Fulbright pre-departure orientation 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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...

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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.