Mankato to Jerusalem and back

Fulbright pre-departure orientation 2009

2009-06-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

Fulbright kindly invited me to D.C. from June 24-26, 2009. I was asked to take part in three country sessions (West Bank was put in with Syria, since there were only two scholars going, but we ended up meeting separately since our small meeting room at the Marriot Renaissance could not accommodate two simultaneous discussions.) A number of students and a handful of scholars were going to Syria.

In addition, on Thursday morning three of us who had recently returned from our Fulbrights in Jordan, Oman, and the West Bank were asked to speak for about 10 minutes and then answer questions. I briefly explained my original proposal to Fulbright and to what extent I had achieved my three goals.

Goodbye Jerusalem, back to the States

2009-06-12T05:20:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all my new friends at Birzeit University for making my Fulbright semester interesting, enjoyable, and stimulating. I would particularly like to thank Marwan Tarazi and Osama Mimi, directors of the Center for Continuing Education and the Unit for Innovative Learning, respectively, for allowing me to join the team for four months.

I spent my time at the ULI learning how e-learning methodologies and technologies are applied in the professional courses that the CCE puts on. The paper that we presented on e-learning came out of the research that we did on the current state of e-learning in Palestinian universities.

More importantly for the future, however, were the connections we were able to establish between our institutions and with Birzeit faculty and personnel, so that we can continue working cooperatively into the future. With numerous electronic educational tools at our disposal, we will be able to work together in cyberspace.

I envision projects between academic students in the English Department at Birzeit and my students at Mankato, but also OL meetings in which we meet to discuss e-learning topics. At Birzeit, the watch word is "blended" or "e-enabled" pedagogy, meaning that they use both the classroom (F2F) and Moodle to deliver their course materials to students or trainees. At Mankato we do not blend, but rather teach either F2F or online. Perhaps we can serve as advisors to each other!

Launch for local e-learning product

2009-05-20T05:33:00.000-07:00

I delivered these remarks today at the product launch for In-Touch, a locally produced e-learning software tool @ Best Eastern Hotel, Ramallah.

"E-learning, distance learning, online pedagogy, and blended learning are all variations on a theme. This theme is that we are using technology of teaching and learning materials to join instructors and students who are located in different places. My remarks are based on my own experience. I have learned these four points (BLIP) in 5 years of teaching 100% online courses in technical communication at Minnesota State University, Mankato:

1. Be sure that my Internet connection is sufficient.

o Just because your son or daughter can do Facebook on your computer does not mean that you can take an online course that uses audio and video.
o Is the Internet connection appropriate to the software you are using?
o Is the Internet connection reliable?

2. Learn the tools and the strategies.

o Have I tested new tools for appropriateness?
o Is the software and hardware installed and tested on my computer?

Example: Skype has a conferencing feature, but the outgoing audio is not as good as Gmail video/audio chat.

3. Incorporate feedback from the students to develop the online delivery of course material.

o I solicit feedback from the students each time I teach online. If the students have a good idea, follow it.
o Adjust for the students without compromising the quality of the course. Don’t worry about giving some control to the students in online courses.

4. Prepare the students in e-learning pedagogy.

o Acquaint the students with the tools.
o Prepare them for the time management issues.
o Explain all course procedures very clearly.
o Offer online office hours for students to ask questions."

In the photo below, Reem is answering my question about a feature of InTouch.

Invisible runner

2009-05-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today I was able to complete my 7.5 kilometer run around the Old City despite the heavy security for the Pope’s visit. Yesterday, May 12, the security was particularly heavy. As I ran, beginning at 6:15 a.m. I saw at least 500 soldiers and police out around the Old City. Apparently the Pope was going to be arriving from the direction of the Mt. of Olives, because the east side of the Old City was particularly heavily guarded. As I went by the Herod’s Gate, the Damascus Gate, and the New Gate, I didn’t see much out of the ordinary. However, when I got to Jaffa Gate, the Western Wall, and Lions' Gate, there was very heavy security. As a runner, I was able to follow my usual morning route and in some cases it was actually easier since the automobile traffic was pretty much limited to police trucks, vans, and buses transporting soldiers. Moving around the area is not this easy for some Palestinian Arab residents, for example, Sameer and Nadine.

For more on the reception the Pope Benedictus the 16th is receiving by the locals see Cool reception for Pope in Holy City. Today the Pope is in Bethlehem, Pope celebrates Mass in Bethlehem. Check the Pope's itinerary also.

More football, in Ras al-Amoud this time

2009-05-09T01:06:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I found more football (It's not too easy to find published schedules. My landlord found these games in the Thursday's sport section of the newspaper.) I was told that there would be a match at the field at Abdel Qader al-Husseini school in Ras al-Amoud in Arab East Jerusalem. All four teams I saw where from Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. I got there late and found Silwan in green playing Mt. of Olives in red. They were adults playing 30 minutes halves. I was told that they usually play 35 minute halves, but today because there was a second match, they shortened up the game. Abu Fadi, the referee, in white, played in the second match. He had two assistant referees who did a good job with offside, I thought. The score ended up with Mt. of Olives winning 1-0. The pitch was not nearly as nice as the artificial turf at al-Bireh, where I watched matches two weeks ago. It looked like it was about 45 meters long by 30 meters wide. The lines were chalk or lime of some kind.

In the second match, Sur Baher, in blue, played Isawiya, in red. I left at halftime when the score was evened up at 1-1. Sur Baher dominated the first half. I talked for a while with some teenage boys who were watching. They had the usual questions about which teams in Europe I support. We talked for a little while about the upcoming match between ManU and Barcelona for the UEFA Champions League title. One of the kids thought that Messi and company would prevail.

Artas lettuce

2009-05-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

I attended the 15th annual Artas Lettuce Festival yesterday. Artas is a beautiful town just south of Bethlehem.

The banner reads:
The president and the members of the Artas Town Council welcome their honored guests to the activities of the annual Lettuce Festival.

