Misinformation as a Starting Point for Critical Thinking

The media generally, and the web in particular, offers learners access to increasingly large amounts of data. Some of this will be verifiable, some will be inaccurate or out of date and some will be either accidentally or deliberately untrue. Failure by students to recognise the existence of misinformation, deliberate or accidental, will lead to the uncritical use of web-sources materials with consequential impact on the value and quality of the work produced. This paper suggests that this potential problem can be turned into an educational benefit by highlighting the problem by stressing the need for students to enhance their critical thinking skills in ambiguous data and information environments.