4 Core Components of the TITAN Platform Which Raise Critical Thinking Skills Against Disinformation
The TITAN Concept
Do you believe everything you read on the internet? Research shows that our critical thinking abilities fall when we see content shared by friends. We are more likely to not question its veracity and go in to share it ourselves. As a result, disinformation flourishes online.
TITAN sets out to combat this rising trend by combining Socratic methodology with experiential learning and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) to create an intelligent coaching application which supports users seeking the truth about an alleged fact. The app poses simple but specific questions to guide the user in finding evidence that helps them better understand the content being explored, its context and how to reach the truth by improving critical thinking and learning skills.
The focus will be on enhancing people's capacity to analyse and evaluate arguments according to their soundness and reliability, respond to arguments and reach conclusions through deduction from given information Appropriate AI and machine learning methods will be applied to continuously improve the accuracy of the intelligent coaching solution.
What is the Socratic method?
Named after the conversational technique of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, the Socratic method is a form of cooperative dialogue whereby participants make assertions about a particular topic, investigate those assertions with questions designed to uncover presuppositions and stimulate critical thinking, and finally come to a mutual understanding about the topic under discussion).
In educational establishments the technique is used to draw out knowledge from students. Professors and teachers do not provide answers or knowledge, rather they ask probing, thought-provoking questions to kickstart a dialogue between teacher and student, allowing students to formulate and justify answers for themselves.
Proponents of the Socratic method argue that, by coming to answers themselves, students better remember both the answer and the logical reasoning that led them there than they would if someone had simply announced a conclusion up front. Furthermore, people are generally more accepting of views they’ve come to based on their own rational workings.
Condensed from Philosophy Break
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TITAN enables...
People to conduct their own investigations either on an individual basis, or in collaboration with others on whether factual statements are true or reliable.
Interpret and critically assess the reasoning and arguments involved in a statement in support of their own conclusions about the truth.
Enhance and constantly evolve their critical thinking skills for better detection of disinformation they may encounter in the future at scale.
Advancing the State-of-the-Art in Tackling Disinformation
TITAN empowers citizens to examine facts they read online through logic-driven investigation using a personalised, AI-driven coach which uses a Socratic conversational approach. To develop this innovative approach, the project teams pushes innovation beyond the state-of-the-art in several areas.