Return-Path: <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g46Krmu10190; Mon, 6 May 2002 16:53:48 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 16:53:48 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <F181h6Q17yHD4gJ3pm40000a6c8@hotmail.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Eric Appleton" <eric_appleton@hotmail.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2477] Re: Fortune Society Media Literacy Program X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Status: O Content-Length: 3813 Lines: 79 Jeff, Jeff and David, Thanks so much for kudos and support. The class has been waiting for this moment for a long time (a month or two). In fact, we've been waiting so long that of the students recorded in that story, only Jesse is still coming to class. I just spoke to him on the phone and he told me that he would make a flyer for the class and spread it around (for those of you who heard the story, Jesse is the student who makes "Public Service Announcements" and hands them out on the street). So, this is part of the challenge of getting something going and keeping it going. Something great happened for the class, but now the class is made up of new students (only 4 right now). I want to try to answer your question, Jeff, about how we got started and how we keep it going, but I'm not sure whether you mean The Fortune Society, or the computer lab, or just this class. I'll focus on the class for now, and if you're interested, I can tell you more off the list. A volunteer, Ashley Hunt, and I started the class about a year ago. Ashley is a filmmaker, artist and activist. For a while, Saulo Colon, our writing teacher, helped teach the class as well. We decided that we wanted to run a class that was based around reading, writing, and discussion, but that used technology to help students interact with the world, reading and researching, and voicing their thoughts. Somehow, talking media literacy seemed to fit naturally with these goals. We started by planning with students long-term projects that would integrate technology and writing. We talked about doing newsletters and web sites. We always started class in a circle talking about the project we were working on. What we found after a few months is that the conversation in these classes were incredible, but that the richness and complexity of the discussion didn't often make it into the writing or the final product. We were also having a lot of trouble finishing projects, because of turn-over in students. In response to this, we decided to plan our curriculum in one-class chunks that involved documenting the day's discussion. We gradually hit upon the format of reading a newspaper article, or looking at a photo essay (www.nytimes.com), or listening to an audio documentary through the web, and then discussing it. After the discussion, we go straight to the computer with some sort of writing prompt and publish directly on our web site (http://www.fortunesociety.org/media) through Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), which allows students to publish themselves very easily. So this format of read-discuss-write-publish has been the only constant in the class. Some students come for a day, some for a year. We've discussed topics from Anthrax to prison art to tomato picking, but the thread is that students ending up talking and writing about themselves and are learning tech. skills they need at the same time. Thanks again for all the support. Eric >From: "Jeff Burkhart" <Jeff.Burkhart@fsc-dane.org> > >Congrats, Eric. Sounds like you have a great program. I wonder if you >could share with us how it got started, and how it keeps going? > >-----Original Message----- >From: Jeff Carter [mailto:jcarter@worlded.org] > >If you go to the main page for the program and scroll about half-way >down, you'll find a description of the segment, and a link to listen to >it, or read a print archive. > ><http://www.wnyc.org/onthemedia/> > >I reckon that at some point after next week's show, this material will >move to the archive page: > ><http://www.wnyc.org/onthemedia/archive.html> > >Great job, guys! (And thanks David for letting us know.) _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
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