Community reviews for Checkology Virtual Classroom

Overall, I thought that Checkology was a great tool for my students, and I would definitely use it in the future. The self-directed nature of the lessons was a big plus, as it addressed the need for differentiation, especially allowing those who were really interested to challenge themselves by pursuing the topic further. As far as the nature of the lessons, my students found some of the videos more engaging than others, but they all really enjoyed the interactive aspects. After getting started I realized that I had not devoted enough classes for the students to complete the entire curriculum, but I was pleasantly surprised when a number of students decided to continue on their own. For those considering using the curriculum, definitely give yourself plenty of time. I also suggest having the students end their work early each time so you can debrief as a large group. While this was sometimes tricky given the self-directed nature and the fact that students were in different spots, I think it is very important to give the students a chance to process what they are learning and share with others.

Checkology pulls in myriad resources that would have taken us hours to re-create -- months or years, in fact. They use timely, current sources such as the Daily Show, CNN, Twitter and Infowars, among many, to focus on the type of information (news, opinion, propaganda) rather than focusing on the politics. This definition-driven exercise, which looks at current sources as well as current debates, is intrinsically relevant to the students because of its timeliness and the well-designed user interface. It's easy to use as a teacheror a student. If we had more time, we would use the entire curriculum as well as the "bonus" extension activities, incorporating more "offline" projects which the students could produce such as their own newspaper.