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Teaching in the Age of Algorithms
Life in the Age of Algorithms comic
What do algorithms have to do with my class? More than you might suspect. A recent report by Project Information Literacy (PIL) investigates how the algorithms that generate search results, recommend ads, articles, news, and other online content impact the learning experience of college students today. The results have implications for every educator concerned with graduating critical citizens and capable professionals.

  • Students are generally aware that big tech companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon collect personal information and customize ads and search results based on their online activities and they do make some attempts to protect their privacy and outwit algorithms. But however indignant about privacy intrusions and opinion shaping they may be, they are also resigned to the usefulness and convenience of the tools. What are you going to do? Not use Google and Amazon?

  • Students come to college with varying and often inadequate training with information literacy and critical thinking. They have been taught to apply simplistic checklists and not trust Wikipedia, but not how to read laterally and counter their own biases. The result is not so much that they are naive and easily duped by fake news and misinformation. More disturbingly, the report suggests students are more skeptical than ever before of all news and information. This skepticism extends to the classroom in many ways, for example a student who doubts the teacher's knowledge until they double check with Google. 

  • Algorithms are increasingly used to determine credit scores, admission to colleges, who gets hired for a job, who gets a mortgage, and prison sentences. Even though they impact so many parts of our lives as students, teachers, consumers, and citizens, faculty generally do not talk about or relate algorithmic systems to the classes they teach.
What Can We Do?
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
"At a practical level, individual instructors can look out for stories in the news that link their subject matter to issues of algorithmic justice: How does the digital surveillance of children influence child development? What information could help hospitals follow up with patients without introducing bias? How does microtargeting ads
for jobs and housing relate to the history of redlining?" (p.35)
Talk with students. You don't have to rewrite your lesson for the day to make connections and ask questions when this topic comes up. Most students learn digital privacy hacks from each other. Teachers can help create spaces for this kind of peer learning to happen. Share tools and strategies for popping filter bubbles, muting echo chambers, and debunking false or misleading claims.
Collaborate. Reach out across disciplinary silos and see how colleagues across campus are talking about issues related to algorithms and information literacy. The CTE can help coordinate these discussions and share ideas and resources on these and related topics.
Learn more. How do algorithms actually work? Fortunately you do not need to be a computer science expert to understand the real world implications behind the tech black box. Read the report, the executive summary, and explore related teaching resources .
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Alison J. Head, Barbara Fister, and Margy MacMillan, Information literacy in the age of algorithms: Student experiences with news and information, and the need for change (15 January 2020), Project Information Research Institute, https://www.projectinfolit.org/
uploads/2/7/5/4/27541717/algoreport.pdf