State Fair! The Windhoek Show

Word spread rapidly the week that the Windhoek Show was starting this weekend. We weren't exactly sure what a "Show" was. It turned out to be the Namibian version of the Iowa State Fair. Maybe actually a bit more towards the Nebraska State Fair end of the spectrum (sorry Nebraska...).

The Windhoek Show was a mix of livestock shows/exhibits, farm machinery, and displays by local businesses--everything from t-shirt salesmen to the kitchen appliance folks selling knives and apple corers.

We spent about 5 hours walking around the fair and saw the whole thing. It was a great day. We can report that "food on a stick" has not reached Namibia, unless you count shish-kabobs. No deep fried, chocolate covered Twinkies-on-a-stick, though.

It was fun to run into several people that we knew. Small country, and the country was having fun at the show. More photos on our Picasa photo site--lots of interesting exhibits and a fun midway ride that Tristan convinced me to go on!

Just inside the entry gate. It cost about US$10 for our family to enter.

Had to put this photo is for all of our "GREEN" friends back in the Midwest! Nothing runs like a Deere, even in Namibia. See the Picasa site for some other brands, though.

The livestock barns were fun to explore. This breed of goats (which we never actually got a name for) has to be one of the oddest animals we'd seen. Look at the tail. It looks like a dog tail.

Meeting under a tree

During the week at CCF (see previous post), Polytechnic students in Nature Conservation were engaged in a conflict resolution exercise--based on a real-world human/wildlife conflict. Namibia is full of such conflicts...elephants killing people, elephants destroying crops, predators killing livestock, etc.

When asked about how to solve a problem presented to students--in which two people were engaged in an argument relating to the conflict--one of the students, Atti, replied: "The two people should just meet under a tree. That is how we solve our problems here."

Sounds good to me. Perfectly good use of a shade tree.

The range pole comes to Namibia

I spent the last week with 2 fellow lecturers from Polytechnic and several students in the 4th-year Bachelors of Technology program in Nature Conservation. The students gathered from across Namibia to spend the week at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), near Otjiwarongo (3 hours north of Windhoek). 4th-year students take their program via distance, and this is the time to get together for practical, field experiences.

There are photos on our Picasa site that detail the week. We did several types of surveys, learned from professionals at the CCF, and did hands-on analysis of data collected in the field. It was a great learning experience.

One of my contributions to the week was to introduce a method of measuring 'standing stock' or biomass of grassland habitats. For almost 40 years, range and wildlife ecologists in the Great Plains have used a range pole, or visual obstruction pole, or Robel pole (named after one of the first people to publish a paper using the method). The general idea is to see how much of the pole cannot be seen at the bottom. The more that is obstructed from view, the more grass there is. With proper calibrating, a person can estimate biomass from quick measurements with the pole.

Namibian range ecologists usually calculate biomass by physically clipping 10's or 100's of little plots and finding the dry weight. It is very precise, but takes a long time to do all the clipping! A quick internet search by yours truly found no use of the range pole in Africa. So, the Polytechnic students may have been the first people in Africa to use the range pole. After all the things I've learned from my colleagues and students, it was nice to show them something new.

Teaching in Namibia: the other list

You are rewarding a teacher poorly if you remain always a pupil.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

I think if you talk to any teacher, they will tell you about a teacher or teachers who inspired them to enter the academic profession. And, by the time you go from kindergarten to a graduate degree, you have a lot of examples to learn from. It has been a most rewarding experience to interact with my colleagues at Polytechnic this year. Just more people to watch and learn from.

My teaching colleagues in Namibia do an excellent job and they work very hard. My previous post shares some things that have enhanced my understanding of education. This post is harder to write...as it is about the things that I will be satisfied to leave behind. Perhaps I shall put a positive spin on the list--these are things that I have learned to appreciate about teaching in the US. The list reinforces my appreciation for my Namibian colleagues, as they are working in a system that is not always built to enhance their efforts.