We walked to the first of the three Burak Suleiman (Solomon's Pools) lying at the head of the valley where Artas is located. From there we followed a group of locals and visitors as they hiked down the valley to the town. After lunch we went to watch several debke troupes perform. In addition there were poetry recitations and a fashion show of traditional Palestinian thobs (traditional women's dresses).

$4.70 a gallon for gasoline?

2009-04-28T04:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's what we pay here for gasoline, $4.70 a gallon. The last time I filled my little rented Chevy, I put in 29.28 liters (7.73 gallons) and paid 162.97 New Israeli Shekels (36.36 USD) which comes out to $4.70 gallon. For that fill I got 21.78 miles per gallon although on trips I have gotten much better mileage. For example, on a trip in late March I got 34.75 miles per gallon.

Back home in Iowa, according to www.iowastategasprices.com, we are paying $1.89/gallon in the Ames area so the same fill in Ames would have cost me $14.60. That is a difference of $2.81 a gallon or $21.76 for that fill.

FIFA and unfinished football business in al-Bireh

2009-04-24T10:57:00.001-07:00

Today I attended a 2:30 football match at the al-Bireh stadium near Ramallah. Al-Bireh and Ramallah are sister cities. Psagot, an Israeli settlement, dominates the stadium from the next hill over. For background on the relationship between Psagot and al-Bireh and Ramallah, Brian Whitaker's 2001 Guardian article is helpful.

The pitch is artificial turf and looks like it is 120 meters by 60 meters or so. The teams were Beitilu and Bani Zaid in the Palestinian third division. The Palestine Football Association is headed by Jibril Rajoub.

One of the interesting aspects of the signage at the stadium for me is the bilingual text. I try to introduce my technical communication students to bilingual technical writing in one assignment in our intro class. This sign combines the illustration of the complex with Arabic and English text. This serves to make a linguistic connection with the world outside Palestine and also to explain to non-Arabic speaking visitors the background of the project. Importantly, the FIFA logo in the lower left-hand corner validates the important connection of the international football governing body with Palestinian football. I was told that Ronaldo, the famous Brazilian player, had visited this complex in the past. This also, of course, lends credibility to the local football association.

The play was quite fair and skilled. I would compare it favorably with an International League game in Des Moines. The referees took care of business. (The FIFA site shows two Palestinians with referee status and five with AR status.) There were probably 2 offside calls on each team and a total of 4 cautions and 1 send off. Beitilu won 2-0. No fans were allowed inside the gate. Only the two teams with their coaches, the officials and a few selected guests were allowed in the gate. The fans stood on a nearby half-finished building and along the fence.
The sign on the gate reads:

Al-Bireh Municipality International Stadium: Majed Asaad Pitch
We request the users of this stadium to observe the following: (1) It is absolutely forbidden to bring in food, drink, and any kind of snacks. (2) It is absolutely forbidden to smoke--smokers will be fined. (3) It is forbidden for players or teams to practice here (4) Those who enter should be wearing proper football shoes and (5) All requests to use the stadium should be addressed to the administrators of the stadium.

Running below sea level...

2009-04-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we ran the Dead Sea 1/2 Marathon in Jordan. The pre-race dinner was nice. The weather was not bad for Jordan in April, and the company was good. We ran nearly all the way with a young man from Leipzig, Germany. According to my Garmin, we ran 21.33 kilometers (13.25 miles) in 1 hour and 52 minutes.

There were a couple of remarkable aspects to the race. The first is that we ran the entire race below sea level. According to my Garmin, we finished at 400 meters below sea level. That means we started at about 300 meters below, since our starting point was not far up the mountain in the direction of Amman. Second, we started at least 30 minutes late. This was due to a combination of poor organization by the race organizers (lack of announcements about bus location, start time and lack of signs to buses and baggage truck, and finally a lack of sufficient buses to the start line) and our own lack of preparedness. We know better than to rely on information from only one source and should have triple-checked everything.

At the end of the day, I am very glad to have run. I'll be missing two Iowa races this spring, both the Drake Half and Dam-to-Dam, so I am very glad to have this one under my belt. In addition, running at the Dead Sea was interesting, even though the race wasn't very well organized. Perhaps non-runners don't know this, but long races are a good time to visit with fellow runners. Of course, there are times in a long race when we don't want to talk, but usually there are times when it is a good way to pass the time and take the mind off of the difficult task at hand. Finally, from the point of view of fitness, it is always good to have another long run on my legs. And now a question. How does running below sea level affect the performance of a runner? I am curious.

Whose history?

2009-04-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

I have toured a number of beautiful historical sites on my trip. One of the questions I ask is "Whose history gets remembered and in what way does it get remembered?"

An example of one of these beautiful historical sites is the al-Jazzar Mosque in Acre (Akka). It is apparently built on top of earlier religious sites. The caretaker, upon learning that I work at a Palestinian university, refused to take the entrance fee from me.

The Market Mosque in Safad is another example. This mosque is now being used as an art gallery. The town of Safad is now home to a large artists' colony housed in the former Arab part of town and a large community of religious Jews.

A current article on the BBC's news website gets at this same question. The article, History lessons stymied in Lebanon, shows how difficult it is to agree on the history of a nation when there are disparate narratives, different histories, that must be accounted for. One can say that there is not one history, but rather, multiple histories and that we really should expose our students to all of them.

So the question remains, "Whose history gets remembered and in what way does it get remembered?"

A day in the hills

2009-03-13T23:33:00.000-07:00

The red flower above is known locally as Shaqa'iq al-Naa'man al-Hamra (Red Anemone, Anemone coronaria).

From Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet: "There is no end to the praise of flowers because it is a verse in our eulogy to the land. But flowers can say more eloquently than language how beautiful our country is, how worthy of love, of even more than it gives already, because it is so intensely ours and because it is so beautiful. Thus the pain of love is mixed with a desire to be lost in the beloved." 1997, translated by Catherine Cobham.

