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Are webinars truly interactive?
How are webinars different  from presentations?

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Livestorm | The first webinar software you'll love | Livestorm

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Livestorm provides simple software for video communications for business. Host webinars, live, prerecorded or automated, create and join online meetings easily.

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Do you know some undesirable applications of blogs in education? Example

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A collection of news and opinion blogs covering education news and issues from preschool through the high school transition to college and career.

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Amid Twitter's word count limitations, what are the most effective examples of application of this tool in education?
Example

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How can you control student engagement while working on project with Facebook?
Example

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As a teacher and a new mom, it didn't take long for me to find Facebook as a supplement for my stunted social life. And as any FB user knows, once you join, you become inundated with photos of new babies, comments about friends' recent bodily functions, quiz results, and mysterious requests for farm equipment or mafia weapons.

But beyond the posts I saw that made me laugh, cry, and wince, I soon learned that Facebook was also a place of professional learning and development.

I began sharing with other teachers and educators what were working, what news I'd read, what blog post I'd written, my indignations, and my victories. Soon my small pool of professional friends bled into my small pool of personal ones. And so I also discovered that Facebook was more than just a means to learn about friends professionally and colleagues personally: It became a way to publicize the issues each of us felt deserved advocacy.

Potent Proof

A couple recent models of this education advocacy on Facebook that come to mind may be different in intent, but they both have something in common: the use of 21st century tools to move mountains.

Example One: Buffelgrass shall perish

To say the Buffelgrass Shall Perish fan page is the mastermind of Tucson teacher, Brian Kievit would be inaccurate according to the enthusiastic middle school science teacher. It was, he admits with a smile via Skype, "one-hundred percent student created." In true problem-based learning format, the science teacher asked a group of eighth graders at his school to pick a problem in their local community and solve it.

They picked Buffelgrass, that fast-growing, flame resistant menace which is cheaply imported by some states (listen up Texas!) as inexpensive erosion control and cattle feed. But, like something out of a B-horror film, it devours the natural habitat, stealing water and sucking the nutrients from the ecosystem, and has a shelf life seemingly longer than a Twinkie. In other words, after we're dead and gone, it will be Twinkies, cockroaches, and Buffelgrass left behind.

But once the students had discovered the plague-like weed, they weren't sure how to spread the word of its horrors. One student declared that they "needed to get the word out." After all, "knowledge is power." Which was when they decided to create a Facebook page devoted to the threat. They soon posted a a rap song on YouTube and using Facebook, the small group of grime fighters update on their progress in educating the nation about this ground cover of evil.

Brian Kievit's project was all about student choice, the scientific method, and getting the word out to different states -- courtesy of a little 21st century know-how. In so doing, he created a learning community, and nurtured what many teachers scratch their heads to achieve: students who love the learning process.

Using the social networking tools of our age, this one Tucson teacher and his small group of students began to educate politicians, farmers, and Facebook fans like me. Using 21st century tools, they have become advocates for their own local community.

Example Two: Teachers' Letters to Obama

And then there are those who are using Facebook to be advocates for their larger educational community.

Anthony Cody began his Teachers' Letters to Obama Facebook campaign as a personal outlet, a diary entry that soon grew into a movement. And as a result of that movement, twelve of us have been granted a conference call with Arne Duncan himself to discuss concerns and suggestions for Obama's blueprint for revising the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Perhaps you've heard of the Teachers' Letters to Obama campaign. Perhaps you've even submitted a letter. If you have, you should know that you've become a part of a chain that has led to Arne Duncan's office itself. For from the time you added your thoughts to the discussion post, your drop in the puddle joined with others to create a pool of possibilities.

What began as a discussion page for teachers to write their experiences, concerns, and suggestions, soon found their way to a congressman and bada-bing, bada-bang, a door opened and a conference call was scheduled between Duncan, Cody, and company -- a small panel of teachers representing all walks of education life from all over the country.

The group doesn't represent a particular political group, union stance, philosophy, or agenda. We come from different educational backgrounds and paths, from all regions and economic brackets. Some are award-winning teachers and some represent everything from rural to urban, from high performing to "failing" schools. In all, we are a slice of the teacher profession in a snapshot.

But while twelve teachers will be speaking, it is almost 2,000 educators whose voices will be heard. And it's all due to the use of 21st century tools. On Facebook, Cody sent out a survey using SurveyMonkey asking teachers to help whittle down the list of topics most frequently brought up on the Teachers' Letters to Obama page to the ones they found to be the most important. The group formed a ning to help hone in on issues, to analyze the phrases from the ESEA blueprint together, and discuss the most innovative solutions from teachers in order to suggest to Duncan. They used Elluminate to meet each other on a virtual platform, planning this collaborative conversation with the secretary of education, bringing the voices of teachers to the policy table.

