When I first heard about the AverPoint program, I was very excited to try it. Now that I have used it twice in my Introduction to Media Literacy course here at UCSB, I am impressed about how AverPoint can be a valuable resource for any course at any level of education.
The AverPoint software has proved to be very successful in meeting what I have regarded as one of the most foundational challenges in teaching media literacy, that is, motivating students. The AverPoint software uses gaming techniques to engage students in reading news stories actively and questioning the claims they see journalists make. The students in both of my courses really liked the clarity of having weekly goals then being rewarded with promotions to higher levels which offered even more challenges. They also loved using the AverPoint resource of hundreds of newspapers from around the world that gave them the flexibility to read so many different kinds of news stories on a full range of topics.
If you are serious about helping your students develop a habit of reading daily news stories along with the skills of questioning the claims and challenging the sources of information, then I urge you to check out AverPoint. You will end up being impressed as I am.