Paul,
 
First, in the adult literacy realm an inappropriate picture or remark
allows for discourse, debate and learning.  A group can talk about the
merit's of the photo, its purpose, is it necessary, why is it necessary,
etc.  Photography is creativity and the use of inappropriate material
can challenge the status quo, and what was once ugly and disturbing can
be viewed as beautiful and exciting.
 
If by inappropriate photo you are referring to pornography then a
discussion could revolve about the roll of nudes in art.  Is a nude
pornographic?  Why is it pornographic? Is the picture erotic?  Why is it
erotic, and what is the difference between nudes and eroticism?  Heck,
this sounds like a fun lesson plan, seriously.  This is actually a
lesson plan I did with a class in which I shared my art and sketch
books.  Both sexes of students were shocked by the nudes, so I brought
in several works of art, some nudes and other suggestive photos of
fruit, it made for a lively interesting discussion and debate.
 
I was a new teacher at the time, so my lesson plan was not as firm as it
could have been.  But from the introduction topic the class then
performed a KWHL, performed research, and held a class forum to come to
a conclusion.
 
The next question about the inappropriateness of work is what is the
student's purpose of introducing the material?  In general I would argue
that the student would know the work is not suited for the class.  So
why then would that student introduce it?  For this I would argue to
throw the teacher a curve ball, to create a power-shift in the class,
and if this is the case is it worth succumbing to the student's aim at
controlling the teacher in the teacher's classroom?  Once again I would
argue to turn the table on the student by not being flustered but by
using the work as an example and create discourse.  This recently
happened in a class where a student continuously dropped the F-bomb into
her work.  The piece was read to the class, as the other works were, and
the class "work shopped" the piece afterwards, from the workshop the
class concluded that the swearing detracted from the over-all merits of
the piece.  The author revised and resubmitted her piece, without the
swearing.
 
Once again, this is how I handle it, there are teachers that I work with
who do not agree.  I was one of those students who tried to make the
teacher flutter, and it was the teacher who took my project seriously
and created debate that helped me the most... that's probably why I do
it.
 
Also, I teach adults, I don't know if I could have the same conversation
in the K-12 system.
 
Barry Burkett, Adult Educator 
Thorn Hill Learning Center 
Frankfort, KY 
502.223.3110 

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are
incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful
beyond imagination" - Albert Einstein


________________________________

From: technology-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov]
On Behalf Of Paul Fletcher-McGookin
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 2:58 PM
To: The Technology and Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [Technology 996] Re: M-learning through cell phones



I love your enthusiasm you all.  There is one glitch that we should
prepare to discuss.  Unfortunately, there are those who would love to
slip an inappropriate photo into the mix.  It's imperative that the
teacher put the pictures in the file after reviewing them.  I really
hate saying this and don't want to enable one person to thwart a super
idea.  We just need to take some precautions.

 

________________________________

From: technology-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:technology-bounces at nifl.gov]
On Behalf Of Tina_Luffman at yc.edu
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 10:25 PM
To: The Technology and Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [Technology 991] Re: M-learning through cell phones

 

Hi Barry,

 

How about a class project where students discuss family events. Each
student could send their photos to flickr to share with the class (if
the class has computer access). Then the students could do an oral
report in English to go along with the photo.

 

Tina





Tina Luffman
Coordinator, Developmental Education
Verde Valley Campus
928-634-6544
tina_luffman at yc.edu

 

-----technology-bounces at nifl.gov wrote: -----

To: "The Technology and Literacy Discussion List" <technology at nifl.gov>
From: "Bakin, Barry" <barry.bakin at lausd.net>
Sent by: technology-bounces at nifl.gov
Date: 05/08/2007 03:49PM
Subject: [Technology 990] Re: M-learning through cell phones

Perhaps you all have encountered this before but this is a first for me.
Looking out the window of my office in downtown L.A. one has a great
view of the billowing clouds of smoke coming from a fire that broke out
in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles a few hours ago. Wanting to get
more information about the fire and in particular about how it might be
affecting freeway traffic for my commute home, I googled "fire in
griffith park" and in addition to some news reports, found a link to a
local weblog that said "People are putting up photos all over Flickr.
The tag is here." Clicking on the link brought me to
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=griffith+park+fire&s=rec which indeed
claims to have some 300+ photos posted already. 

I got to wondering about how this could all be used in a teaching
context, especially in light of recent discussions in this forum and
others about incorporating mobile technologies into adult education.
What if teachers worldwide, communicating through email, set up a common
assignment such as "Sometime today, post pictures to flickr (or some
other website that allows photos to be posted directly from
cellphones)of a family doing something together and tag the photos with
the same descriptor which is "Family Activity ESL" or something very
specific." Students would then be sent out to capture images on their
cellphones as homework and they would send them directly to the flickr.
The next day, all of the students could type in the search term to see
the images that were posted from all over the world and use them as the
basis for discussion or writing assignments in their own classes or
between classes or individuals worldwide... 

Just thinking outloud here... 

Barry Bakin 

Pacoima Skills Center 

 

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