Our discussion is waiting to be slated, and I assure you, Edutopia reader, that I will update you with its results.

Advocacy in Action

We are no longer "just teachers." We each have the power to change our small and greater worlds by using social networking to get our voices heard. The power of social networking can at times be unforeseen, but it is clearly a tool for advocacy at every level in education.

The bottom line is this: Anyone can be involved in solving the problems of our era. With 21st century tools, a small group of students can stand up to the devastation of nature, and a small group of teachers can be strengthened by the shared opinions of a larger group and take a stand against the devastation of certain policies that may control our practice.

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Social Media in Education: The Power of Facebook

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As a teacher and a new mom, it didn't take long for me to find Facebook as a supplement for my stunted social life. And as any FB user knows, once you join, you become inundated with photos of new babies, comments about friends' recent bodily functions, quiz results, and mysterious requests for farm equipment or mafia weapons.

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How would you rate your compliance with the Internet ethics and security. Check yourself?

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Find and create gamified quizzes, lessons, presentations, and flashcards for students, employees, and everyone else. Get started for free!

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Copyright is a legal protection that is granted to anyone who created an original work in a fixed, tangible form. It is very important to remember that different countries have different regulations pertaining the copyrights.

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Social Networking System (SNS) in Education.

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Social Networking System (SNS) in Education.

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In recent years, parallel to the expansion of social media and internet usage Social Networking Systems have grown exponentially.  There are many options for educators to choose from and many have proven to be effective in teaching and learning.
The below are some benefits of social networking in Education.
✅    vast number of potential audience from all over the world with whom educators can create a meaningful dialog
✅     familiarity of users with the tool can enhance student engagement and collaboration on     projects
✅     ease of integration with other systems and media can provide for more inclusive learning environment e.g. special needs, distance learning.
✅     social media can be an effective learning aid: tutorials, homework
✅     provide for ways to research career options and future opportunities
✅     overall lower cost of education

Today, in global world, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic chaos, social media has become a major learning tool for many educators.  And yet, only now, it is clearly apparent that face to face contact is pivotal in the development of most of the social skills, e.g. collaboration, public speaking and behavioural issues.
❌    connotation with private life not work or education related
❌    recent criticism over privacy and cyberbullying
❌    it can be a disengaging for students
❌    risk of students posting inappropriate content
❌    lack of direct contact and communication
❌    lack of access in areas without the Internet or suitable hardware
Discussion:
1. What social networking systems would you recommend for 21st century classroom that 6's in education regards as core to the learning progress?
2.  Under the circumstances that social media has caused behavioural issues among its users, do you still regard SNS as a suitable tool in education? To what extend can it be effective?

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Teaching & Learning in the Age of Social Media

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Joeseph Cossette shares the advantages and challenges of teaching in the age of social media, utilizing his personal experiences to connect with students. Joe Cossette teaches Physics and Physical Science at Minnetonka High School. He enjoys designing experiences for students that challenge the mold of traditional education and spends much of his free time dreaming up science lyrics for popular songs.

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YouTube as a very popular social media can be easily used to enhance content delivery with relevant videos applied in various ways into the teaching.

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YouTube is not only the kingdom of digital entertainment but it can also be a great environment for learning. In this article, I'll share 8 important reasons why you should use YouTube in eLearning and I'll explain how making it part of your eLearning course can truly benefit your eLearning audience.

Kirill Kalchenko/Shutterstock.com

Why YouTube Should Be Part Of Your eLearning Course

You know already that eLearning videos can be a very powerful learning tool, as they add a dynamic element to your eLearning courses, improve knowledge transfer, demonstrate complex procedures, and help explain difficult topics. They can also be particularly entertaining and re-watched as many times as your learners wish. This is why the video-sharing website YouTube can provide unlimited opportunities to enhance your eLearning course by not only using the countless videos you can find there, but also creating your own to help your audience achieve their learning goals and objectives. The only thing you should pay attention to is ensuring that the videos you are using are aligned with your expected learning outcomes and are appropriate for your eLearning audience. In this article, I'll share 8 reasons why you should use YouTube in eLearning, so that you can make sure that including it in your eLearning course can truly enhance your audience's eLearning experience.

