Multi Tasking an IT Professional Attribute

The birds chirp, cackle, and call continuously as I lift my head slowly off my pillow. It is Saturday and boy has the week gone by fast. Laura Haas arrived yesterday and things fell right into stride as I explained some of the things that have been accomplished since I have arrived in Kigali. Since you probably don’t know what those things are, I’ll give you a brief description here.

I finished a draft of an online Qualitative Analysis course, taught last summer by Lisanne Brown. Placing this course online has been difficult because of the limited bandwidth here in Kigali, but I finally got it up into the projects section of my web site. A few changes need to be made to the course, but I would like to get some feedback from Lisanne Brown before I proceed further.

I met with Solange and discussed designing courses with marketing in mind. We had a great talk about the RSPH (Rwanda School of Public Health) web site and discussed fixes that need to be made to make the web site more marketing oriented and professional. She is not the web designer, but in charge of marketing the RSPH. Adam who lives in America is the web designer and we will be passing on the information to him next week.

I met with Joseph, faculty professor at the RSPH, to discuss his course and what changes needed to be made to make the course usable at a distance. He was incredibly fun to work with and had great materials to begin development.

I worked with Judo to get the distance learning classroom up and running. We have all of the information and programs that we need, except macromedia breeze presenter. I’m hoping that Laura has this software here at the school, but if not we will have to get it from Eddie.

I sat in on a class with John de Dieu and observed his teaching style. He is teaching a technical class on Epi Info, but a lot of time was wasted and better instructional principles could have been followed. Laura has asked that I begin teaching a class on how to teach adults at a distance.

I talked with Laura and Josh about a presentation that is going to be made in July dealing with Malaria. This is perhaps the most important aspect of my internship. They want to present two online courses on research methods to USAID, the CDC, and another organization to show how the school already impacts many areas in Africa and with funding has the potential to improve Malaria research and treatment in the region.

In addition to these things I obtained course materials from Paulin, a faculty member at the National University of Rwanda, and materials from a French instructor whose name I don’t remember.

Finally I began working on a packet to give instructors when they start to collect or build materials for a distance education class.

Work Begins

I am starting to get a feel for the RSPH capabilities for creating distance education courses. After talking with Judo, John de Du, and Solange (please forgive the spelling of the names) I have begun experimenting with SoftChalk to see if creating courses will fit with the current bandwith limitations of the center. It takes an awful amount of time to download files and to upload files to a server using the center's internet connection. The bandwith for downloading averages to about 3-5 kb/s. That about as slow as a 14.4 modem. In viewing web sites the bandwidth is slow enought that it takes about 30 seconds to view the inst.usu.edu home page. Designing to meet this challenge will be one of the creative solutions that I will be working on.

It appears that CD ROM will be the best way to create coursework currently by teachers until the bandwidth has increased. When placing information on the internet we might consider designing two types of courses, low bandwidth (using low-data driven methods such as text and small picture files) and high bandwidth (using video, large picture files, and audio). Doing both of these methods at the same time will make it possible for courses to be used currently and upgraded quickly when bandwidth issues are no longer a problem.

Judo has given me the content from last summer (there is a ton of information to compile all on a CD) and I will be experimenting on ways to present the material professionally within the bandwidth constraints. I will be doing this while juggling setting up the distance education classroom and working on unifying a design scheme for the courses with Solange to improve the marketing appeal of the center. Today we will be discussing the audience that the RSPH is striving to attract and who we will be presenting the previous and future courses to.

Well, I better get started downloading the Moodle Platform onto my computer to experiment with course design (we don't have a RSPH server yet to set up Moodle). This download will take probably 6-10 hours as an estimate if the connection doesn't act funny.

Kigali - Arrival and the RSPH

Lugging the loaded luggage, I walked gratefully towards an individual who I assumed to be Josh. Josh is an upbeat positive person who quickly is helping me to feel safely at home in the city of Kigali. Josh has outstanding French, for which I am envious, and a way with communicating with people.

Jumping into the school's taxi, we speed towards the Rwanda School of Public Health (RSPH). The rolling hills that appear have a lush green foilage covering with different styles of housing growing out of the roots. The paved streets, cobblestone streets, and dirt roads add a massaging texture to the drive. We pass small trucks and cars, mostly Toyota and Nissan that skirt back and forth across the road.

The RSPH hides on the south east of the city of Kigali. As we pull in through the outside gate, I notice that the buildings are made almost exclusively out of brick which adds a sturdy feeling to the surroundings. The 1-acre grounds are beautifully landscaped and whoopying birds call to each other constantly from the trees.

After some brief introductions with Stephi, John De Du, and John Paul, I am given a tour of the campus. It appears that the school is growing and I have arrived at the crossroads of bringing the digital aspect of the school to light. Walls are being rebuilt around the grounds and a new computer classroom is being constructed.