These photos give you a taste for the beauty of the hills, the terraced olive groves, and the spring wildflowers of central Palestine. On this particular day we walked down the valley from Deir Ghassaneh to two natural springs and then back. We had just recently had significant winter rains so the wildflowers and plants were luxuriant.

You will see several photos of olive trees. The oldest olive trees with gnarled trunks are called locally "Zeitoun Rumi" to signify that they are very old, perhaps as old as "Rumi" (Roman) times.

You can double-click the photos to get a better look at the detail of the flowers.

The last photo shows the damage that wild boars have done to the terraced area. According to the local people, the wild boars are used as a weapon against Palestinian farmers by Israeli settlers in the area. The settlers, they say, have apparently turned wild boars loose to damage the crops. Note: An Internet search will yield additional articles about the damage that wild boars have done to Palestinian crops and farmers. I have not yet seen proof of the origin of these wild boars.

Below is al-Kitaniyya (Wild Flax, linum pubescens).

Below is al-Sawsan al-Shabaki (Dwarf Iris, Iris reticulata).

Below is Qarn al-Ghazal (Wild Cyclamen).

The pool of water in the photo below is all that remains from a recent heavy rain.

Note the cactus fruit on the cactus plant. Cactus in Arabic is "Saber". The word also means patience, so "Saber Ayoub" is known as the patience of Job or, in a word play, the cactus plant that belongs to someone named Ayoub.

We walked this agricultural road to the springs in the wadi.

Finally I found the proper name of this beautiful white flower. Cindy and I were at the entrance to the Banias waterfall and found a list of the wildflowers in the area. It is Allium neapolitanum. It is also known as Guernsey Star-of-Bethlehem.

Below is al-Kitamiyya (Lion's Tooth, Thrincia tuberosca).

In the photo below you see a Snobar (Pine) tree next to the Kharoob (Carob) tree. The carob seed pods are edible and are used as a chocolate substitute.

Note the honey bee in the flowers. The flower is called Blueweed or Viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare).

One of the springs we visited.

New leaves emerging on a fig tree.

Below, wild boar damage on terraces.

Eid Al-Mawlid An-Nabawi

2009-03-07T08:03:00.000-08:00

Source of the photo.

Monday March 9th is a holiday to mark the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. Birzeit University will be observing the holiday.

Sunni Muslims, the majority in Palestine, will observe the holiday on March 9th (12th of Rabi'-ul-Awwal in the Muslim calendar) and Shia Muslims will observe it a few days later on March 14th (17th of Rabi'-ul-Awwal in the Muslim calendar).

Rain, water, and Palestine

2009-03-03T05:22:00.000-08:00

I'll be writing more on this post soon, but I want to at least let my readers know about the rain we've been having in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Birzeit in the first month that I have been here.

Sleet on the 6th floor window of the Massa Building in Ramallah in the last week of February.

I spoke today to the meteorologist at Birzeit University. He reported that while a typical winter rainfall average is about 600 mm in Birzeit, (in 2006-07 the total was 734 mm and in the following rainy season it was 524 mm) we have 541 mm as of yesterday (March 2, 2009). In just three days last week (February 26-28) we received 109 mm. The February 2009 total is 271 mm.

I will be writing more soon about the importance of rainfall for the area but as you can see this rain in the past month has been very welcome in an area that depends so heavily on rainfall for human consumption and agriculture.

E-learning in Palestinian universities

2009-03-02T04:43:00.000-08:00

I am gathering information about e-learning at Palestinian universities since that research is a part of my Fulbright program. Informally I have been talking with trainees at one of the courses here at the CCE about e-learning and its potential in Palestine. Several themes have emerged both from talking with the students and from my own investigation. I will be writing more on this topic later.

1. Everyone agrees that e-learning of some type (e-enabled, hybrid, blended) is a good thing in Palestine due to the difficulties of getting through Israeli checkpoints and the wall (al-Jidar) to attend F2F classes.

To give readers an idea of what I am talking about, the view below (on the left side of the photograph looking to the south toward Jerusalem) is of the Israeli separation wall just south of the Qalandia Crossing. Qalandia is located at the northern edge of greater Jerusalem (as defined by Israel).

On the other hand, there is reluctance to endorse 100% online learning in academia, the type of e-learning that we do at Minnesota State University, Mankato. My colleagues here list reasons such as the potential for cheating by students.

2. Internet infrastructure: (a) About 20% of Palestinians currently have access to the Internet. (b) Internet access is relatively expensive both due to monopolies within Palestine for the access and to Israeli taxes and tariffs on computer related equipment needed for Internet access.

3. The population needs greater awareness of the educational uses of the Internet.

4. Teachers in particular need education and appropriate training for teaching via the Internet.

5. Palestinians need political leadership to encourage educational uses of the Internet. Currently the Ministry of Education will not recognize a higher education degree if more than 30% of the courses were taken online.

Tech writing in Israel

2009-02-27T02:48:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of attending Techshoret yesterday, the third annual conference of technical writers in Israel. The conference was held at the Jerusalem Conference Center in West Jerusalem. The four sessions I attended were all worthwhile and I had good conversation with a number of folks. I arrived about 8:40 a.m. at Binyanei HaUma, (Jerusalem Conference Center). I felt that I was in a different country than the one I live and work in—I was! Nearly all of the technical writers at the conference wore North American accents—there was a smattering of South African, Australian, and British English for good measure. I was a little apprehensive about attending the conference because my perception that some of the technical writers are Israeli settlers living on Palestinian land.

Paula Stern (WritePoint Ltd) got us started. Paula is a high-energy person who had answered my e-mail enquiry about STC Israel and then put me on to Techshoret, which was happening just a few days later (February 26). She introduced the nine (9) industry sponsors of the conference, some of whom made their own short presentations.
The first session I attended was Miriam Lottner’s (Tech Tav) Where, What, and How: The Future of Technical Documentation. We were 54 attendees in the room. Mariam made the claim that tech writers are producing products very similar to those we produced a decade ago. Not only that, but our salaries are at about the same level as well. She had one main point: Technical writers must be prepared to think outside the box and be as creative as possible in these difficult economic times. “Re-thinking re-tooling, and re-focusing”, is what we should be doing, she said. She said we should focus on content and better ROI (return on investment).

