Defending a masters thesis at ESI

Today I was the fourth member of a committee for a student masters thesis defense. It was probably the best day I've had at ESI so far.

The student was brilliant, the thesis was very well written, no one had any major complaints, and the whole thing went off beautifully.

The defense had the following structure:

The members of the committee met briefly to discuss overall impressions. We entered the auditorium together, and the President of the committee (Mouna Benslimane) welcomed us all, and actually, she also went out of her way to welcome me in particular (very nice).

The student presented her work using a PowerPoint.

Then I, as the guest committee member, got to point out all of the things I ddin't like about the paper. It's not easy to go first when you've never seen this kind of thing before. The student had done so well and I had such a poor idea of what was expected of students at this level in Morocco that I only really mentioned cosmetic things about the paper itself. It did take me about 15 minutes, though, to go through all of the problems with the bibliography; those, of course, I do not consider cosmetic.

Then the other three members of the committee or "jury" spoke in turn. It was all very formal and very "thank you Mme the Président of the committee" which is kind of fun. I never tire of pomp and circumstance.

There were probably 40 people in attendance, and after the deliberation and the announcement of the decision ("tres bien" for both the presentation and the thesis itself), we all went and had cookies and coffee and mint tea at a lovely reception in the lobby of the school. We'd started at 2:30 and we finished around 5:00.

A fine afternoon and an enjoyable way to begin my last two weeks in Morocco. Thank you all for such a memorable experience. And of course, congratulations Fatima on a job well done!

Final exams and proctoring

ESI has just started the two-week exam period. Like French schools and universities, they have a very intensive exam period at the middle point in the academic year, and they have an even more demanding schedule at the end of the year. Students have one exam per day for most of the allotted two weeks.

I proctored my first exam yesterday (94 students in the first year), and noticed several differences between what I saw at ESI and what I'd seen in France.

First, students were allowed to have cell phones on their tables during the exams. They were also allowed to share materials (pens, white-out, rulers, etc.). There was a lot of movement during the exam, especially in the back half of the lecture hall.

Things that did NOT happen that I recall from proctoring French exams were the following: proctors didn't seem to move around the room and hover (other than me) -- proctors stayed in the front of the room. None of the students asked to use the rest room (whereas in France, we had a line going).

Lastly, unlike the French university classes in languages and literature that I experienced (both as a student and as a proctor/teaching assistant), there were no oral exams to balance out the writtens.

From my outsider's perspective, the exam structure and application is another case of borrowing from one or two systems, and making the end-product uniquely Moroccan.

In French it's bad luck to wish someone "good luck" -- so I'm wishing all of the ESI students "bon courage" and "bonne continuation" as they prepare for and take this round of exams.

LG X110 Netbook, laptops, and ESI

Before I left for Morocco, I looked into getting a netbook. The small screens were a little off-putting, but what really killed the deal was the small keyboards that I kept seeing. I got a Sony Viao laptop on sale instead.

While in France over spring break this year, I bought a little LG netbook. I don't exactly think of computers when I think of LG, but I took the plunge mostly because I needed something practical. The price was right ($400) and the size/weight of it is unbeatable. It fits in my purse, but it has a full sized keyboard and a 10 inch screen. I'm blogging on it now from a hotel room in Casablanca, connected to the Internet via my LG modem.

Netbooks are showing up all over the place in Morocco now -- as are pay-as-you-go modems that connect to cell towers. I only noticed the netbooks when I returned in April, and the modems have onlyn been competitively priced since the beginning of 2009. Change is afoot.

My students don't seem to have a set-up like mine quite yet... In fact, ESI students rarely brought laptops to school, hardly ever took notes on them in class if they did have them, and didn't seem to be addicted like American students are.

However, there were definitely lots of students with laptops in the common areas of ESI between classes and during lunch. Perhaps the wifi near the library is a kind of siren song? Maybe by next year it will be accepted for students to start bringing them to class. The whole environment reminds me of classes in the United States about 10 years ago. It just wasn't cool to lug around a laptop (besides, what if it broke?) but today, it's impossible to be in a classroom setting without one.

Maybe netbooks/modems like mine will make it easier for ESI student to take the plunge and have unlimited Internet access at school. I've offered to leave my wireless router with the tech guys so that they can have a stronger wifi signal for next year -- it's the same as the router they've already got installed. For the students' sake, I hope they take me up on it.

Guest speakers

Throughout the school year, I've tried my best to show the group of third year students that there is a world of libraries outside of Morocco, that this world is not only accessible to them, but that it is interested in them and that it will embrace them.

I'm pleased that almost everyone I approached to present to my students was more than happy to do so, many presenters going to great lengths to perfect their "library French" or to come up with a Morocco-friendly approach to a topic, or both.

Yesterday was the last regular class period, and we had one final guest lecturer -- a former Fulbrighter who had worked at the university library in Ifrane. Diane d'Almeida of Boston University Library spoke eloquently about that experience, spoke about her more recent Fulbright in Jordan, and gave some wonderful professional advice to the students. In no uncertain terms, Diane was an absolute delight. It was obvious that the students were taken with her; the fact that they could see her (and that she could see them) I think was particularly beneficial for all.

The fluid concept of time

Dave Barry is married to a Spanish-speaking woman -- if I remember correctly, she's Cuban-American. She has a concept of time that differs from his according to a very funny and memorable book of his I read years ago. I wish I could remember the title of it.

Although I first learned in France that time moves differently for different peoples (and for different cultures), I'm discovering that Moroccan time can also move at its own pace.

