Digital echo chambers, personalisation, and fake news terminology and consequences

Notes

09/03/2026 Digital Echo chambers and fake news: what does it mean for schools and teachers Prof Oliver McGarr EN4042 Week 7 My Youtube experience 1 2 3 09/03/2026 What is going on? • Use of algorithms • List of instructions for computers to solve problems • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_WfC8HwVB8 • Let’s take an example: • How to predict student failure early on in a module? • Login times, duration of logins, frequency of logins, file downloads, assignment submission, browsing of site content etc. etc. • Compare this data to previous years end of term performance • Calculate the effect of each dimension and weight it accordingly • Determine an equation that is a good predictor • Modify the student’s experience based on their performance against these key indicators • Examples could include Messages, Modified content Social media filtering • A similar process is taking place as you consume social media • Determined by links clicked on, sites visited, responses made, computer type, browser, location, past searches etc. • An algorithm is then used to calculate and determine what you should get more of – Google searches, Netflix browsing, YouTube, Facebook … etc. 4 5 6 09/03/2026 W...