Quite a lot of discussion occurred in her session about various innovations that people in the audience had tried like a help system based on video clips that users send in and were then linked to from the company site. One idea that came up in the discussion was to use wikis instead of APIs. She concluded by saying that there is always a place in our profession for good content, that we should try to innovate at work, and that each of us should go back to work, make an appointment with our manager for a two weeks hence, and at that appointment propose an innovation at the company.
The second session I attended was Ben Goldfarb’s (WritePoint Ltd.) session with about 25 attendees, on Mindmapping and Technical Writing. Ben is a proponent of mind-mapping, a brainstorming, planning tool pioneered by Tony Buzan. Essentially mind-mappers, instead of taking written notes organized linearly, use visual representations of concepts in a radial network to take notes or plan documents or projects. The audience had a hard time at first trying to visualize brainstorming, but seemed to come around to its utility later. I and a few others came to Ben’s defense saying that mind-mapping, while not the perfect brainstorming/planning tool for everyone, is a good tool for some situations.

During the breaks I met several people who had heard my questions in previous sessions. In this way I met Aryeh Eisenberg of WebYeshiva, Eli Jacob of JBS, and a woman named Adina (sp?) who discussed the age-old question, should we teach tools or writing? I had lunch with Rich Teplitz and Andy Lewis (I think that’s him!) who discussed DITA and uses for Framemaker over lunch. After lunch I had a looked at the resume table where there were about 12 resumes of folks looking for work.
The third session (with 22 attendees), after our lunch break, was by Katriel Reichman (Kodak, Tel Aviv) Content without Borders: Working with a Global Documentation Team. Reichman made a very well-prepared presentation on the idea that cooperation across time zones and cultures can lead to difficulties in a tech pubs team, but that these difficulties can be overcome. He made the interesting observation that once the two teams, one in Vancouver, Canada and the other in Tel Aviv, had met for a F2F meeting during which they really got to know each other, they were able to function better online.

The final session (40 attendees) was put on by Jacob Richman (Maaleh Adumim), and titled Social Media Marketing: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and More. He told us that he had made aliyah (Zionist concept of Jews returning “home” to Israel from their native countries) from New York City (Brooklyn) 24 years ago, and he had the accent to prove it. His main point was that new media tools can be utilized for not only social networking, as many of us do, but also for business. He is clearly the kind of guy that is up all hours of the night publishing his blogs and trying out new tools. His presentation consisted of a series of examples of ways that new media can be adapted to making money or advertising various types of products.

Observations on Techshoret: The conference was very much on the STC conference model. ATTW (Association of Teachers of Technical Writing) is much more an academic conference whereas STC and Techshoret Israel are much more industry focused. Reichman’s presentation was the most academic-like presentation of the four I attended. What do I mean? By that I mean he made a more sophisticated analysis of his topic that the others. This does not mean that the other three were less useful, just that they were more industry focused. When I asked about the status of STC Israel, which I was told is the largest chapter outside the U.S., I was told that the fees had become too expensive for technical writers in Israel. Paula Stern, one of the main Techshoret organizers, was at one time a mainstay of STC Israel but clearly now devotes her time to her company WritePoint, Ltd. and Techshoret, an alternative to STC Israel. All in all, Techshoret was nine hours well spent.

Going home

2009-02-22T12:18:00.000-08:00

Going home to al-Lydd...
My in-laws were originally from al-Lydd.

I went to church today at Keneeset al-Khader (St. George Church), in al-Lydd (Lod, in Hebrew). The local legend has it that one of St. George's parents was from al-Lydd so they take particular notice of him here. There were 20 worshippers in the ancient church today and after service the priest invited us across the alley to the reception hall for coffee. Christians in al-Lydd are Palestinian Arab with Israeli citizenship. They are the descendants of the few Arabs who were allowed to stay July 9-12, 1948 when Israeli forces took the town and expelled nearly all the indigenous people. The church itself shares a wall with Al-Khader Mosque.

Al-Lydd is not far from the coastal cities of Yaffa and Tel Aviv. We were lured there by the wonderful fish restaurants. They are definitely worth a visit.

The view from Yaffa to Tel Aviv. You notice the older Arab buildings of Yaffa and the newer Israeli buildings in Tel Aviv.

The view here is to the west and the Mediterranean. You see the minaret of a mosque in the background.

Ustaz for a day

2009-02-19T06:02:00.000-08:00

I got to teach today for a little over an hour on the subject of e-learning in Palestine. We briefly compared the online learning in technical communication at my university, Minnesota State University, Mankato, with the "e-enabled" courses here at Birzeit's Center for Continuing Education. Second, we worked with taxonomies to classify types of e-learning and finally, we discussed our ideas for the future of e-learning in Palestine. We generated some interesting ideas in our groups as to how and why e-learning holds promise in Palestinian education.

Beauty in Ar-Riha (Jericho)

2009-02-16T00:38:00.001-08:00

Yellow swallowtail (I think) on the white majnooneh blossoms.

Ar-Riha (Jericho) is Palestinian territory under the current political situation. The drive down the mountains from Jerusalem doesn't take very long. There is an Israeli checkpoint and then a PA checkpoint in order to enter the town. We spent a pleasant afternoon at a friend's house with a picnic on the veranda. Let me know if you can identify any of these flowers from the garden. The red, white, and pink ones are called majnooneh in Arabic or Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea glabra). Majnooneh means "the crazy one" in Arabic, apparently because this flowering bush grows uncontrollably.

Limoon (Lemon tree blossoms)

Hibiscus (in both Arabic and English or also known as Karkady in Arabic. A drink can be made from the dried flowers.)

