Assistant professor quoted in Education Week
Lauren Bagdy, assistant professor in the Department of Workforce Education and Instructional Technology, was recently quoted in Education Week about where teens are learning about climate change.
An Education Week Research Center poll from October 2022 found that 56% of 14- to 18-year-olds surveyed learn “some” or “a lot” about climate change via social media. Social media is the third most-cited source where teens learn about climate change, with teachers coming in first and parents/family in second, according to the survey.
“I commonly get the question: Whose job is it to teach digital media literacy? The teachers, the parents? I find that teens are mostly teaching each other,” Bagdy said. “They learn from their friends, their older brother, which is not necessarily problematic unless they are teaching each other bad practices.”
Badgy said that social media can serve as a good resource alongside classroom learning as long as teens have strong media literacy skills.
“I think social media is incredibly empowering to young people especially when it comes to big issues like climate change,” she said. “If they aren’t getting this information from school, or a teen has different opinions than their parents, they can go to these platforms that are free and learn from others.”