1. It is really easy to integrate.
Adding YouTube videos to your eLearning course is an easy task, due to the variety of authoring tools and learning management systems out there. You can use YouTube videos to introduce a topic, explain an online activity, your learners, or simply extend the information conveyed by your eLearning course.

2. It can be used to create an eLearning community.
As you have probably seen for yourself, everyone has a voice in YouTube. Using it as a social learning platform offers you the opportunity to build a strong eLearning community where everyone can comment, contribute, and share their opinions and ideas.

3. It generates and promotes online discussion.
eLearning videos are particularly effective facilitators for analysis. After viewing a YouTube video, you can encourage online discussion by asking your learners to add their personal insights: What did they like about the video? Was there anything they didn't understand? How did the eLearning video relate to their personal experiences and feelings? You can also ask them to share other YouTube video references to extend online discussions, as video enhanced eLearning courses increase interest and engagement levels by presenting different perspectives.

4. It is ideal for mobile learning.
Uploading eLearning content to YouTube makes it available throughout the YouTube network, which means that your learners can access it and view it on the go via their smartphones and tablets, devices used in mobile learning. It doesn't matter how small the screen is; you can use YouTube as a platform for not only searching online video resources, but also sharing presentations, and inviting your learners to take an active part through their commenting.

5. It allows for microlearning.
How about short, effective instructional videos on YouTube? Using videos for microlearning ensures that complex procedures and demonstrations of specific skills are delivered in small quantities, which enhances knowledge retention. Furthermore, because YouTube is available on all devices and allows your learners to watch longer eLearning videos in short segments, your audience can watch the videos whenever they like and take their own time to absorb the information being offered.

Implement Microlearning effectively with the Right eLearning Content Development Provider!

Find, choose and compare the top Microlearning Companies for Microlearning!

6. It encourages the development of note-taking skills.
Note-taking skills are important both for students and employees, as the ability to analyze information and focus on important points helps dealing with the information overload of the modern world. Using YouTube videos as part of your eLearning course encourages your audience to develop their note-taking skills by viewing, rewinding, and replaying the YouTube video material until they have fully grasped its essence and key points. You can even create online assignments based on this, for instance by asking your learners to describe in a few words what they have just seen on a video in a specific time frame.

7. It enhances comprehension of complex concepts.
Certain subjects can be difficult to explain; using YouTube as a virtual library to support your eLearning content by providing your learners with access to its videos allows you to better illustrate complex concepts, procedures, and ideas. Videos are ideal for demonstrating steps and, especially in corporate training, walking your audience through a process via a video clip can be truly effective. Visual contexts help learners to easily acquire and retain knowledge, as well as develop specific skill sets, as demonstration is the most effective way to get a message across.

8. It allows learners to make their own YouTube videos.
Finally, asking your learners to be involved in a video production, as part of an online group assignment, will help them not only ensure that they can use the important information they have learned, but also develop and enhance their visual literacy and creativity. Consider providing them with clear guidelines to know exactly what is expected of them, as well as the necessary tools and resources. You can also use their YouTube videos to encourage exchange among your learners, which promotes discussion and boosts knowledge retention.

Now that you know why you should use YouTube in eLearning and make it part of your learning course, you may be interested in learning how to create your own high quality eLearning videos to post on YouTube. Read the article Producing High Quality eLearning Videos: The Ultimate Guide and learn all the tips and tricks you need to know from each stage of eLearning video production, in order to successfully deliver one of the most powerful communication media to your audience.

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8 Important Reasons Why YouTube Should Be Part Of Your eLearning Course - eLearning Industry

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YouTube is not only the kingdom of digital entertainment but it can also be a great environment for learning. In this article, I'll share 8 important reasons why you should use YouTube in eLearning and I'll explain how making it part of your eLearning course can truly benefit your eLearning audience.

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Having known the fact that Facebook has been created with college students in mind is only consequential that the users may expect application of Facebook in education. As a social networking site that has reached its peak in popularity and ease of access it is certainly worth considering FB as an educational tool.

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Blogs are frequently used in education not only to discuss content material but engage learners in current affairs as well as provide

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Padlet is an amazing online bulletin board that you can use to display information for any topic. In this post I will show how to use Padlet as a blog and embed in your Google site.

The reason I chose Padlet was due to the ease of creation as well as the ability to add all types of files, links, videos, etc. Plus you can password protect the padlet before placing in your Site.

Below are the steps to create your "blog" Padlet.

