Thank Goodness for Dubai
TRLD (Technology, Reading, and Learning Diversity) is an incredible conference. It’s small, but it is a community. Many, if not more than half of the attendees of my sessions have been to this conference before, and very few of them are from California. There is a fairly sizable contingent from Canada.
Dr. Donald Leu kicked off the conference with a presentation about web literacy, making a compelling case for expanding our definitions of literacy. One of the most interesting parts of his presentation were findings that often children who test poorly in traditional reading skills on state tests, actually test high in the web literacy assessments that his team are developing.
It’s early the next morning (actually, it’s nearly 9:00 EST). I have one more session this morning, and then I get on a plane and head back to Philadelphia for the last day of Educon. I’ve been lurking a bit on Hitchhikr. I also popped my head in at the spot in Second Life, linked to from the Educon wiki, but no one was there. They have a Ustream page, and some of the cameras are running, this it is mostly the students who will be recording all of the sessions.
I’m preparing for my 11:30 session on RSS, and worrying over subscribing to Flickr feeds. The last time I tried it, a questionable picture showed up, and although it wasn’t such a big deal, there were certainly those in the audience who mentally scratched this extremely valuable resource off of their list. Then it occurred to me this morning, Dubai. List photos tagged with dubai, and there no chance of pornography showing up. Excellent!
Thank goodness for Dubai.
Hmmm! Is there a message here?
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While it’s indeed a bit uncomfortable to run into an “inappropriate” Flickr image in the midst of a presentation, avoiding mention of the possibility of such could perhaps do a disservice to educators who encounter such an image “unprepared” at what would be an inopportune time for them; at a school presentation to parents or administrators for example or even during a lesson to a group of students who haven’t been trained as to what to do when such an image appears in front of them. Teachers do need to know that it is indeed possible to encounter images that some would find objectionable or not well-suited for their particular teaching setting and that they should be prepared for just such an event in any number of ways. Teaching students in advance that “these things do happen when using the Internet” and that they should just “move on to something else” or “hit the back button,” and having parents sign Acceptable Use Policies and warnings are strategies that teachers need to be familiar with.
Reply to Barry BakinIn my presentations to teachers, my strategy is to show a few “safe” searches first (as you suggest “Dubai”) to get them excited about using the tool, and then to demonstrate a search that brings up some more provocative images. Searching for the term “love” for example gets tons of images of birds and dogs cuddling, hearts, the LOVE sculpture, wedding rings, red roses and other “innocuous” photos; but it also returns images of semi-clothed people kissing, images titled “love your boobies”, babies breastfeeding, and dogs procreating. Some of the images would be inappropriate in most educational settings and others only in particular ones, but I think it’s incumbent upon trainers to point out both the positives and negatives of an educational tool when introducing it to teachers who are unfamiliar with it. The teachers can then decide to use the tool with full awareness of potential pitfalls and take steps to protect themselves professionally.