Challenging Hateful Misinformation Workshop

At All Together Now, we acknowledge that dealing with the complex intersections of misinformation, technology and hate is not easy and can be overwhelming. Where other programs and interventions fall short and simply try to increase media and internet literacy, our new Challenging Hateful Misinformation Training goes beyond. 

This training is specifically designed for Australian educators. You’ll learn how to recognise and deal with divisive and hateful narratives, ideas, stereotypes and codes from the ground up. You’ll gain a deep understanding of the relationship between misinformation, racism and other forms of hate. By the end of this workshop, you’ll be more confident to teach about controversial issues in the classroom and gain a variety of practical skills (racial and intersectional literacy strategies) to unpack and challenge conspiracy theories and fake news with your students.

Come dive into our 5-hour interactive and activity-based virtual learning and walk away with practical insights to implement into your daily practice working with young people!

Who is this training for?

This training is specifically designed for Australian educators working in secondary education as well as in tertiary and adult education. This includes teachers/lecturers, school counselors, principals and assistant principals, librarians, support officers, pastoral support staff, and other school/educational staff, as well as public service professionals working in departmental policy or managerial roles.

For the development of this training, All Together Now has worked with Keith Heggart, a learning design expert at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) focusing on educational technology and citizenship education, in order to ensure the package follows best practice in learning design and methodologies and is fully aligned with the Australian Curriculum.

Our program uses a blended approach. It aims to educate teachers about fake news, conspiracy theories and anti-racism and anti-hate education, and also to prepare those teachers to deliver lessons about those topics. It is intended that teachers will be able to make use of the content and activities presented in our training for both planned and unplanned learning opportunities.

Please note:

• The training on 8 November 2023 is open exclusively to Australian educators and professionals working in secondary, tertiary or adult education.
• We are currently also finalising programs and resources open for people working in the non-educational sector, as well as parents and caregivers. If you would like to keep up to date with these new programs and resources, please contact us via the contact form on our website: https://alltogethernow.org.au/...

What will you learn?

• Learn about the different types of fake news, misinformation and disinformation
• Build an understanding of the nature and features of conspiracy theories, including our cognitive vulnerabilities. Why are they so successful?
• Understand the link between misinformation, fear and anxiety. Why do conspiracy theories flourish in times of social crisis? And who gets blamed?
• Build a deep understanding of the relationship between misinformation, racism and other forms of hate.
• Learn about practices you can put into place to teach about controversial issues in the classroom appropriately.
• Deploy a variety of practical strategies in order to unpack and challenge conspiracy theories and fake news with your students, including fun activities and interactive games.
• Deploy racial and intersectional literacy strategies in appropriate contexts and at appropriate times to address hateful fake news and conspiracy theories with your students.
• Learn about the impact of technology and AI & what you can do.

Why choose our training?

Over the last years All Together Now has built up a lot of experience designing innovative projects addressing online hate, racism, far-right extremism, fake news and conspiracy theories. This program builds on this expertise.

The program specifically builds on the results of our NSW government-funded Agent C project. Agent C is a co-designed training program with and for young people in NSW aimed at challenging hateful conspiracy theories and fake news. An independent evaluation of the program found that Agent C has been “a highly impactful project (…) delivering highly topical and applied content in an engaging way”. 

At All Together Now, we acknowledge that dealing with the complex intersections of hate, misinformation and technology is not easy and can be overwhelming, especially for parents, caregivers, educators and other frontline workers.

Masked as sensationalist “news”, all-revealing “truths” or seemingly credible “facts”, online hate these days is often communicated in subtle and casual ways in the form of highly curated and tech-enabled mis/disinformation.

Where other programs and interventions fall short and simply try to increase media and internet literacy, our program goes further, building the skills of participants to recognise and deal with divisive and hateful narratives, ideas, stereotypes and codes from the ground up. We have incorporated methodologies and approaches aimed at enhancing racial and intersectional literacy, resulting in a unique, nuanced and comprehensive training program that builds core skills and capacity for its participants to deal with the complex intersection of online misinformation and hate in an increasingly AI-powered world.

Why is this training important?

Research shows that people are increasingly vulnerable to engaging with divisive online misinformation and disinformation (mis/disinformation). This includes hateful fake news and conspiracy theories and other deliberately misleading content spread via social media. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and its increasingly broad application, including AI-generated deepfake videos that can fuel online misinformation and hate, the challenges have only increased.

As active users of digital technologies, children and young people navigate and process huge amounts of content every day. This content may include divisive and hateful mis/disinformation spread by organised groups, bots or troll factories, or simply pushed onto their personalised news feeds by skewed algorithms.

​​Engagement with online misinformation negatively impacts young people’s mental health. This can have serious consequences including radicalisation, disengagement from school or in the classroom, a disconnect from friends, family and other social connections, and experiencing/perpetrating bullying.

In response, All Together Now is developing training programs aimed at empowering young people to critically engage with online mis/disinformation. Part of this work involves enhancing the skills of teachers, educators, frontline workers, parents and caregivers to better recognise mis/disinformation and to respond to young people who are engaging with it.

More information

• https://alltogethernow.org.au/...
• If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact us via training@alltogethernow.org.au
• Preferred payment methods are via the Humanitix portal. If your organisation would like to pay via invoice, please contact training@alltogethernow.org.au.