Select Make a Padlet

Select Stream

Give your Padlet a title and description

Choose your Wallpaper

Scroll down and see more options

Under collaboration select Comments and Reactions

Select Next and the choose your Privacy (Public, Secret, Password Protected, and Private)

Select what those with access can do

Select Next and Start Posting

Select the URL link and then embed it in your Google Site

Embedded below is a 1 minute and 58 second YouTube tutorial I created.

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Try using Padlet as a Blog and embed in Google Sites

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Padlet is an amazing online bulletin board that you can use to display information for any topic. In this post I will show how to use Padlet as a blog and embed in your Google site. The reason I chose Padlet was due to the ease of creation as well as the ability to add all types of files, links, videos, etc.

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Twitter is a microblogging medium to communicate with other users by short messages, called twits.

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Many regard Twitter as quite a useless social media sharing portal. Some have this negative opinion, mainly because of the fact Twitter allows you to "tweet" or post only 140 characters in length. This length equals the text of a regular SMS, and for some this is simply not enough. However, Twitter proves to be an extremely helpful little educational tool. By using Twitter in education, you can post only a few short sentences, but that is exactly enough to transmit the essence of your message.

Leading such busy lives, people do not have the time or the mood to read long walls of text. They prefer to capture only the essence, and using Twitter in education helps you with that. This social media portal is widely used among the academia all across the world. Students, journalists, actors, politicians, important leaders, and sports people... they all use Twitter. So how can such a tool really prove helpful in the educational field?

1. Tweet homework and assignments.

Both teachers and students can easily and quickly tweet details of homework and assignments using Twitter in education. You can also include links to important online sources/pages, and don't forget to mention the due dates in your tweet. This way, everyone with an account will receive a notification, and they can share, forward or respond to the tweet.

2. Get important educational resources.

Many times teachers are simply out of ideas regarding interactive and creative methods of teaching. Now, by searching for " Twitter for Teachers" resources, you can get instant access to hundreds of important links. Get insightful ideas from other teachers around the world, follow the good examples or share your own efficient teaching methods. Twitter is a good tool for professional development.

3. Student collaboration.

The email seems to become an old fashioned tool for collaboration. Now teachers can motivate students to use Twitter in order to work on collaborative assignments. This way, you can also intervene at any point by giving a good advice, sharing an interesting link with your students, or helping them with important resources for research.

4. Announcing field trips.

Students love surprises. Therefore, write a creative 140 characters long description of the great field trip you will all take together... if the classroom results are good for everyone. Within minutes, you will see dozens of messages congratulating you for the idea. Plus, by advertising the field trip through Twitter, everyone will get a real time notification.

5. Subscribe to relevant hashtags.

Discuss with students in the classroom what issues they would like to follow on Twitter. Have a talk on the relevant issues for your class, and then decide together what hashtags you should all follow. By getting regular news updates through following, there will always be an interesting topic to debate in class. Using Twitter in education provides a great way of socialization and encourages students to speak up for the issues they believe in, and become opinionated.

6. Tweet about changes in the program.

If there is any change your students should know about, you can use Twitter to inform them. For example, if the class will be held in another classroom or if the class will be skipped the next day. Students receive instant notifications, and they can share with fellow students. If there is any last minute change regarding the school program, just send out a short tweet.

7. Organizing contests.

Have students prepare for your next class by writing a nice essay, or by solving a tough math problem. Give them incentives, and motivate them to enter the contest. Students love to interact through social media, and you will get a great number of participants in your school related contest.

8. Syncing Twitter with relevant blogs.

It is very useful for teachers, parents and students. Twitter allows you to sync with WordPress blogs, and all update notifications will be received through Twitter. This way, everyone can tune in and check out the fresh updates of different logs, without actually entering separately each address. Teachers can check the posts of their students by clicking on the link, while students can follow the posts and updates of their peers.

9. Research tool for students.

Any student can quickly and easily find high authority research material using Twitter in education. All they need to do is type in the search bar relevant keywords, and they will receive a list with dozens of relevant websites and blogs. There is also the option to search for specific phrases, key figures, discussion topics, relevant discussion forums, etc.

10. Network through hashtag chats.

Search for any topic that you are highly interested in, and join other great groups available on Twitter. Make new friends, express your opinion on an academic matter, and ask your fellow students or teachers to join. You will form one huge and powerful army of experts and debaters on topics that are of high interest to you.

11. Share interesting topics.

Help your fellow students get a better understanding of a tough topic for class. If you found an interesting article, a website or even someone worth following on Twitter, share it with other students. The same goes for teachers, who should definitely share educational materials and links with students using Twitter as the main platform.

