The latest blog post shares about a new video tutorial, "Microsoft Teams Search Coach & Progress," introduced to aid students in navigating online sources and identifying reliable information. With increasing misleads online, information literacy has become essential for students. This point is highlighted by an OECD study that showed only 10% of K-12 students can distinguish fact from opinion. Another 2021 U.S. study revealed that 96% of 3,500 students failed to identify a website's connection to a biased party.
Various governments and organizations have acknowledged the significance of this skill. For instance, New Jersey initiated a K-12 instruction on information literacy as part of statewide Student Learning Standards in January 2023. Meanwhile, Finland implemented a nation-wide media literacy education program back in 2016.
Microsoft has contributed to these efforts by announcing Search Coach and its Assignments counterpart, Search Progress. Search Coach is a tab app in Microsoft Teams for Education, aiming to encourage students and educators to develop information literacy skills. It helps in forming effective queries and identifying credible resources.
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