American colleague Ray Schwartz spoke to ESI students last Monday about his ongoing project of library evaluation through data mining. Class was designated to start at 4:00, and we wanted to set up beforehand. The technican couldn't understand why we'd do such a thing since the students wouldn't be there at 4:00 anyway.

And they weren't.

Nadia arrives at 9:45 on Sunday morning instead of 9:00 (but this is her *day off* so I understand completely!) The symposium dinner started last night at 8:45 pm but was listed as beginning at 8:00 in the invitation. And, well, the panels and speakers at the three-day long symposium mostly started a half hour to an hour later than scheduled.

None of this is to suggest that things run on schedule in the United States or that France and Morocco are the ONLY places in the world where time is more fluid than rigid. However, it's something to keep in mind when scheduling Web talks for class with folks in the United States. Not only do I have to calculate the time difference for next week's talks (by Larry Olszewski of OCLC's Library and Caroline Szylowicz of UIUC's Proust Archive), but I have to figure in the Moroccoan time as well. Let's hope I've calculated correctly.

Through the grapevine

ESI students are great. On Tuesday, several indicated in their FaceBook status that they were pleased with the choice of new director for the school.

It's official: Mr Lemallem will be the new director. The announcement came the day of the week when I'm not on campus, so I'm pleased that the students were so actively mentioning it in the social sphere. It's still difficult for me to understand when news breaks at the school -- my Derija isn't exactly improving and folks here are so bi- and tri-lingual that they forget that not all can understand.

Unlike American university searches for Presidents and Heads, nothing about this process was transparent for me, as a teacher from the outside. Suffice it to say, I'm very much hoping to meet the new director at some point before the end of the year. I tend not to be notified about faculty meetings, so this might be more difficult than it would seem.

On a related front, we'll be receiving two days of vacation for the Prophet's birthday next week. Other Muslim countries will celebrate on Monday and Tuesday, but Morocco started the month a day later, and will have the holiday on Tuesday (with our second day off on Wednesday). Students want to make a long weekend of it and not come in on Monday, and no one can really blame them. Instructors are in a very undesirable position, though, of trying to guess whether it's worth having class, or better to reschedule ahead of time. In one of my Monday classes, my students and I opted to reschedule. In the other class, it's still unclear whether we'll have class on Monday, five days from now.

I must say that one of the draws of coming to Morocco was the knowledge that I would be forced to (re-)learn to "go with the flow". It's just not worth developing high blood pressure over what are, to me, last-minute changes, and ones that are not communicated to the instrutors. Returning to the North American way of things, in a few months, is going to require a good deal of reverse culture-shock training, I think. As of right now, though, I'm trying desperately to hang in there and take Moroccan life as it comes. New director, unplanned days off, and all.

Email at ESI

As the second week "off" comes to a close, it occurs to me that I'd really like to send my 16 3rd year students an email about the presentations they'll do the week that classes resume. Unfortunately, I can't. Students don't have email accounts at ESI, making mass communication more than a little difficult.

The last week of January was our winter vacation and we did not meet for classes. The first week of February was our exam prep period; also, no classes. Exams begin next week (on Feb. 9) but I was convinced not to give either of the exams to the classes that I teach alone. Therefore, I am off next week, too. As such, my 3rd years will present their wikis the week of the 16th (although the day that class meets is still unsure), and the masters students will meet with me one last time in February, and then sit their exam toward the end of the month.

With the masters students, there are only 4 in the cohort. They took the initaiative to create an email account to which they all have the password. I can send them information (and ppt slides from class) very easily. But communication with the 3rd years isn't as easy. As a student, I had an email account issued to me when I began UMKC in 1991 (I was an honors student and I had to go though some hoops to request it based on my honors status). That makes ESI about 20 years behind in terms of email communication. Luckily the students are clever enough to open their own accounts and to devise short-term solutions.

Visiting the BNRM in Rabat

ESI third year students who specialize in « libraries » were treated to a visit at the Bibliotheque Nationale du Royaume du Maroc on Friday of the week. The beautiful new building was inaugrated in October, 2008 and hosted an international conference in November of the year.




Students toured the rest of the facilities, and enjoyed seeing the periodical room (pictured here) and the audio-visual room. Funding for the library building came from donors the world over, and sound equipment in the ampitheater and the AV room came from Japan. France and Germany also were generous donors.

Tours of the AV room were given by a former ESI student, helping students see real-world applications for the studies they were currently doing.

Humidity in Morocco

The French have a trick to keep their baguettes from going stale overnight -- they wrap them in a dishcloth and leave them on the counter. If left out unwrapped bread goes hard; if kept in a plastic bag or in the fridge it goes chewy. The bread-keeps in some American kitchens serve a similar function.

Last night was a cold and rainy night. I wrapped my baguette after dinner, and left it in a bag so that the non-paying (read: crawling) residents, whom I have not seen in weeks, aren't tempted to come back for a late night snack. I hung the bag on a doorknob so that it was open, allowing air to circulate to keep the bread fresh.

This morning, I got the baguette out for breakfast. First of all, the towel was damp, as if it had just come out of the spin cycle of the washing machine. The bread had acted as a giant sponge, soaking in the humidity of the air, and was completely soggy -- as if it had been in standing water. I guess it just doesn't get humid like this in France, where the technique was invented.

On Saturday morning, in the cold of the gym, I noticed that I was steaming during my workout. It felt like being in a cave on a summer hiking trip. While making soup later on, I could see my breath in my kitchen.

And although it's not related to the humidity per se, I've noticed that my students don't take off their coats in class. I'm the only one NOT wearing a coat. As a child, I wasn't allowed to wear one indoors. Time to remember that I'm not in France or in the United States. Next step: figure out how the Moroccans keep their bread from going bad overnight when it rains.

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!