Real or Fake?

For this assignment, I had to look at a photograph, two hotel reviews, and quotes by Thomas Jefferson and determine if they were real or fake. This was an interesting task. For the first task this photograph was shown:

This photograph is obviously fake. The plane looks much to big to be really present in this photo. It also looks very obviously photo shopped. It is almost as bad as the fairy picture that was used as an example of early fake photography.

Next I had to determine real vs. fake hotel reviews. This was actually a lot harder and it took me a bit longer to figure it out. Both reviews seemed real, however, I believe the first one is real because it provided insignificant details that would only be added if someone really had attended a trip and stayed at a hotel. I have read a lot of hotel reviews and I know that people usually like to provide random information about their trip. This is the main reason that I believe this one is real. I am unsure about the second one. I could easily see it being either real or fake. However, if it is fake I believe someone that works at the hotel probably wrote it to try to get people to stay there. This learning experience could be very helpful in the future. I read hotel reviews a lot and this one will help me in determining if a hotel review can be trusted.

The last challenge was to figure out if quotes were real. This was the easiest because you could google search to see if they were real or not. For the quote, "Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you." I learned that there is no evidence that Thomas Jefferson actually said that. The second quote, "That the obliquity of the ecliptic, when these elephants lived, was so great as to include with the tropics all those reasons in which the bones are found," is a real quote.  The third quote, “Gun control works great for the people who are law-abiding citizens and it does nothing for the criminals, and all it does is put the people at risk," is a fake quote.

My Reflection on this Assignment:
Doing this assignment was helpful in learning skills to determine if something is real or fake. It is important that I am able to do this in my future professional life. You need to be able to do this to determine if a source is real or fake. The helpful tips, such as looking for light lines and paying close attention to details can come in handy in the future. I will no longer be tricked by those fake news articles on Facebook that try to freak you out about a war that is soon to come or a disease that will wipe out everyone. With these tools I will be able to tell that those are just fake articles without needing to click on them. I will teach my students these skills by perhaps having them do a similar activity. I like the idea of letting them try to figure out which ones are real without giving them the answers until the end. I think this forces them to think critically and really learn what I am trying to teach them. I will definitely be incorporating this lesson into my classroom. It can help my students with smart internet browsing.