Student-professional Interaction on Disinformation Narratives

WP15 was organised in three phases by Laurea UAS in Finland.

First phase - Student-professional interaction: Safety and Security department of Laurea UAS organized an I2I awareness raising session as a part of a bigger event called “cyber morning” where three different projects organized separate sessions about their topics.

The I2I session lasted about 1,5 hours. The guest speaker from Faktabaari presented about the knowledge and skills everyone needs to survive in the information chaos on web. The aim of the session was to clarify the concepts of disinformation and misinformation, and to show examples of disinformation in the media, to explain the possible threats and opportunities of AI, and to encourage to develop one’s digital literacy skills and critical thinking. The session introduced concrete hands-on ways of fact-checking, and examples of disinformation spreading on social media in the age of AI were shown. The audience was activated through short discussions and questions, and tool exercises.

The feedback of the session was positive. The feedback was discussed informally in the end of the session and among the student participants in the classroom. The participants considered the topic important and interesting. Many people in the audience were already familiar with the most current examples of disinformation produced via AI, but they stated that the examples of different tools for identifying mis-/disinformation were very useful and gave them reassurance, as well as deepened their knowledge. They were also interested in the I2I e-learning course. The first phase aimed to increase the initial awareness about the topic among students through an interaction between Safety, Security and Risk Management students and the experts.

Second phase – Train-the-trainer and preparation: The students in the bachelor’s degree Programme in Safety, Security and Risk Management were trained by I2I project members, who were basically lecturers at Laurea University in a train-the-trainer approach. The students took part as I2I immunisers for a wider audience. They were given the I2I tools and material, prepared with I2I vaccination methodology. Then they were given tasks to get in contact with other institutes to organise vaccination sessions.

Third phase – Vaccination: In the fall 2024, the students in the bachelor’s degree Programme in Safety, Security and Risk Management carried out online information sessions (vaccinations) for target groups in different organizations in Finland. They took the role of immunisers by reaching out different institutions and organising I2I activities.

Target group organizations: teachers in a school in the City of Akaa, The Border and Coast Guard Academy in Imatra, Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu (University of Applied Sciences), Omnia vocational school in Espoo.

The workshop sessions were planned with the teacher/group leader/contact person of the institution and the audience attended the session in hybrid format, either in classroom, following the presentation in Teams/Zoom, or the fully online during an online lesson. The information sessions lasted approximately for 1,5 hours.

The aim of the workshop sessions was to clarify the concepts of disinformation and misinformation, and to show examples of disinformation in the media, to explain the possible threats and opportunities of AI, and to encourage to develop one’s digital literacy skills and critical thinking. Tools for identifying and managing disinformation were presented during the lessons/events. The topics of the examples shared in the sessions were elections in different countries and EU elections, health topics, the use of disinformation and information manipulation in military conflicts. The audience was activated through discussions, polls and games during the sessions.

Every student group created their own presentation material by utilizing materials and videos of the I2I project, and specifically the materials of Faktabaari in Finland. The student groups were also encouraged to search suitable source materials by themselves and look for examples that would be particularly interesting to the planned target group of the session.

The student groups thought that they succeeded in creating interesting materials, presenting relevant examples and in creating audience activating polls and games. The student groups collected feedback about their sessions. The feedback was mostly positive. Each target group evaluated the topics as important and interesting. Many people in the audience were already somewhat familiar with the basic concepts, because they had studied the basics at school, but many stated that the examples of different topics in mis-/disinformation and of different tools for identifying mis-/disinformation were very useful and gave them reassurance, as well as deepened their knowledge. It was an indication of a booster effect of our workshops on the immunisation of the target groups, particularly on the selected topics.

At the end of this WP, the immunisations were realised at two levels:
- at the first step the students of Laurea UAS,
- at the second step Laurea students became immunisers to vaccinate new student groups through vaccination sessions.