Facing the appeal of social networks: Methodologies and tools to support students towards a critical use of the web

In the present contribution, we introduce an integrated approach, grounded both on cognitive and computer science, to strengthen the capacity of adolescent students in discerning information on the Web and on social networks. The proposed approach includes methodologies and tools aimed at promoting critical thinking in students. It has been structured in four main operational phases to facilitate implementation and replication, and it is currently tested with 77 high-school students (14-16 years old). Preliminary insights from this pilot study are also presented in this paper. We argue that the integrated approach can be comprised in a more general framework designed to boost competences of reasoning of students, which are crucial in promoting fake news detection and, consequently, in preventing the spreading of on line false information.