills to assess news through a thoughtful prism. As such, iCivics has recently launched a game that promotes media literacy. The product, NewsFeed Defenders, encourages students to serve as “moderator” for a news platform and to use 5 standards of journalism to evaluate articles submitted for publication. Students are rewarded with “badges” for demonstrating ethical and professional investigative strategies in their reading of proposed essays.
Read more about the background and pedagogy of the NewsFeed Defenders game HERE and try out the module HERE.