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.

Khair min Allah v.2

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!)

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.