Flexibility of course schedule:
My courses in the US are designed around units that provide material to meet course objectives. Each unit ends with a test or group project assignment. The dates for the tests and projects are up to me as I design the course. At Polytechnic, as in most of southern Africa, test dates are prescribed before the semester starts and you must fit your teaching around the dates given to you.

Autonomy of faculty:
In Nebraska, my course is designed to fit into a curriculum. But, when the course is taught, I design the course, I teach the course, and I assess the students. In southern Africa, there is a history of corruption in the educational system--so, the method that has been developed to address corruption is the Moderator System. Each course has a lecturer who teaches the course, and there is also an outside Moderator assigned to the course. At Polytechnic, these are often professors from South Africa or professionals with expertise who live in Windhoek and work for the Ministries or other businesses. The final exam has to be written one month before the end of the course, and the exam is submitted, with the Memo (the list of acceptable answers to the questions), to the Moderator. Now, the moderator has never set foot in the classroom, and often is unaware of any goals of the course or the curriculum. But, they must approve the final exam. When the exams are marked, they are also sent to the moderator, who may disagree with the number of marks given to a student for a particular answer. This, of course, would make most of my colleagues in Nebraska resign in protest. But, it is an interesting lesson about the effects of culture and politics on education. It is all designed to combat corruption.

Advanced planning:
I received my teaching assignments at Polytechnic about 1-2 weeks before the semester started. It happens that way for every lecturer every year. Most people have a good idea what they will be teaching, but there are surprises. It makes for grumpy people and prevents any kind of advanced preparation for the course. In contrast, my department at University of Nebraska just sent out the first draft of the teaching schedule for Summer session 2010 (about 8-9 months in advance). Sometimes we groan about the advanced planning, but I can attest that the opposite system should not be desired!

Choosing the ink of my choice:
A colleague at University of Dubuque once told me that red ink has a harsh effect on students, and they will not learn as well from their mistakes as they would if you use green ink. Although my colleagues at Polytechnic think that shows how we pamper students in the States, I like the option to use whatever color of ink I want to mark/grade papers/exams. Polytechic's rules are: red is for the lecturer to mark (and only red), green is for the moderator to make their marks and comments. You never use blue or black ink to mark papers (it kind of makes sense because students write in those colors). But, it is outlawed. Polytechnic also has a rule about signing contracts in black ink. I signed a little contract for my distance course using blue ink, and it was sent back to me.

Flexibility of assessment methods:
The rigor that I reported about in my last post has one drawback. Lecturers love to give tests that assess individuals. Some are interested in other methods of assessment, and I've worked with some to develop problem-based cases in their courses. My courses in Nebraska often include one or two group projects that are graded. Group work is discouraged here, because "it's hard to know who did the work". It is true that the bane of group work for a teacher is that it is hard to do individual assessment. But, to teach problem solving and critical thinking, and to prepare students for the real work (where they will work in groups and the boss doesn't care who did the work--just that it got done), group work seems to be important--in my book, at least. Every course at Polytechnic (and U. Namibia) is required to have a final exam, where students sit for 3 hours and write the exam 'paper'. There is no option to use a term paper, a group project, or other means of assessment. I think this will change in the future, as there are glimmers of hope among lecturers who want more flexibility. But, the exam/test system is really ingrained in the culture here.

Students who have textbooks and other resources:
The biggest problem with teaching in southern Africa is that many students can't afford to purchase the prescribed text. Each course has one, but no one really expects the students to purchase the text. Instead, lecturers often prepare a study guide that condense the textbook (or in some cases actually contains copied pages from the textbook...), and the study guide is sold to the students. Some can't even afford that. So, a lecturer always has to remember that the students really haven't read the chapter before coming to class...and never will. It really makes the quality of the lecturer critically important, doesn't it? They are the only resource for many of the students.