12. Create a unique classroom hashtag.

With so many hashtags available out there, it is quite difficult to find a unique one. However, find such a relevant word and use it for your classroom hashtag. Then ask all students and teachers to join, and this will be your little virtual online classroom. Hashtags are used to find groups of interest and then connect with them, so make sure you give away your hashtag only to those you want to join the respective group.

13. Write mini reviews.

Both teachers and students can use Twitter to write very short and concise reviews of a movie or a book. This way, you will make a recommendation to watch or not to watch a certain movie. Connect with your teachers and fellow students even for entertainment through Twitter. The reviews should be short, but they may contain links to the full article or review you posted on a website for example.

14. Surveying students.

Now and then it is worth engaging students into a poll. As a teacher you can now inform your students about the new survey through Twitter. Find out what they like/dislike about your class, what changes they would want to make, what books they prefer to read, or what recreational activities they would prefer more. It is amazing how many essential things you will learn about your students by having them complete such a survey (Twitter link to Survey Monkey for example).

15. Teach through play.

You could invite students to write collaboratively a nice poem. You suggest the first two lines on Twitter, and then everyone else will try to come up with a new rhyming and relevant line. This is particularly useful for creative writing or English class, and students will love your ingeniousness. Instead of a poem, you could ask them to write a letter, with each student adding a few lines until they create a nice story. Then, you will read the entire work of art in class and analyze it together.

Conclusion

These are only a few ideas on how to successfully use Twitter in education. This micro-blogging portal is not only for entertainment, but it can have a very important role in academia as well. Students, teachers and parents will all benefit of being active on Twitter. The portal also helps forming very united and compact groups, and it helps increase the productivity and responsiveness of students. Now the entire classroom can join Twitter, and everyone can start using all the amazing features offered by the portal: Advertise, inform, share, respond, create a buzz, invite... and anything else you can imagine!

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15 Ways To Use Twitter In Education (For Students And Teachers Alike) - eLearning Industry

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Many regard Twitter as quite a useless social media sharing portal. Some have this negative opinion, mainly because of the fact Twitter allows you to "tweet" or post only 140 characters in length. This length equals the text of a regular SMS, and for some this is simply not enough.

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Data and communication free from misinformation and ignorance.

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Data and communication free from misinformation and ignorance.

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Misinformation has become an everyday tool for politicians, radicals and  marketers.  In addition, the easy access to digital technology expedites information sharing which makes it difficult to control.
Misinformation is a vice of 21st century digital world along with prevailing user ignorance. In addition users are vulnerable to misleading information out of convenience and ignorance.

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1. Introduction

Seek truth from facts [ 1]

实事求是; shí shì qiú shì

Quoted from the Han Dynasty Book of Han, AD 111

Ignorance of the truth, or knowledge that is not acted upon, can be fatal. This basic principle applies at levels from personal to planetary. Fakery affects science as well as everyday social information and, since the two have become highly interactive globally, a vicious cycle is now operating on an increasing scale. The fake news/fake science cycle undermines the credibility of science and the capacity of individuals and society to make evidence-informed choices in their best interests.

At the individual level, lack of reliable knowledge about how to maintain personal physical, nutritional and health security can result in avoidable harm or death. An illustration is the child illnesses, permanent disabilities and deaths that have resulted worldwide from the fabricated scientific report [ 2, 3] that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism. Despite the proven record of efficacy of vaccines in preventing infections by deadly diseases, the widespread dissemination of this lie, especially through social media, resulted not only in record levels of measles infections in Europe [ 4] in 2018 but has added fuel to a growing, broader phenomenon known as 'vaccine hesitancy' [ 5, 6].

At a collective level, false information can alter attitudes and policies on crucial ecological, social and political issues and, in the extreme, can place entire populations at national, regional and even global levels at risk of harm. For example, the denial of anthropogenic climate change, dismissed without counter-evidence as 'fake science', has resulted in the international agreement on climate change losing universal acceptance and its impact on the level of global warming is likely to have disastrous consequences worldwide in the twenty-first century [ 7]. Portrayal of ethnic groups, foreigners or foreign states as enemies through fake stories is an old technique which has been given new potency by modern methods of mass communication and can provoke genocides and wars [ 8]. Fake Twitter accounts have reportedly been used to send millions of messages aiming to influence attitudes towards Brexit in the 2016 UK referendum and views on candidates in the 2016 US presidential election [ 9].

