#Fakenews, Print Friendly, + Badgewall update.

The 24 hours news cycle creates a seemingly insurmountable amount of content for students and teachers to navigate through.  Unfortunately, not all of it is factual or true, making it hard for readers to distinguish fact from fiction. To empower our students against #fakenews, Google has created Fact Check to supplement the already powerful Google Search.

...when you conduct a search on Google that returns an authoritative result containing fact checks for one or more public claims, you will see that information clearly on the search results page. The snippet will display information on the claim, who made the claim, and the fact check of that particular claim.

Fact Check is not available for every search result. If a fact check made by a publisher meets certain requirements, Google automatically shows a summary of that fact check. In order for a search result to have a fact check, it requires: 

1. The publisher of the fact check must be a trusted source of information (determined by an algorithm)
2. The content must clearly tell you which claims are being checked, conclusions about the claims, how conclusions were reached & citations and primary sources of information

It is Google's position that even though differing conclusions may be presented, they still think it’s helpful for people to understand the degree of consensus around a particular claim and have clear information on which sources agree. As Google makes fact checks more visible within search results, they believe people will have an easier time reviewing and assessing the validity of the search results and making their own informed opinions. Keep in mind that Google does not endorse any of these fact checks.

To find out more about this new feature, visit the Help Center. 

Print Friendly and PDF removes ads, navigation, and junk before your print. Optimize any webpage for the ultimate print or reading experience and save on paper and ink when you print with Print Friendly.

Print Friendly and PDF boast two primary features

1. Edit Before Printing: Click-to-delete any content before printing, remove images or individual images, or change the text size from larger to smaller.
2. Print or Save as PDF: Generate PDFs for archiving, sharing, or saving. PDFs include clickable links, and source URL so you can continue to interact with the content.

Click here for "Print Friendly & PDF": 

Our self-guided EdTech Badge Wall Challenge has been a tremendous success. Over 75 teachers from our district have invested time into building their G Suite Competency! The cut-off to earn up to 15 PD hours is May 17, but the actual Badge Wall will continue to be available going forward. For more information on the White Bear Lake Badge Wall Challange, see this blog post.