Virus free computers:
I had no idea how good the virus protection systems in the US were, until my first week teaching at Polytechnic. I took a powerpoint presentation to the computer in the classroom, and loaded it for a lecture. Students asked after the lecture if they could copy it, which is a common way to share the information (remember, no text books). Well, because that process had happened before, when I took my memory stick back to my UNL laptop, alarm bells went ringing....I had about 8 viruses just from that one incident. I had a student come by my office this week, and she wanted to print out her assignment for another course--she couldn't afford the printing fees to print it elsewhere. So, I took her memory stick and stuck in in my computer. Ding, ding, ding. At least 25 viruses were detected. Students who have access to computers at home do not have additional money to purchase Norton Protection! Polytechnic faculty often have their computers crash because of viruses, and there is an office on campus where students can stop to 'clean' their memory sticks before bringing them to class or to a lecturer's office. When I arrived at Polytechnic, the school was using a free, share-ware virus protection system. They've since upgraded it. But, wow.

Finality of the semester's end:
This one may seem strange. But, the system in place throughout much of southern Africa allows a student to take a final exam 4 times. But, you can only take it once each semester. So, it is possible for a student to be re-taking a final exam two years after the course ended. It works like this...the final mark (percentage--no A's B's or C's here) is a combination of the semester marks and the final exam mark. But, you can't pass a course without passing the final exam. So much for our UNL students who flunk the final but still pass because they've done well during the semester. At Polytechnic, you would have failed the course. You come back for 'second chance' exam at the end of next semester. Now, this exam will be 'similar' to the first exam, because it was written by the same professor who taught your course and gave you the first exam. In fact, lecturers have to submit BOTH exams (the first and second-chance) at the same time to the moderator. But, the crazy thing is what happens after the second-chance exam. Let's say you flunk that one, too. Well, someone else may be teaching the course the next year, so that person will write your third- or fourth-chance exams. It is possible that the person will cover completely different material in the course! And, the student doesn't attend the course--they only show up for the final exam. Not only does this seem quite odd from an educational perspective, but it makes it very hard for the Registrar to record all these grades. It makes it hard to interpret an academic transcript. And, it makes it hard for lecturers who have to remember whether they have a student from a previous year coming to take the exam. The nice thing for the University is that students pay Exam Fees. So, by failing the students, the University can make more exam fees...

I hope these topics provide a glimpse into a different system of education. It's a system in transition from a system built to prevent corruption. And, it has its roots in an English system of examinations. My experiences at Polytechnic have been eye-opening in many ways, and I've learned a lot by participating in the department. I've learned that I had many assumptions about how education 'had to be'. Perhaps some of my methods have rubbed off on my colleagues and vice versa. It's the only way to move forward, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Teaching in Namibia: things I've enjoyed

My Fulbright fellowship is a lecture/research fellowship, which means I've been teaching just as much as I would have been back in Huskerland. It has been an interesting experience to say the least. While my Ecology II students were taking a test on Friday, I made a list of thing that I've enjoyed about teaching in Namibia---and a second list (coming soon) of things that I now appreciate about teaching in Nebraska.

So, things I've enjoyed in Namibia:

The Memo and Tutorial Letter:
When a lecturer gives a test in Namibia, there are two versions--the "test paper" that the students get and the "memo" that the teacher keeps. The "memo" contains the answers to the test, with explanations of how answers are derived. The memo is used to mark the test, and in the case of Final Exams, the memo has to be approved by an outside "moderator" (see my next post about the problems related to this). When the test (or even some large assignments) are given back to the students, they receive a "tutorial letter," which explains in detail the information on the "memo." The nice thing about the "tutorial letter" is that it provides a good opportunity for learning and feedback. Sometimes in Nebraska, I'm guilty of turning back an exam and then starting the next lecture without really talking much about the exam. At Polytechnic, it is common to take an entire hour to go through the test and discuss the tutorial letter--so students get the written and oral feedback on the test.

