Informable

Informable app helps you build news literacy skills

Updates


If you are looking for an app that functions like a game and teaches you to be more news-literate, NLP has just the thing: Informable, our new mobile app.

It is designed to improve users’ ability to distinguish between several types of news and other information. Developed for both adults and students, Informable helps users practice four distinct news literacy skills using real-world examples in a game-like format. It is available now for download, at no charge, from the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android).

Accuracy, speed count

Informable (PDF) is intuitive and easy to navigate. It has four “brain training”-style modes, each with three levels:

  • Checkable or Not? (Is each item fact-based or opinion-based?)
  • Evidence or Not? (Does each item provide strong evidence for the claim it makes?)
  • Ad or Not? (Is each item advertising or something else — news, opinion, personal endorsement on social media, etc.)?
  • News or Opinion? (Is each item news or opinion?)

To advance, players must correctly identify at least seven of the 10 examples presented in each level. Points are awarded for accuracy and speed. Users can review their answers to learn more about each item and see why they were right or wrong.

Once users complete all three levels in all four modes, they encounter Mix-Up Mode, presenting random examples from all modes to simulate the information flow they might experience in real life. NLP will add new Mix-Up Mode levels several times a year.

Informable goes beyond the classroom

“Informable is the perfect complement to our Checkology® virtual classroom,” said Alan C. Miller, NLP founder and CEO. “We wanted to find a fun way to give our students’ parents — and the rest of the public — an opportunity to develop new habits of mind that will improve their ability to separate fact from fiction. Studies have shown that as we get older, we may be more likely to share misinformation. This app can help all of us become more discerning about the information we encounter.”

For more than a decade, the News Literacy Project has provided middle school and high school educators with tools and materials to teach their students how to navigate the challenging and complex information landscape and recognize credible information on their own. And with Informable, NLP is expanding beyond the classroom to offer educational resources to the general public.

Get it now:

 

More Updates

For Education Week, educators share how they teach students to question health influencers

An opinion piece in EducationWeek by two educators from New York featured the News Literacy Project’s District Fellowship program. The commentary described how the program supported their efforts to teach students to critically evaluate health and wellness claims on social media. “By the end, our teens had developed habits of healthy skepticism when scrolling their…

NLP in the News

In CNN piece, NLP urges care and transparency as journalism embraces AI

Peter Adams, the News Literacy Project’s Senior Vice President of Research and Design, was featured in a CNN article examining the use of artificial intelligence to generate content in newsrooms and the challenges it raises around verification and transparency. “It is precisely because AI is prone to errors that newsrooms must maintain the ‘fundamental standards…

NLP in the News

Insider Spotlight: Genna Sarnak

Welcome to the Insider Spotlight section, where we feature real questions from our team and answers from educators who are making a difference teaching news literacy. This month, our featured educator is Genna Sarnak from Northfield, Massachusetts, where she teaches digital media literacy to middle school students.

Updates