Yellow swallowtail (I think) on the majnooneh blossoms.

Bicolor majnooneh

This plant has an intense blue flower and the leaves are edible, I believe. What is it called?

Red majnooneh with drip irrigation hose.

Khair min Allah v.2

2009-02-11T03:59:00.001-08:00

This is what it looks like around here when it rains. Everyone is happy because it means water for agriculture and household use in the summer. Without the winter rains people here would be in trouble.

Khair min Allah (It's raining in Palestine!)

2009-02-09T23:25:00.000-08:00

Khair min Allah. That’s what the people here call rain, “A blessing from Allah.” We are getting a good rain this morning. I woke up in the night to banging noises as the wind made the windows rattle. As I write this, the wind is blowing the rain in sheets against the windows of the hallway outside my apartment. These windows look out to the southwest in the direction of the old city of Jerusalem, though I cannot see the old city walls from here because the Bab az-Zahra neighborhood on the next hill over, obscures the view.

I usually go for my run at this time, but because of the heavy rain it would not be wise today. There are two problems with running in the rain here, first, getting soaked, and second, trying to negotiate the flooded streets of the neighborhood. The streets and crowded neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz here are not designed to handle heavy rain so the footing would not be safe this morning.

My fijil (radish), sabanagh (spinach), and jarjeer (arugula) seeds are getting a good soaking today. Just what the doctor ordered.

There are also some very nice plants currently flowering in my landlord's garden.

If you know the names of these plants, let me know. I am going to ask when I have time too.

Bab al-Asbat or Bab Sitna Maryam (Lion's Gate)

2009-02-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

We visited the old city again today since Friday we have the day off. In the old city of Jerusalem you will never be bored. From Suq al-Atareen (the Apothecaries' or Perfumers' Market) to Bab al-Asbat (referring to the grandchildren of Biblical Jacob) or Sitna Maryam (Lion's Gate), there is always something going on.

Bab al-Asbat, and to the East, the Mount of Olives...

Day three at BZU

2009-02-05T03:48:00.000-08:00

Here I am at nearly at the end of day three on the job. Our holidays here are Friday and Sunday, so I'll be off tomorrow.

So far I have presented a short demonstration of the functionality in Desire2Learn, the learning management system (LMS) that we use at Minnesota State University, Mankato. In addition I have started to plan several other projects. It seems that much of my work will be to consult on professional communication strategies. The Unit for Learning Innovation (ULI) which is a part of the larger Center for Continuing Education at the university, conducts numerous "e-enabled" (also known as hybrid or blended courses because they use both F2F and online teaching)for NGOs and other organizations in the Palestinian community. The ULI is also working with academic departments at the university to explore "e-enabled" academic courses. Interestingly, the Ministry of Higher Education here in Palestine limits the percentage of online course material that a student can take for an accredited degree. Clearly, this is a factor that the ULI and other online learning advocates must take into account. A second part of my work is to publish on the subject of online learning in Palestinian institutions of higher education. I am in the process of pursuing this goal also. I have written to tcworld, a publication of TEKOM in Stuttgart, Germany, to suggest an article and also have been accepted to present at paper at V International Conference on Multimedia and ICT in Education (m-ICTE2009), Lisbon (Portugal), 22-24 April 2009. The nice thing about the Lisbon conference is that we can participate online. What a concept!

I should also say that the work environment here at the ULI is quite informal and enjoyable. I look forward to work each day.

the first day at work went well

2009-02-03T11:18:00.000-08:00

Well, first day at work went well. I enjoyed the informal atmosphere in the ULI. My colleagues are very friendly and helpful. So you know where I work...

First day at work

2009-02-02T11:33:00.000-08:00

Today I had meetings at the U.S.Consulate and met the people there who administer Fulbright and other exchange programs.

I plan on leaving early tomorrow for my first day at the Unit for Learning Innovation (Center for Continuing Education) at Birzeit University. We'll be working on professional development, curriculum development, and publication about online learning at Palestinian universities. My technical communication/technical writing background will serve me well.

This morning (February 3) I met in Ramallah with Marwan Tarazi, the head of the CCE. Later I traveled to the campus in Birzeit village where I met the ULI staff and got settled in. Today I have been working on three small projects:

1. Project planning for my four month stay
2. Writing a document for the presentation I will do tomorrow about Desire2Learn
3. Planning for the types of short-courses I will create while I am here.

View photos of the campus and facts and figures.

Fi al-madinah al-qadima

2009-01-31T06:42:00.000-08:00

We went for a walk in the Old City of Jerusalem today entering through Bab al-Amoud (Damascus Gate). The present walls around the old city were rebuilt and restored by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman in 1537. The weather here is sunny, brisk and invigorating and there were a lot of people out today on Saturday. The entrance to Bab al-Amoud was crowded with hawkers (vendors). Inside the old city there were a few groups of European tourists and quite a few locals out shopping.

Technical writing in Bengalooru

2009-01-30T11:21:00.000-08:00

My technical writing friends in town out did themselves today and set up several very informative visits. First I met Helen and Rakesh Shukla of The Writers Block, a technical communication training and consulting company with offices in the neighborhood of Bengalooru called Domlur. We had a very pleasant and informative visit at their place of business and I was able to meet two of their technical writing instructors and several students as well.

Then I went over to Oracle in Lexington Towers, in Koramangala, another part of Bengalooru, for a larger meeting. We were 30 minutes late arriving. The driver of the car I had hired for the afternoon had for the second time overestimated his knowledge of the streets of Bengalooru. The building was one of those big new glass and marble towers that we have come to expect in IT land. It is one of three Oracle facilities in town. It had the typical security with ID cards and cube-land working atmosphere inside.

I first met with Gururaj, B.S., an experienced technical writer who manages a team of four at Oracle. In addition, he maintains TWIN, the premier India list for technical writers. We visited for about 15 minutes until I needed to prepare for my presentation.