At the conclusion of this tour, Josh and I follow John Paul to my room. The room is very similar to the YMCA hostel rooms in Nairobi, except much cleaner with a better smell. The walls are sunset yellow and the mosquito net is forest green. My bags take up the majority of the living space, but that soon will be remedied. The best feature of the room is the large window that provides a view of the courtyard and mess hall. There is a sink, but no bathroom in the room. The bathroom luckily is very close next door and the cold showers will be refreshing. I'll need to be flexible, but the accomodations will suit me fine for the next three months.

Nairobi - Overnight Layover

11 May 2006

It’s about 5:30 in the morning. I am sitting on a green YMCA blanket in a small room that contains a sink, a desk, and a bed. Luckily there is a mosquito net that enshrouds my bed which I appreciate. I have been sleeping for almost 10 hours, usually checking the clock each hour to make sure I don’t oversleep and hoping everything goes well with the final flight to Kigali.

Nairobi, Kenya has been quite an experience. The land is lush and green. The trees fan out over the grasslands. Large birds that I have never seen before fly gracefully in the blue horizon. There is natural beauty all around. Unfortunately my bed smells of urine. The bottled water I drank made me vomit. I have felt uneasy from the moment I stepped foot in this beautiful country. I know I will be all right because I feel watched after, but the glances, the stares, and the police with assault rifles make me wonder what the people think as they walk the streets.

I asked John, my native taxi driver, what the high barbed wire fences were for that stretched along the airport road. “They keep out the animals,” he said. As we drove, John pointed out the city center, the football stadium, and many other sites on our 20 minute drive to the YMCA hostel. In comparison to NYC, Nairobi driving is insane. NYC felt more like walking than driving. Bumper cars would be my way to describe the roads of Nairobi. Almost every car had its corners bent in and what astounded me most were the motorcyclists with locked cases on their bumpers weaving in and out of traffic. Sometimes they were on the road and sometimes they were on the dirt banks. The drivers didn’t seem to be afraid of hitting each other.

People were everywhere walking in and out of the streets and fields and buildings. To keep individuals out of certain areas high fences were built with barbed wire stretching a few feet above the top. Trees nearby were covered with barbed wire to make sure nobody could sneak into the walled enclosures. I felt like I was staying in a military barracks trying to keep out the tide of conmen and dangerous men. Why were there so many fences? Why so much barbed wire? Was the common man in Nairobi so base that only fences and wire could keep him out in much the same way as the airport fence I had seen earlier?

(Note: Later on in the morning, I had the chance to talk to some of the workers at the YMCA. They seemed happy and kind. My comments earlier appear to be off the mark. Fear has a way of placing the blame on others and looking defensively instead of objectively for answers. The common man in Nairobi was good and wholesome. It was certain individuals that made it difficult for the rest of the population.)

Leaving New York City

May 10, 2006

I had a good wakeup call this morning as I quickly dressed and ran down to the shuttle. No breakfast except old pizza, I hungrily loaded my bags into the shuttle and watched a 5 foot nothing driver race through the streets of New York. I never thought that a van could go so fast or turn so quickly around the winding churning snake-like roads. I swear we went around the turns at 40 miles per hour when the warning signs said to go at 15.

The Salt Lake City International had much higher security then the JFK airport. Getting set up for the flight only took about 5 minutes instead of 15. I still feel safe and can’t wait to fly over the ocean. I have a window seat.

NYC - Overnight Layover

(written yesterday, May 9, because of no Internet Access it is posted today)

Leaving Salt Lake City airport early this morning, I arrived at the JFK airport. Saying goodbye to my new Italian friend (who barely speaks English), I managed to find a Days Inn hotel with an open room (thanks to some outstanding family help). The room was small but had a big bed. Seeing how I was up until 12:30 last night packing, the room was perfect.

The dusty leaf covered comforter that I am sitting on makes me think about what Eddie would like me to do when I arrive in Rwanda. Eddie and I discussed that the main purpose of my internship is to get 3 paper-based courses, taught by three different professors, up and running for distance education either online or with the technology that they have available. Two of the professors are located in Louisiana, and the other in Canada. Part of the difficulty expressed by Eddie will be in receiving these resources from the faculty members. Another difficulty will be in setting up the courses in such a way that future faculty in Rwanda will be able to keep the courses up and running. This may require training using software that they may not have or by setting up the courses with software which they currently are familiar with. Either way, analysis of how they are using their current technology in Rwanda will be helpful. In addition to this Eddie has asked that I work with computer specialists on site to set up a server in Rwanda to begin establishing self-sufficiency. This will be a motivational role because I have never set up a server to be used from a distance.

Before I receive future course content, I will be collecting current content that has been created in the last couple of years and seeing what can be done to make this information/modules/articles available for individuals at a distance. I will be working with individuals on site to collect and disseminate these materials. In addition to this I will be getting to know the current faculty, interns, and specialists on site to see what can be done to improve the educational value of the public health certification program.

Well enough about business, I still have one more layover in Dubai and then I will meet Josh in Kigali. In the mean time, I am going to relax and eat some New York Pizza.