2. Validated information needs to be acted upon

Awareness of the evidence that smoking causes severe illnesses and that tobacco kills up to half of its users has not yet enabled the 1.1 billion smokers around the world to quit their addiction or governments to introduce outright bans on smoking. Denial, fake news, the deliberate undermining of true data by portrayal as 'junk science' to distort public health policy, fabricated information, distortion of media framing and covert illicit trading have been documented in the decades-long battle by the tobacco industry and its supporters to sustain their lucrative but fatal trade [ 10, 11].

Examples such as climate change and tobacco illustrate the difficulties that both individuals and society can have in determining what is factually correct, how to recognize the biases and vested interests that may lie behind information available and how to balance risks against benefits at personal, national and global levels.

3. Evolution of scientific validation

A critical factor is the question of who is accorded authority to determine reliability of facts and make judgement about the veracity of information on offer. Since ancient times, those with wealth, power and elevated hierarchical positions were treated as privileged sources, as were some individuals regarded as selfless seekers of wisdom in the domains of spirituality, scholarship or science.

Since its introduction by Francis Bacon (1561-1626), the evolved scientific method has included unbiased observations that are evaluated for reproducibility and subjected to careful self-criticism and logical thought about their meaning and implications, then offered for inspection by the world at large. The establishment of learned societies and the publication of journals, beginning with the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, first published in 1665, provided a mechanism for presenting information that could be critically examined by the scientific community. If disproved, the prevailing models and theories would be replaced by new ones that were more consistent with the contemporary state of knowledge. This provisional character of science is not a weakness but is one of the key reasons for its strength.

The evolution of this process, into the second half of the twentieth century, established a 'gold standard' for the reliability of knowledge. It has been the bedrock of the esteem in which science has been held, as an honest and impartial source of evidence-based knowledge, not only to advance the frontiers of the field but also to inform the public and politicians and aid their decision-making. The 1918 landmark report by Richard Burdon Haldane to the British Prime Minister signalled the strength of the evolving relationship between science and policy, with Haldane arguing for the principle that politicians should stay out of decisions about research funding, listen to expertise, take time to think and reflect before reaching a conclusion and, when asking scientists for advice, resist telling them what that advice should be [ 12].

4. The changing landscape: the revolution in knowledge production

While the degree to which scientific inputs to policy formulation are important continues to be debated, the current revolution in knowledge production has further complicated the issue. An illustration of the extent to which the landscape has changed was seen in the centenary year of the 'Haldane Principle', which witnessed a major scientific report commissioned by the US government and issued by 13 federal agencies-warning of the consequences of climate change and therefore at odds with the Administration's policies-being rejected by a number of leading politicians, including the President, on the grounds that they 'don't believe it', while they (baselessly) accused climate scientists of being driven by money [ 13, 14].

In 1991, Harnad described four stages in the means of production of knowledge in human beings [ 15]. The first three were the emergence of language (hundreds of thousands of years ago) and invention of writing (several thousand years ago) and printing (over 500 years ago). The fourth had only very recently begun, with the invention of the Internet and the capacity it provides for anyone in the world to be a publisher-to communicate any information they wish, true or false, instantly and globally.

Facts and their denial are no longer determined by any type of authority, but in principle by every individual, regardless of his or her education and reputation or studiously acquired knowledge of a field. The manipulation of data by anyone (including scientists) becomes ever easier. Due to the ready availability of information and communication technology (ICT) tools and access to the Internet and social media, there now exist countless ways to create and distribute products of unknown veracity, including manipulated textual and pictorial material. The predictions of the anarchistic philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend that 'anything goes' and of the conceptual artist Joseph Beuys that 'every human being is an artist' have thus become reality.

In his 1943 essay on the Spanish Civil War, the writer George Orwell recognized the way that people in politics and wars make use of the available propaganda mechanisms to create their own versions of the truth, expressing his fear that 'the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world' [ 16]. This ongoing challenge has been exacerbated and accelerated greatly by ICT and the fourth revolution in knowledge production. As Harnad recognized, each of these knowledge revolutions represented a profound, qualitative change both in HOW human beings communicate and think and in WHAT is thought.

5. Consequences for science and for science publishing and assessment

The impacts of the fourth revolution, barely to be seen three decades ago, are now dramatically evident, including in contemporary language. A signpost was the declaration by Ralph Keyes in 2004 that 'we live in a post-truth era'-a stage of social evolution that is 'beyond honesty', in which 'deception has become commonplace at all levels of contemporary life' [ 17]. More recent signposts have been the emergence in 2017 of the term 'alternative facts' to describe inaccurate data and the designation of 'truth isn't truth' as the 2018 Quote of the Year.