Rigor:
There is no grade inflation in Namibia. Students are happy to receive anything higher than a 50%, which is the "pass" level. This has taken me a long time to get used to. When I first arrived, I felt sorry for the students. But, there is something to be said for a bit more rigor than perhaps I instill back in Nebraska. Students should know that there are high expectations for receiving B's and A's. It will be interesting to see how I transition back to UNL; I'm guessing my classes will receive lower grades than they used to.

Powerpoint is Evil:
Most professors in the US have adapted to Bill Gates' marvelous invention: Powerpoint. Lectures are now glossy presentations, scripted lists, and contain a TON of content, because it is so easy to go quickly through it--no writing on the blackboard anymore. In Namibia, there are usually not powerpoint projectors to use, and if they do exist they are not reliable (in fact, even overhead projectors often not in working order). So, I've been doing a lot more blackboard work--like when I started teaching at Univ. of Dubuque. The bottomline: you concentrate on covering less material in more depth, you have more discussions with students, the lectures are more 'free form', and I have really enjoyed being in the classroom here. Powerpoint is evil, and has probably done more to ruin education in the US than anything I can think of. I will stop using it when I go home. Maybe.

Distance Learning Done Right:
Students in Nature Conservation at Polytechnic can graduate in three years with a National Diploma, after which most of them find jobs. To obtain a Bachelors degree, they have to take an additional year of courses...but because they are working around the country, the 4th Year is offered via distance. The format is great, and is a product of the lack of electronic mumbo-jumbo that we often try to use in the US to spice up distance courses. There are no video files to download; no one has an internet connection. There are no on-line chats between students; most students don't have a computer at home. The method used by Polytechnic is to bring all students together for a week at the beginning of the first semester--for lectures and introductions to the subjects by lecturers. Then, the students go away and rely on a textbook, study guide, and assignments. Usually there are 4 assignments, with one due every 2 months. On two occasions during the year, students come to campus for "Vacation School" which is held while on-campus students are on spring or fall break. And, an additional week of "Practical" is provided where students and lecturers spend the week doing field exercises. By the end of the year, the students have met 4-5 times with their teachers. I think it's Distance Learning done right--to accommodate students' needs. It's not Distance Learning done to accommodate 200+ students and bring in lots of tuition money (shame on us).

Essay Exams:
Sorry, UNL students. I'll be going back to essay exams when I return. All tests and exams in Nature Conservation at Polytechnic are essay form. They kind of laughed when I asked if they ever use multiple choice. Essays are more rigorous (see above point on Rigor) and they really show who has learned the material well. The down-side is that they take time to mark for the teacher. Thus, I have joined the majority of faculty in the States who do not give essay exams anymore. They take time, but faculty at Polytechnic will take an afternoon and close their door to mark assignments or tests--it's not something they do at home during family time. It is expected that lecturers will be unavailable for chunks of time to get assignments marked. That idea is something I'll take the time back in Nebraska. It will mean some other things don't get done, but I think it will be worth it.

Respect for Professors:
I have never been called anything in the classroom here, besides "Prof," "Doctor," or "Sir." No one has ever called me "Powell" or asked if they could call me "Larkin". I like having students being comfortable with me, but I certainly have enjoyed being in a culture where respect is paramount--and it goes beyond the salutations. This is the same culture that we found in Georgia (USA), where students would almost always use "sir" or "ma'am".

Extra Pay for Extra Work:
Polytechnic asks a lot of their lecturers. They teach at least two courses a semester, mentor student research, and help with distance courses. The 'moderator' system also requires them to spend a lot of time marking other lecturer's assignments (each exam gets marked by the lecturer and the moderator). But, they are paid for the extra work. They are paid for moderating (about US$1/student/exam), and they receive about US$2/student/assignment to mark assignments for distance courses. It's not a lot, but the symbolic gesture of paying something for the extra work sure beats the pants off of the system that I'm used to--where you just suck it up and get on with the extra work.

