“Ang information ay para sa lahat,  tayong lahat ay responsable sa matalinong pagpapakalat ng tama at dapat na information.”

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Evaluate the resources, share the learnings with families and friends, resist the spread of disinformation, and be part of the #Digitalino community—these are some of the pledges of my students during the ADLP Digitalino training that gave me the confidence to continue my Master Trainer journey.

I started as a Master Trainer around November 2022. I am a teacher by profession, but I have asked myself if I can echo digital literacy in a more informal setting. Can I go to the different barangays and teach them? Can I be as confident and as good as our facilitators?

But I remain committed to helping fight against false and misleading information. Teachers like me should play an essential role in not just shaping the values of our students but, more importantly, promoting critical thinking among them. The spread of false information has become more rampant in social media, especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Role of teachers in combating false information outside the classroom

I remember—I courageously sent my rollout plan to the facilitator and went to the different offices in our community to hand over my letter of invitation for the training program. From there, I began my #Digitalino training with our school leaders. They realized that despite being a digital user for many years now, there is so much more to learn now that the internet is more accessible than ever. They are now even more careful about becoming victims, or even peddlers, of false information. 

Seeing the participants' enthusiasm to learn more about digital literacy is fulfilling for my part as a trainer as if I have made an impactful talk to them. They enthusiastically asked whether their actions have been part of disseminating misinformation and how they can immediately correct these acts. 

As we finished one of the sessions, one of my students have mentioned in her pledge that "Ma'am, ang natutunan ko sa session na ito ay  maging matalino sa pag-analyze ng information.  Nagkaroon ako ng AHA [moment] sa pakikinig sa iyo dahil nalaman ko na ang mga types of disinformation ay ginagawa ko na pala." (Ma'am, what I learned in this session is to be critical in analyzing information. I had an AHA moment when listening to you because I found out that I was already doing these types of disinformation.)

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Even though teachers like me and students have different views on things, the most important thing that a teacher can provide to his or her students is the ability to discern, to examine things critically, and to be more assertive now, especially in this environment of fake news. 

Now, with my experiences as a digitalino trainer, I will continue to include digital literacy in my daily lessons as a teacher. Students, parents, and even senior citizens should be bold and engage with their teachers to ask them about their ideas or to also express their own opinions, especially on the pressing issues of today. Let us all put our best foot forward to screen and regulate these educational materials that spread false information.