There are growing impacts both on the interface between science and society and within the domain of science itself. It has been argued that, in the current political and media environment, 'distrust in the scientific enterprise and misperceptions of scientific knowledge increasingly stem... from the widespread dissemination of misleading and biased information' [ 18]. The philosopher Bruno Latour has observed that 'facts remain robust only when they are supported by a common culture, by institutions that can be trusted, by a more or less decent public life, by more or less reliable media' [ 19]. While surveys about the public's view of the trustworthiness of scientists produce results that vary with time and place [ 20, 21], in his 2017 book on the 'death of expertise' Tom Nichols described the many forces trying to undermine the authority of 'experts' [ 22], so that the term itself has started to be used in a contemptuous way to justify dismissing their advice [ 23].

Facing this challenge, it is especially important that the scientific world as a whole upholds the highest standards of ethical behaviour, honesty and transparency, aiming to sustain the gold standards of research integrity and validated information. Sadly, a range of forces are working counter to this aspiration. People in the world of science are not immune from the personal ambitions and prevailing pressures that drive behaviour in general.

As recently described [ 24], three closely inter-related sub-systems (science advancement, reputational rewards and financial returns) collectively form an overall scientific publishing system that has become heavily flawed. It encourages scientists to distort and exaggerate their results in striving for new grants, promotions and distinctions; and encourages publishers to cherry-pick work, hype results and distort refereeing in the competition for high status and correspondingly high profits from publication charges. Both authors and publishers are incentivized to game the system to their mutual advantage. In the extreme, the perverse incentives generated result in authors fabricating data, predatory journals hunting for papers and fake journals being created that seek only the authors' fees for article processing.

The scale of the fake science problem is becoming increasingly evident. The percentage of scientific articles retracted because of fraud has increased by an order of magnitude since 2000 and high rates of retraction are seen for the most prestigious journals, illustrating both the extent to which flawed claims are perpetrated by scientists seeking prominence and weaknesses and even fakery in the current practice of peer reviewing [ 25]. A recent investigation of publishing in predatory 'open access' journals and fake conferences has revealed a global ecosystem of predatory publishers churning out 'fake science' for profit [ 26]. The intrusion of such journals into the traditionally respected space of science publishing seriously undermines the integrity and credibility of science and, if not stopped and sanctioned immediately, could turn out to be fatal for the field as we know it.

It is a fundamental strength of the scientific system that knowledge that is incorrect will eventually be discovered and discarded. However, the pace and scale at which material that is at best dubious and at worst deliberately false is now being published is creating a crisis. The consequences are very damaging for the science enterprise, with a loss of respect for the results of science and the scientific method leading, inter alia, to a steep decline in funding, jobs and students wishing to enter the field. The crisis is also damaging society, creating an 'anything goes' environment in which 'alternative facts' are not tested and decisions affecting the lives of people everywhere are not informed by authentic data or valid conclusions. Thus, in the new age of the fourth revolution in the means of production of knowledge, scientific publishing has become a part of the problem of fake news, rather than a bulwark against it.

6. Ways forward

Fake science and fake news are complex phenomena involving a variety of causes, channels of dissemination and consequences. Solving the challenges they pose will not be accomplished by a single approach or simple set of measures, but will require concerted effort by a wide range of actors across sectors.

To address the general societal problem of fake news, several initiatives now underway or being discussed offer promising approaches. Apart from those directly involving science and scientists, which are discussed separately below, they include the following.

Efforts are needed to counter the spread of false information via social media, through modifications to computer algorithms that favour 'trending' of stories without a factual basis [ 27], and development of tools that help identify and build skills in recognizing false claims [ 28- 30]. The limitations of large-scale automated approaches and the ingenuity with which they can be gamed must, however, be recognized [ 31].

There should be more efforts to increase the responsibility taken by social media services for the content they permit online. The fundamental issue of whether social media should be regarded as 'platforms' that are not responsible for content (as the social media maintain) or as 'publishers' who can, like traditional print publishers, be held liable for the content they disseminate (as some critics of the present position propose), with many legal, regulatory, financial, ethical and operational ramifications, remains in dispute [ 32, 33]. Meanwhile, there has been widespread dissatisfaction with the results of self-regulation by social media to date, and highly publicized failures in areas including politics, racism and health have led to calls for more regulation and/or more action by social media [ 34, 35]. Initiatives required include efforts to increase the speed and scope of measures to remove offensive and injurious materials and to develop algorithms to detect and exclude fraudulent sources.

