This section provides a brief overview of the course primary objectives, the learning outcomes we are pursuing, the content items and the structure, including learning activities that include both individual and group tasks.
The video room is controlled by our Google Cloud account and will be active immediately before and after scheduled video sessions!
Our cognitive pillars are not just super useful, but also fun to play with. We have a special section on them with fresh video examples, and we encourage you to check them out and make sure you recognise pillar examples wherever you may meet them! Go to the bottom of the course page at the section 'Hands-on: Become a Master of Cognitive Pillars'.
Discover the case studies prepared by the project partners. This will provide you with ideas on what and how to use in your classes and will hopefully inspire you to make your own case study.
Overview of the case-studies | SCREENCAST
This is the first major exercise in the course. With it, we are checking whether we have reached a common understanding of the structure, content and purpose of the case studies. We will use case studies already prepared by De Facto partners - but make no mistake, none of them are perfect, so it is in your hands to point to deficits and means of improvement.
We ask you to follow a checklist and record your findings and comments, and we will discuss those together before going on to developing your own case study!
Here you will find the criteria for choosing an interesting topic and the methodology to create your own case study.
A word of caution: two terms coexist with regard to setting objectives for a course - learning objectives and learning outcomes. They are often used interchangeably, but they really should not. Learning objectives for a course are more general in nature and learning outcomes are more specific and detailed. Typically, a learning objective contains more than one learning outcome. With regard to De Facto's case studies, the learning objectives are the same or very similar - so in this course we focus on learning outcomes only.
Write your own learning outcomes with this interactive tool! This activity will focus your mind on the link between your formulated learning outcome and the methods/learning activities employed to achieve them.
Use this module to upload and send to the teacher your self-assessment of the match between learning outcomes and your planned methods and learning activities.
Can you find the instances where motivated cognition is clearly demonstrated in this interview?
Josephine Herivel is the woman who shouted out Balakrishnan's innocence in court. Surprising - because she was the one who blew the lid on the whole case, helping his daughter to leave in 2013. She speaks exclusively to Channel 4 News.
Background to the story (not mandatory, but much helpful to put things in their proper context):
Can you find the instances where frames are clearly demonstrated in this short clip?
Keeping up appearances is a British sitcom produced by BBC and originally aired between 1990-1995. There are claims that it has since become the BBC Worldwide's most exported TV programme.
The sitcom follows Hyacinth Bucket (which she insists on pronouncing 'bouquet'), played by Dame Patricia Routledge, in her attempts to prove her social superiority, and to gain standing with those she considers upper class. Her attempts are constantly hampered by her lower class extended family, whom she is desperate to hide. Much of the humour comes from the conflict between Hyacinth's vision of herself and the reality of her underclass background. In each episode, she lands in a farcical situation as she battles to protect her social credibility. (Wikipedia article)
Additional background and links:
Can you find the instances where frames are clearly demonstrated in this short clip?
The 'Origins of job interviews' is a short clip/sketch produced by the Armstrong & Miller Show (running between 2007-2010) as part of their 'The origins of...' series. It revolves around situational reconstruction of a small group of Neanderthal tribesmen who negotiate their way anachronistically through modern social difficulties such as job interviews, dinner parties and baby naming.
Additional background and links:
Here's how we will play this game. There are two hotspots on the image. Click first the one that's on the left. Play the video that will pop-up. Watch it attentively. Replay if you need to.
Can you link the video, or isolated scenes from it, to a De Facto cognitive pillar? Is there more than one? Make a short note somewhere about your findings - what you see and what you think it is. Then go back and click on the second hotspot.
Read our take on the video and compare notes. Do yours match ours?
The Roman Catholic Church has a complex structure and a great many factions on issues from grand to petty. But ultimately, it is a centralised body which resembles a lot that of large secular corporations.
In this clip from 'The Young Pope' we can observe parts of the Vatican's theocratic governance frame, reminiscent of the frame of corporate governance. And the sections to which we will draw your attention using explicit markers, are examples of motivated cognition, systemic causality and emphasis frames. Can you explain this?
This resource exemplifies how equivalence and emphasis frames work. Follow the two videos from the hotspots and see if the concept becomes clear to you. Remember, we define equivalence frames where there are two (or more) "statements which are logically equivalent, but phrased differently". With these two videos, the "phrased differently" part is can refer to worded statements, or visual statements (graphs, posters, ads)
We also know from science that different phrasing causes individuals to alter their preferences when presented with two versions of the same logical statement. This is notoriously used in political communications.
Equivalence and emphasis frames often merge, since with emphasis frames people make different judgements depending on which aspect of a statement was intentionally emphasised by the author.
Any comments, cool ideas or a really nice video which matches one of our pillars? Tell us all about in the course forum!
This video, part of a large series which started with debunking baking tips and hacks in videos, is part of a channel with 4.35 million subscribers. Yet, a few videos touch on non-food and non-kitchen matters.
This videoclip is particularly insightful, as it not only shows specific examples of disinformation, but also explains why they happen (satisfying the allmightly Algorithm and the quest for views, money and influence) and even outlines the specific damage that can be done to unsuspecting viewers, including children.
Is there such a thing as "no real damage" in disinformation if its topic is fun and casual?