Poster

This semester, starting last March (when the new school year began in Korea), the English academy (hagwon) that I work at instituted a cell phone ban.

Previously there were no cell phones allowed in classes, but students were engaging in a lot of game play before classes and during break times between classes.  It got to the point where very little real communication was going on between students; either most students were playing games on their cell phones, or (if the student didn't have a phone) they were watching other students play games.

Thus the academy told the students that no cell phones were allowed to be used inside the school, and for the most part the new plan has worked quite well--there is now more talking and more students have time, if needed, to prepare for vocabulary tests or to finish their homework.

However, as perhaps might be expected, a few students have found it difficult to power off their phones for the two hours that they are at the academy.  Especially when they arrive at the school and are in the hallway or in classrooms before their first class begins, some students continue to (they think secretly) use their phones.

Therefore, this week we have been engaged in "re-educating" students about school rules concerning cell phones (and any other electronic devices) . . . nothing draconian, just posted rules in English and Korean, and teachers talking to classes, and a couple of posters that one of my middle school classes put together.

The idea for the posters (above are two pics of the same poster) came from an online writing class that I am taking through Coursera, a free online university.  One of the assignments for my course was to design a public service announcement (PSA), following a review of rhetorical principles that we have been studying in the course.

So I decided to blend the PSA assignment with our school's need concerning cell phone rules.  I talked with the class about audience and purpose, and they had one hour (and the use of a computer/printer) to produce a finished product.  The main facet of the poster is the universally recognized "NO" sign in the center--the red circle with a line through it--since the intended audience, all students at the academy, includes beginner students who are just starting to learn to read English.