Tim's+Safety+Lesson+Plan

Lesson Plan: Conceptual Analysis and Ethical Evaluation of Pornography Grade Level: Undergraduates Course: Ethics and Human Sexuality Learning Community

Lesson Objectives: Students will articulate and defend their own conceptual analysis of erotica, obscenity, and pornography. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the feminist critique of pornography. Students will develop and defend their own positions with respect to the feminist critique of pornography.

Working in groups, students construct a wiki page with the following elements Definitional analysis of erotica, obscenity, and pornography Images, text and/or videos of paradigmatic examples of each category, along with a defense of the conceptual analysis Summary of MacKinnon’s feminist critique of pornography A response to MacKinnon’s arguments

Classroom day 1. Explain the project, requirements, and expectations for student behavior. Outline the MacKinnon reading. Classroom day 2, one week following. Students present their wiki to the rest of the class, defend their position, and respond to questions.

Technology Use: Students will use the Angel wiki feature. Angel is a course management system that only allows access to students enrolled in the class. This has the advantage of maintaining the students’ ability to work together without the worry that their page could be viewed by anyone outside the class, nor could anyone post a comment or any content who isn’t a member of their group. Students will collaborate with their groups asynchronously to create their wiki page, which will then be shared with the entire class.

Any student who acts inappropriately can be voted out of the group, and that person will receive a zero for the assignment, subject to instructor’s discretion. Students will be reminded that instructors will be monitoring the work on the wiki and that a record will be kept of who posted what. Students are instructed that no content that could be deemed illegal should be posted, and if any such content is found in the course of their research, they should report it to the police. Students are also reminded that posting content on public wikis or on social networking sites can be dangerous and ultimately harmful to them. This will open up a broader discussion of moral and social responsibility, moral character, the importance of reputation, and integrity. While it is not really my responsibility to keep my adult students "safe," it is the goal of this assignment to get students to think hard about the choices that they make. I can do this without being paternalistic by simply pointing out the folly of reckless behavior, and by bringing in some real life examples of kids who have sabotaged themselves by being irresponsible with that they post on the web.

//Letter of Consent.

I hereby acknowledge that I am 18 years of age or older, and that I understand that this project involves frank and explicit language, images, discussions, and texts that deal with sex and sexuality. I understand that if I am uncomfortable participating in a project that deals with frank and explicit depictions of sex and sexuality, that I may withdraw at any time, without penalty, and be assigned another project, in consultation with the instructors.//

//Signed,//

Note: For this lesson on web 2.0 safety, I thought it would be interesting to tackle the issue of "inappropriate content" head on. Obviously, this assignment would only be possible in college. Further, the Family Education Right to Privacy Act prevents me from divulging any information about a student to anyone, even that student's parent. So a parental permission letter wouldn't only be inappropriate in this case, it would be illegal. Instead, I thought a letter of consent would be a good idea just so that everyone would be on the same page. If I were teaching high school, I would modify the assignment to be an exploration of sexist images in the media, focusing on body image issues and the social construction of gender roles. Either way, though, I avoid much of the problem of web 2.0 technology by employing a private wiki instead of a publicly viewable one.