In a comfortable meeting room I spoke to a group of 20 technical writers, about half of whom work at Oracle and the others came in from companies like Intel and FaceTime. The meeting was largely organized through STC; Susan Alexander, one of the STC members, was kind enough to present me with a certificate of appreciation.

The audience had numerous questions, many having to do with the details of Minnesota State's online offerings in technical communication. I also got several more questions about pedagogy, as it turns out that several of the audience not only are practitioners, but also instructors of technical writing. The system in India really is quite different from ours. Here practitioners are instructors and practitioners learn in private institutes like TWB or on the job training.

I would like to thank Kumar Dhanagopal, a principal technical writer at Oracle, for arranging my visit on such short notice.

more on autos and incomes in Bengalooru

2009-01-27T07:07:00.000-08:00

I have heard autos referred to as rickshaws also. I associate rickshaws with British colonial times. My memory tells me that they were pedaled rather than motorized. According to my friend Abdul Shakour who took me to Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens today, there are about 1 million of these fellows driving around the city looking for a fare.

He says that he makes about 600-700 Ns. daily (13.33 USD to 15.55 USD) and spends about 200 (4.44 USD) of that on LP gas to power his rig. He says that they have 200 cc motors. He says that he gets a three-year license (I have forgotten the amount, but he told me.) He said he had been a car taxi driver prior to being an auto driver and interestingly, he told me that driving a car taxi is less profitable due to the higher overhead.

These autos have meters. Some drivers say right away, "on the meter" when I ask how much the fare will be. Others want to negotiate right away. That is when my 9 years of negotiating skill, gained living in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, kicks in. Additional sources of income for the auto drivers are advertising placed on the autos and, as I discovered, agreements between drivers and souvenir shops to deliver foreign tourists to have a look at the goods in the shop (all done with a smile).

These vehicles are highly maneuverable and it seems from what I have seen at night, tail lights are optional. They carry goods and people both, sometimes at the same time. They compete for space on the streets with motorcycles, motor scooters, and motor bikes. There are a few buses and cars around too.

A little about tech writing in Bengalooru

2009-01-27T02:03:00.001-08:00

Rajdeep Gupta, a successful tech writer here in town and assistant organizer of the Bangalore TechWriters Meetup, was nice enough to spend his lunch hour with me and answer some of my questions about the state of the profession here in Bengalooru.

We discussed the training that tech writers go through here, the types of jobs that are available, and the effect of the world-wide recession on the profession here. Rajdeep was curious about the attitude of westerners toward tech writers and their work that is outsourced from the U.S. to India.

Rajdeep said several interesting things during our discussion:

Thirty percent (30%) of technical writers working in Bengalooru, in his opinion, are software programmers who have gone over to writing more than programming. These writers are paid more money that the other 70% who have a language background rather than a programming background.
Private institutes that offer training for technical writers tend to run 2 or 3 month training sessions. These institutes tend to be "tool heavy." In the parlance this means that they emphasize training on software that writers use such as Adobe Robohelp for creating online help systems or Arbortext for XML editing more than writing training.

I am curious about the accreditation of educational institutions here in India. The following article on page 5 of the Times of India caught my eye today.

Since I do not understand the educational system in India, however, it is difficult for me to draw any conclusions about the way this finding revealed in the article might reflect on the technical writing institutes here in Bengalooru.

Note: Perhaps one of the folks more knowledgeable than I who is following this blog could help us out here in the comments.

...and then off to Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens

2009-01-27T00:58:00.000-08:00

I had agreed to meet Abdul Shakour at 10 a.m. but hadn't decided on a destination. We left at 10:30 and headed for Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens. I didn't know what to expect, but it was worth the trip. The flower exhibition had just finished up yesterday, but there were a lot of flowers still available for viewing. I enjoyed the "Have Peace, No War" flower-covered globe.

To the right, is a view from the top of the gniess rock outcropping at the entrance to Lal Bagh Botanical Garden. The city of Bengalooru can be seen in the background. A very cute young couple agreed to take my photograph. The young man was kind indeed to take time away from his very pretty fiance to wield my camera.

We found numerous elementary school groups on outings to the botanical garden. On the way back we stopped at two stores that sell nicely made Indian crafts and souvenir items. I did well to resist buying much (well, I did get one small piece.)

Cubbon Park visited

2009-01-26T19:59:00.000-08:00

I got to Cubbon Park by auto (rickshaw) this morning and enjoyed 45 minutes of walking there. The auto driver delivered me to the entrance at Gopalagowda Circle. MG Road is at the other end of the park, so I was able to walk right through about 2 kms. and find myself on the way back to the hotel.

A theme in this posting is signage since I was able to get some photos of signage that is unusual in the eyes of someone from the midwestern U.S. The Gopalagowda Circle sign, for example, is much more ornate and colorful than we expect traffic signs to be.

Second, the sign in Cubbon Park that explains activities that are verboten is also interesting.

Note: If you double-click the sign you can enlarge it and read the sign clearly.

Do you understand what is meant by "Playing" is forbidden? It seems to refer to loud music. As for "Hawkers", that means no selling stuff in the park. "Hawkers" is a British English term, but we understand it in the U.S. No "Feeding the Dogs" is obvious and I will say that there were numerous dogs in the park hanging out in packs or individually. They all seem to be of the same mongrel breed. And finally, I guess that "Illegal Activities" means whatever you want it to mean. The sign is bilingual, of course, since English is the one language that all Indians have given the large number of indigenous languages spoken here.

Finally, I bring you a third type of signage showing six of the species of birds found in Cubbon Park. The beautiful hand-painted illustrations give a very clear way to identify those birds. I found several of these signs in the park. This sign uses repetition (both illustration and written information)--together, the visual and the textual help us to achieve the purpose of the sign.