Scientists must not remain bystanders in the battle against fakery in news generally as well as in their own domains of expertise. They can contribute to understanding the phenomenon of fake news, which has typically been studied along four lines: characterization, creation, circulation and countering [ 36]. Multidisciplinary effort is needed to understand better how the Internet spreads content and how readers process the news and information they consume, as well as how social media platforms are manipulated to amplify particular stories through the use of fake accounts and 'bots' [ 37- 40]. As an example, WhatsApp has selected 20 research teams worldwide, including from India, to work towards understanding how misinformation spreads and what additional steps the mobile messaging platform could take to curb fake news [ 41].

Scientists must be willing to speak out when they see false information being presented in social media, traditional print or broadcast press [ 42]. They must use these media fully themselves [ 43] to offer facts and evidence in succinct layman's language while emphasizing the breadth and depth of the scientific consensus which underpins the present state of knowledge and pointing to the lack of scientific rigour in the false information [ 44- 46]. They must be willing to contradict public leaders and opinion formers who condemn or dismiss valid science without offering verified evidence of their own, as has happened, for example, in the USA and India [ 47- 49].

For the longer term, scientists must be better advocates for and contributors to the generation of a more scientifically literate society [ 50]. The ultimate defence against fake facts is the capacity of each individual to examine critically the information on offer and to reach judgement about its trustworthiness that is based on evidence and reasoning. Scientists can contribute to inculcating 'scientific temper' in society. This term, coined in 1946 by Jawaharlal Nehru, describes a way of life, a process of thinking and acting which uses the scientific method and may, consequently, include questioning, observing, testing, hypothesizing, analysing and communicating [ 51].

The role of journalism remains important and development by scientists of stronger links with reputable journalists can encourage clearer and more accurate reporting of research [ 52].

Within the domain of science itself, individually and collectively through their professional associations, academic institutions and funding bodies, scientists must act in order to put their own house in order, through promoting ethical practices and research integrity, dealing with the problems of reproducibility and retractions [ 53], developing policies and practices to de-incentivize the production and publishing of false data and results and the use of 'predatory' journals that have inadequate peer review, and making maximum use of emerging artificial intelligence capacities [ 54] to detect and expose falsified data and images. Examples where measures are already being adopted or explored include India's use of a 'white list' to discourage researchers from publishing in predatory journals [ 55].

Education-both broadly as part of the development of life skills and specifically in the culture and methods of science-is an essential part of the long-term solution, so that young people are equipped with knowledge, skills and tools to be able to critically examine information and assess its veracity [ 56, 57]. As noted by the President of the European Research Council, 'We need to train a new generation of critical minds. Science is not about learning facts by heart, established long ago; it is about knowing how to call into question and move forward. The majority of youth rely mostly on social media to get their news, so we must tackle this issue through improved news literacy, and it is the task of our educators and society at large to teach children how to use doubt intelligently and to understand that uncertainty can be quantified and measured' [ 58].

Research indicates that pre-emptively inoculating people before they receive misinformation (prebunking) is more effective than refutation after receipt (debunking) in reducing the influence of misinformation. Synthesizing separate lines of research from education, cognitive psychology and inoculation theory (a branch of psychological research) provides a coherent set of recommendations for educators and communicators. Scientific explanations that involve clear communication of scientific concepts and the current scientific consensus are ideally coupled with inoculating explanations of how that science can be distorted [ 59].

Data accessibility

All data cited in this article are taken from the sources given in the references.

Authors' contributions

All authors listed made substantial contributions to the conception, design, drafting and revision of this article; gave final approval of the version to be published; and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Competing interests

We declare we have no competing interests.

Funding

We are grateful to the International Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development, the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, the Royal Society of Chemistry and Syngenta for supporting a workshop held in the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad and hosted by its Director, Dr Srivari Chandrasekhar in January 2019, during which this article was prepared.

Footnotes

This article has been edited by the Royal Society of Chemistry, including the commissioning, peer review process and editorial aspects up to the point of acceptance.

References

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Fake science and the knowledge crisis: ignorance can be fatal

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Seek truth from facts [ 1] 实事求是; shí shì qiú shì Quoted from the Han Dynasty Book of Han, AD 111 Ignorance of the truth, or knowledge that is not acted upon, can be fatal. This basic principle applies at levels from personal to planetary.

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Sources used in this padlet are listed in the Zotero library.

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