A new platform teaches students to recognize desinformation

How can you identify fake news and verify information online? The international project FiSci offers a solution, developed by UWB and partner universities. It helps pupils uncover falsehoods and develop critical thinking skills. Hundreds of children have already taken part.

Analysing news, verifying sources, and recognising manipulative techniques in media and on social networks – all of this can be learned through individual modules on the digital platform FiSci (Fictional Science). Users can also take a simulated fact-checking course there. The platform is designed for both lower secondary school pupils and upper secondary school students.

The project aims to develop textual competence and critical thinking when working with information that young people encounter every day in the online environment,” said Bettina Steinbauer from the Department of German at the Faculty of Education of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, which is involved in the project. The teaching materials were primarily created for German language instruction, but they are not limited to schools in German-speaking countries. Thanks to the involvement of the Faculty of Education in Pilsen, they can also be used in Czech schools in German language classes.

The project has been tested in teaching with more than 600 pupils, including around 300 in the Czech Republic. Participants included young people aged 13 to 18. The materials were used in German lessons. A total of 16 teaching modules were developed for German language instruction in various educational contexts – for example, German as a first, second, or foreign language. Ten of these are available directly on the FiSci digital platform. Other modules focus on topics such as misinformation in connection with artificial intelligence or multilingualism. “Through various modules and activities, we aim to ensure that students can recognise fake news, understand manipulation techniques, and actively defend themselves against misinformation,” Bettina Steinbauer added.

Additional educational resources are also available on the project website. Users can find, for example, a methodological handbook with theoretical foundations, podcasts for the education sector, an e-learning course for teachers, or activities related to citizen science. “The ability to work critically with information is now one of the key competencies in education. Projects like FiSci show how media literacy can be meaningfully integrated with language teaching and how to prepare students for a world overwhelmed not only by information, but also by misinformation,” summarised Michaela Voltrová, head of the Department of German at the Faculty of Education.

The project was carried out within the Erasmus+ programme between 2022 and 2025. The University of West Bohemia in Pilsen collaborated with the University of Graz (Austria), the University of Zagreb (Croatia), and the German House in Kyiv (Ukraine).