It's been an interesting ride. These are some things that I've enjoyed, and it was a nice surprise to be treated to some unexpected learning experiences. Stay tuned for the 'other' list.

Windhoek Scatter Rally 2009

Today marked the first annual Windhoek Scatter Rally. Kelly has joined the International Women's Association of Namibia, and the club held a family activity this morning.

We met at 10H30 in a parking lot downtown. Nine teams. Each family was given a binder and water. Rules: no breaking speeding laws, be nice, have fun, and be back by 13H30. Much like The Amazing Race. Pretty much the same as a Treasure Hunt. And, we were off.

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Binders open. Wow. Lots of questions.

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"How many meteorites can be seen in the Post Street Mall?" "Who is the old man with the gun overlooking the park?" "How many white stripes are on top of the Trade Center?" "What do you call a group of rhinos?" "Take a photo with a Himba." "Take a photo of a member of your team catching a train." "Take a photo with a giraffe." "What is the date of manufacture of Engine 134A?" "Who is the sculptor of the kudu statue on Independence Ave?" "What movie is showing on Screen 3 of the Mall Theaters?" "How many elephants can you see from the gate of the President's palace?" "Find the tackiest souvenir you can find for N$10 or less (with receipt)." "Find an empty bottle of a beverage brewed in Windhoek since 1920." "How much is the game viewing Land Rover at the Land Rover dealership?" "What is the price for one night's stay in the Presidential Suite in the Kalahari Sands Hotel?"

Three hours to scour the town. Three hours to prove we knew something about Windhoek. Three hours until we could eat lunch at Joe's Beerhouse!

We ended up coming in 1 point away from third place. Pretty good, we thought.

Photo with a Himba. Check. Had to buy a bracelet first.

Photo of Dad catching a train. Check. Near Windhoek Train Station.

Photo of Mom/Dad with giraffe. Check. They didn't say 'a live giraffe.'

Photo of Mom/Dad with elephant. Check. Craft Center. Get back in the car...10 minutes to get back to Joe's!

By the way, it's a 'crash' of rhinos. And there are 29.5 meteorites on display in the Post Street Mall (I know--how can you have 'half' a meteorite?). The Land Rover is only N$490,000 (7.8:1 exchange rate $N:$US at the moment). And, one night in the Presidential Suite is N$6000. And the Sunday lunch buffet at Joe's Beerhouse is a carnivore's delight. Just wonderful. Thanks for asking.

Don’t you wish you had one of these?

For the past 3-4 weeks, a little bird has been making the rounds of our kitchen floor every morning. We keep the door open almost constantly, and it seems that our buddy likes combing the floor for crumbs and such. We've named him Freddy Freeloader.

Today, we nabbed him on tape. With apologies to Dr. Seuss, we offer the following.

Don't you wish you had one of these?

From the far reaches of Windhoek
On the banks of the Meeter
Comes a small bird, a trim bird
Called the Seedonfloor Eater.

The Seedonfloor Eater
Is a Kitchen Floor Cleaner.
It nests in a hole
Of a tree called a Squeener.

An Eater can go months
Without eating a thing.
But once it finds a new floor
The dinner bell rings.

An Eater will clean up
A floor for you quickly.
It flies in and finds crumbs
It’s really quite nifty.

Not everyone’s kitchen
Can satisfy an Eater.
It takes crumbs that are too big
For mice or mosquiters.

If your kitchen needs cleaning,
Then try calling an Eater.
They come to the sound
Of trumpets and beaters.

Just beat your big beater
And trump your big trumpet.
If you play loud he may come
If you offer a crumpet.

The Seedonfloor Eater
Is such a rare bird.
If you get one just stand there.
Don’t utter a word.

For the Seedonfloor Eater
Is a valuable addition
To the housecleaning efforts
In any subdivision.

So if your name’s Johnny
Or Suzie or Peter.
I know you will want to get
A Seedonfloor Eater.