Three weeks have passed since the kickoff of the student competition “Everything Fake?” at the NRW Ministry of Education in Düsseldorf. Looking back:
NRW Minister of Education Dorothee Feller welcomed a packed auditorium on the morning of April 9, including several German and American school classes among the numerous guests. She immediately conveyed an important message to the young participants:
“It is crucial to empower children and adolescents to handle digital media reflectively. After all, students are already shaping the democracy of tomorrow today.”
Democracy is the key word here, as it could face challenges in the future due to the latest technological developments. We’re talking about “Fake News” – not necessarily a new phenomenon, but certainly one that has reached a whole new dimension through social media and artificial intelligence.
The million-dollar question is: How to deal with fake news? Quite literally, as the winners of the competition stand a chance to win a visit to the US Embassy in Berlin as a prize. Alongside the Vodafone Foundation, the non-profit organization “Coding for Tomorrow,” and the mathematics education department of the University of Siegen, the organizers also include the Amerika-Haus NRW, the State Chancellery of NRW, and the US Consulate General in the jury, which evaluates the creative contributions of the participating students.
This competition is one of many projects within the framework of the NRW-USA Year 2023/2024. After all, the topic of fake news is of great relevance in the international context and thus also for German-American friendship, which is to be particularly honored during the NRW-USA Year.
English-language contributions and those created in collaboration with American partner schools are welcome. Whether it’s a video, AI image, social media project, or app application, creativity knows no bounds here.