Bougainvillea is gorgeous so I had to photograph some along the way. I found it just outside the park along MG Road.

to Cubbon Park

2009-01-26T08:38:00.000-08:00

I hope to visit Cubbon Park tomorrow. By all that I have heard and been able to learn online, it will be a good place to run and enjoy the greenery. It looks like I can go out to MG Road (Mahatma Gandhi Road) and take it all the way to the park.

Transportation in Bengalooru is interesting. There seem to be many more motor bikes, motorcycles, and "autos" than automobiles. The three-wheeled covered motorbikes, or rickshaws, have a seat in back for passengers and are LP-gas powered. The ones I have ridden in are 4-speed, 2-cycle, and I would guess have motors of about 400 cc. They are rear-wheel drive.

Republic Day in Bengalooru

2009-01-25T22:07:00.000-08:00

I just got back from the Field Marshal Manekshaw Parade Ground in Bengalooru. It is located about a mile down MG Road. The security guys wouldn't let me take my camera in, so I don't have any of my own photos, but the guy sitting next to me took some photos with his phone, so I may get one of those from him.

Republic Day celebrates the day in 1950 when the country finalized its own constitution. Independence Day is August 15.

About 9 a.m. a helicopter dropped red confetti on the parade ground and the assembled marchers made up of various military and police units. That was followed by the speech of the governor of Karnataka, the state where Bengalooru is located. His speech, in English, lasted about 30 minutes.

Following the speech, the marchers paraded around the parade ground in front of the thousands of citizens watching from the stands. (Watch a short video from the parade ground on YouTube. It appears to have been filmed this morning.) The final group of marchers was a military band. All in all, it was a very colorful event and I got to visit with the two young men sitting on either side of me. One is an electrician and the other a programmer. Pradeep, the programmer, has a 3 year degree and a letter of employment from Wipro, a local IT ompany. Because of the recession, he has not actually started work yet. His salary, he said, should be about 22000 Ns. monthly, or about 488.00 USD.

Below is the Republic Day greeting in today's Times of India. The headline reads "Sovereignty, Peace and prosperity-the spirit of the Republic of India. The photograph on the right-hand side is of B.S. Yeddyurappa, the Chief Minister. He sends his "Hearty Republic Day greetings to the people of Karnataka", the state in which Bengalooru is located.

Bengalooru here we are...

2009-01-25T03:30:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Bengalooru (Bangalore, Bangaluru) early morning on a flight from London.

"The name Bangalore is an anglicised version of the city's name in the Kannada language, Bengalūru. The earliest reference to the name "Bengaluru" was found in a ninth century Western Ganga Dynasty stone inscription on a "vīra gallu" (ವೀರ ಗಲ್ಲು) (literally, "hero stone", a rock edict extolling the virtues of a warrior). In this inscription found in Begur, "Bengaluru" is referred to as a place in which a battle was fought in 890. It states that the place was part of the Ganga kingdom until 1004 and was known as "Bengaval-uru", the "City of Guards" in Halegannada (Old Kannada."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore

I have continued to read Friedman's The World is Flat. We'll see how his thesis holds up as I meet technical writers and IT people here. Friedman did a lot of his interviews here in 2004 and 2005. He is clearly a cheerleader for the efficiencies that the IT industry has found in moving jobs to the locations in the world where the work can be done most cheaply.

My initial reaction to the sights, sounds, and smells of this place is that it bears some resemblance to Africa's largest city, Cairo, where I lived for some time.

Tomorrow is Republic Day in India. I hope to watch a parade here in the city. From TAJOnline: "26th January 1950 is one of the most important days in Indian history as it was on this day the constitution of India came into force and India became a truly sovereign state. In this day India became a totally republican unit. The country finally realized the dream of Mahatma Gandhi and the numerous freedom fighters who, fought for and sacrificed their lives for the Independence of their country. So, the 26th of January was decreed a national holiday and has been recognized and celebrated as the Republic Day of India, ever since. "

I just went for a walk on MG road. A young man asked me the location of a certain disco. I told him that I was a visitor and had no idea and wished him and his friends good luck with meeting some girls tonight.

HSK in pictures

2009-01-25T02:13:00.000-08:00

In between the raindrops on January 23, I took a few photos around the HSK campus in Karlsruhe. Interesting to note for those of us from MSU, Mankato, is that the campus is park-like, but located in an urban environment. Students ride bikes, take the strassenbahn (street car), and walk. They don't have the bitter winter weather to content with like we do. When I ran in the morning there I noticed the ground was frosted, but just barely. That was coldest I found in Karlsruhe.

Note: You should be able to enlarge the photos by double clicking them.

The technische redaktion (tech comm) department is located in Gebaude F (see photo above).

The front entrance to the university is on the main street (see right).

Below, the park-like campus.

Vereinbarung zwischen unseren Universitäten

2009-01-23T01:50:00.000-08:00

On January 22, yesterday, I walked with my colleague Juergen Muthig to the Rektorat(administration building) at Hochschule Karlsruhe to visit the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Dieter Hoepfel, and Dr. Joachim Lembach, the director of the international office at the university. We signed an agreement between our technische redaktion (technical communication) programs to the effect that we agree to develop our virtual collaboration and look at the possibility of developing further joint programs like internships for technical communication students, double degrees for our students, and student exchanges.

The internship idea was particularly intriguing to me because, as I learned during my time here speaking to industry representatives, there are internship positions available for speakers of English who know only English. I had not thought of that possibility. Such firms as Siemens, Porsche, Haefele, Comet Communication, and SAP would welcome interns who can write in English. I am told that there is a raft of small high-tech companies in Karlsruhe, some of which would be willing to do the same thing. As for online collaborations between our students, Herr Muthig and I hope to continue that work in the fall semester 2009. I believe that we will continue our conversations about working together, and will certainly, at Mankato, work with Tom Gjersvig and Caryn Lindsay at the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) to facilitate our planning.

