After hours « ateliers » for ESI students

On Wednesday of this past week, the folks at the University of Michigan's School of Information hosted the John Seely Brown Symposium. Brewster Kahle was the keynote speaker, and his presentation along with the panel presentation that followed were made available on the web via simultaneous webcast. This open approach to diffusing knowledge seemed on par with a lot of the philosophies represented in the symposium.

Since the topics were very close to ones that we were covering in Technologies de l'Information, I suggested to students that we get a room and watch together. Especially since the presentations were in English.

There was some trouble initially negotiating a room, but the students approached the administration at the 11th hour, and Mme Zhiri kindly found a room with an internet connection for us to use from 18:30 to 21:30 (GMT-Casablanca). I brought my laptop, and once we got speakers, everything worked like a dream.

What I really couldn't believe was that roughly 30 students came -- a full third of the class of second years, along with at least one from the third year who'd seen my message on Facebook. These are folks who spend roughly 8 hours per day all week in lectures, and they showed up in the middle of their evening for more, for no credit, and IN ENGLISH.

I continue to be blown away by the students here. Truly. The presentation was great; I don't know how much they understood, but I think it was a good experience overall for all involved. Thanks again to the folks at Michigan for giving us permission to watch and follow along from Africa!