Getting to Know Mission:Information
by Daina Bouquin | A spotlight on a 2018 Global Sprint project
Mission:Information is an exciting project focusing on empowering teens to be strong producers, consumers, and distributors of information and media online. I interviewed Sarah Morris to learn more about Mission:Information and how you can help at the Mozilla’s Global Sprint 2018.
What is Mission:Information?
Mission:Information is a set of curriculum and resources designed to help educators empower teen learners with vital media and web literacy skills. By equipping teen learners with media and web literacy skills, educators can empower teens to recognize and combat misinformation, and to contribute to making the Internet a healthier place. Mission:Information currently contains three lessons that focus on consuming, producing, and distributing information online, but this is a growing project with plans for more, interdisciplinary lessons, as well as resources and professional development materials for educators.
Why did you start Mission:Information?
Mission:Information started at a breakfast diner in November 2016, when I pitched an idea to develop a small lesson plan on using web literacy skills to deal with misinformation to a friend and Mozillan. As a librarian, I had long been concerned about issues related to misinformation and media and web literacy. A 2016 study from Stanford, for instance, noted that most teens (and adults for that matter!) had trouble distinguishing between credible and non-credible information online.
That initial pitch resulted in a project, and a mission, that’s kind of taken over my life (but in the best way). The initial idea for a small lesson fortunately resonated with a variety of collaborators. The project grew, and continues to grow, thanks to a lot of amazing and enthusiastic contributors and passionate people, especially educators, eager to do work around combating misinformation and making the Internet a more welcoming, diverse, and informative space.
What challenges have you faced working on this project?
One issue is simply with time — I have more ideas than I do hours in the day! What I wouldn’t give for a TARDIS.
Another challenge for me has been figuring out the direction and focus for the Mission:Information project. There is a lot of amazing work being done to combat misinformation across many industries (tech, media, education, etc.), and I want to make sure that the work I have done, and the work I do going forward, is valuable and is responding to people’s needs. Misinformation is a really complex and wide ranging challenge that won’t be solved in a vacuum.
Aside from considering the best ways to focus my project, another challenge has just been finding ways to ensure the project involves a wide range of perspectives.
What kind of skills do I need to help you?
It’s incredibly valuable to have people test out and provide feedback and ideas on the Mission:Information curriculum and resources, so people with skills in curriculum development or subject knowledge in areas such as computer science, journalism, or media literacy are welcome. People with experience using GitHub can contribute by reviewing more technical aspects of the project, fixing bugs, and suggesting ideas for improvement. This is a growing, open-source, interdisciplinary project, so ideas and remixes are very welcome!
How can others join your project at #mozsprint 2018?
The GitHub repo for the project, located at https://github.com/nucleus-network/missioninfo, is the main place to contribute during the Global Sprint.
What meme or gif best represents your project?
Join us wherever you are May 10–11 at Mozilla’s Global Sprint to work on many amazing open projects! Join a diverse network of scientists, educators, artists, engineers and others in person and online to hack and build projects for a health Internet. Register today
This post by Daina Bouquin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