From 8:45 to 1 p.m. I observed 3rd semester (Gruppe B) students present their final team projects (Praesentationstermine). The computer lab is located on the 3rd floor of the building (Gebaude F). Their presentations included detailed information about their team time management and decision making. Again, my German gets me some purchase and the context does as well, but I still miss some meaning because of my lack of vocabulary. Lunch was at our favorite sushi bar (second time already) and then off to to meet the administrators (see above).

I set up a Connect virtual meeting for 5 p.m. Karlsruhe time on January 23 during which we hope to learn how well we can use this tool to bring Karlsruhe and Mankato faculty and students together virtually.

This morning I returned to my favorite Karlsruhe running route in Gunter Klotz Anlage for my 4.8km run.

Hochschule Karlsruhe and TEKOM

2009-01-20T15:42:00.000-08:00

January 20, 2009

Today I started off in the cool morning with a 4.9 km run in the Gunther Klotz Anlage in Karlsruhe city. I started out down the dark streets and tried to follow the path that my host and his sons had taken me on yesterday. I was close enough that I did not get lost, but I am sure that I did not take the exact same path. My Garmin GPS unit found the required satellites quickly this morning so that I was able to accurately measure my distance.

From 8:30 am to 1 pm I attended the final presentations of the third semester students at the Hochschule Karlsruhe (University of Applied Science) where my host is on the faculty. This week is their final week of the semester. The student teams (which varied in number from two to five students) reported on their documentation projects for the semester. The subjects of their documentation ranged from technology that adds functionality to credit cards allowing the user to use the card as a security device to writing the documentation for a device that measures stress and the documentation for a small pedal-powered vehicle that runs on rails. The teams were comprehensive in their reports and seemed to have completed their work accurately. My German language comprehension was severely tested, but given the familiar context (technical communication themes) I was able to understand much of the reports. I tried to ask questions in English in the Q&A periods following the team presentations and discovered that the students’ English language skills are quite good.

One very pleasant surprise was to meet some of the students who had been partners of my students in Minnesota last year in a small collaborative project carried out online. I thanked the Karlsruhe students for their willingness to participate in that pilot.

In the afternoon we traveled by DB (Deutsche Bahn) to Stuttgart to meet with Dr. Michael Fritz, executive director of Tekom, the main professional organization for technical communicators in Europe. Tekom has 6500 members in Germany alone. Professor Jurgen Muthig, my colleague at Hochschule Karlsruhe, is currently serving a three-year term as president.
Dr. Fritz gave us an overview of Tekom’s activities, we met some of the Tekom employees, and the we continued our discussion over dinner in Stuttgart. We took time before dinner to watch Barack Obama’s inauguration live from Washington, D.C.

To the left, Dr. Michael Fritz, executive director of TEKOM, in his Stuttgart office, with me and Professor Jurgen Muthig.

Weather and visual displays of technical information

2009-01-16T06:37:00.000-08:00

One of the objectives of our courses in technical communication is to get our students to think about the effective and appropriate visual displays of information. The purpose of the following four weather sites is to give the viewer a snapshot of important weather information. They use visual language (color, images, textual design) as well as textual language to deliver the message to the viewer of the site. Some of the displays use redundancy (they offer the information in both visual and textual form). How effective are these four contrasting displays of weather information for you?

If you need to convert between Celsius and Fahrenheit: http://www.calculateme.com/cTemperature/CelsiusToFahrenheit.htm

Yesterday as I drove to my university office in Mankato, the thermometer in my car read -22 Fahrenheit the entire way. Mankato is located 200 miles north of my home. Today when I awoke at home, the Accuweather (www.accuweather.com) site indicated the following:

By contrast, my next destination, Karlsruhe, Germany, has the following current weather conditions (www.wetter.de):

After that I go to Bengalooru (Bangalore), India where today's weather (www.wunderground.com) is the following:

And finally, on to Jerusalem, where the weather (www.bbc.co.uk/weather) looks like this:

On the road again...

2009-01-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

On my way to Jerusalem (al-Quds in Arabic and Yerushalayim in Hebrew) I plan to make two stops. First, I will visit the technical communication program at Hochschule Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany. At the University of Applied Sciences, Karlsruhe, I will be particularly interested to find out how our universities' curricula compare, what sorts of jobs their graduates find after graduation, and the relationships they have built with industry. I hope to further an already strong relationship with their program so that our students can continue to collaborate on assignments online and perhaps enter into exchanges in the future.

Second, I will fly on to Bengalooru (Bangalore), India, where I want to visit with technical communication professionals and students and learn about the IT industry there. Some of the jobs that get "out sourced" from the United States end up in Bengalooru. There is a robust domestic software industry there as well. I have bought a copy of Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat whose thesis I intend to investigate while in India. He discusses his trips to Bengalooru in the New York Times: read It's a Flat World, After All (April 3, 2005) and read as well Bangalore: Hot and Hotter (June 8, 2005) for his observations on Bengalooru and its role in the world IT economy.

Topics I'd like to explore on my sabbatical

2009-01-11T13:45:00.000-08:00

I plan to connect my Fulbright work with technical communication, of course, since that is my field; my Fulbright research award is specifically for the purpose of researching online teaching and learning. Curriculum design, exploiting technology for use in online learning, designing short courses on specific technical communication subjects, and writing the materials for a course in proposal writing, are some of the projects that I may be working on. I also hope to incubate ideas on this blog for further academic writing, research, and teaching. These ideas may start from daily observations at work, walking around Jerusalem, working with my colleagues at Birzeit University, or from other experiences.

Getting ready to go

2009-01-09T18:52:00.000-08:00

I am a faculty member at Minnesota State University, Mankato on sabbatical for spring semester 2009. Here you can see what I do at work.

Fulbright has generously agreed to award me a research scholarship to work at my host university of Birzeit, in Birzeit, Palestine. The university is located in a town by the same name just northwest of Jerusalem. My award allows me to work with the Center for Continuing Education there on the topic of online learning (also known as distance learning or e-learning). I plan to arrive in Jerusalem at the end of January and work until the end of May. I am looking forward to my sabbatical adventure.