Disinformation Spread

BY Renato Russo

“Disinformation Spread” is a software-embedded curriculum designed to encourage reflection on the factors that affect belief in and spread of disinformation. The software components extend two NetLogo models (Wilensky, 1999): “Spread of Disease” (Rand &, Wilensky, 2008) and “Virus on a Network” (Stonedahl & Wilensky, 2008). The curriculum component comprises a 4-meetings unit along which learners experiment with the model and discuss the factors underlying the phenomenon it depicts. During class/workshop meetings, learners are presented with different factors at play in the spread of disinformation, especially that with political motivation. Those factors are represented by variables displayed in the software interface. The choice of factors has been guided by previous research on how people engage in political discourse, and how that engagement resembles learning mechanisms described by constructivism.”