Friday & Saturday (6/22 & 23) - Maquipucuna

Our weekend trip was to Maquipucuna (in the cloud forrest) north of Quito and toward the Pacific.  It's about a 2 to 3 hour bus ride.  We first went to Mindo Ecuador and ate at Caskaffesu - good food, and the rooms for rent looked nice.  I hope to return one day.

Then we went to Hostería Mariposas de Mindo - butterfly farm.  We took a tour and walked inside a greenhouse like structure containing 1000s of butterflies that they are raising.  Once they mature enough, they set them off in the wild.

Open air dinning (left)
Resort rooms (right)

Then on to Maquipucuna where we hiked to a cascades waterfall and got in the water, then to a fast flowing stream.  The next day we went bird watching at 6:15 a.m.  We saw flycatchers, coo coos, tanagers, woodpeckers, and more.  While at Maquipucuna, I talked with faculty from University of Georgia who were there to do biology and entomology work.  They had 15 to 20 students too.

Thursday, June 21 - Quito at Night

Team 6 - Colton & Jon with
Teacher Christina at Bicentenario

Thursday was our last day at Bicentenario.  We taught our classes, gave professional development for the teachers on computer security, and said goodbye.

Crystal Palace, Quito

We got home just in time to eat dinner, then we were off for a night tour of Quito that included Centro Histórico and a view of downtown from the Crystal Palace.

We got home at 11 p.m.  I packed for the upcoming weekend trip and went to bed.

Quito at Night

Wednesday - June 20

Today was our third day at Bicentenario.  Things went well.

Afterward working at Bicentenario, I had a meeting scheduled at SENESCYT.  This organization has to do with way more than I understand, but one item includes (as I've been told) the creation of the four new universities in Ecuador, one of them call YACHAY (City of Knowledge).

Fulbright in Ecuador originally thought I might be able be of service to SENECYT and its work with the creation of these universities.

Alas, my meeting didn't happen because the person with whom I was to meet (Ramiro Moncayo) ended up not being available because other meetings popped up on his calendar.

I was aware that he is quite occupied, so came prepared with a one page listing of items where I might be able to contribute to YACHAY and the other universities.

Tuesday - June 19 - Visit to Ministry for Culture in Ecuador

Did I mention that it takes close to two hours to get to Bicentenario in the morning.  I get picked up early in the bus route around 7:30 a.m. and we arrive around 9:15 a.m. or so.

After our work at Bicentenario today, Dr. Magdalena and I went to the offices of the Ministerio de Cultura del Ecuador.  There I met with the minister, Erika Sylva.  We talked for about 20 minutes about things I might be able to do during the fall when I return to Ecuador.  The talks went well, and there may be opportunities for me to work with the Ministerio during my Fulbright stay.

Ecuador is creating four brand new universities and one of them is devoted to the arts, that's where the Ministerio de Cultura del Ecuador comes into play.  Where I would contribute would be with helping with assessment of the classes, and overall curriculum.  There is also interest in peer review of faculty, possibly developing a CTL (center for teaching and learning for faculty professional development - which is what I head up at IU Southeast), and using course management software in order to deliver course related materials for each course through the web (handouts, quizzes, tests, collect homeworks, etc.).

Monday - June 18

This week we are at La Escuela Bicentenario in the south of Quito.  This school was started three years ago and is intended to be a model public school.

The teachers that I have met are all very dedicated to student learning.  The computer teacher we work with is so full of enthusiasm that it is contagious.

At this school you can tell they know what "time on task" means.  In one of the computer rooms where we taught, the computer teacher was teaching Excel to 5th graders, she had a good lesson plan and she was executing it well.

They have SmartBoards in some classrooms, but it might be the case that insufficient SmartBoard training was provided.

There is WiFi everywhere.

At the end of the first day we did professional development, both teams taught some html programming for the teachers, and it seemed to be well received.

Father's Day - June 17

On Father's Day I was invited to a Father's Day get-together at a relative's of Maria Eugenia's (my host).  I ate four different kinds of lasagna, salad, and dessert.  I talked and listened to Spanish for muchos hours.  It was a real nice outing.  At the end of the day my head was hurting from all the Spanish talking.

Thursday (6/14) through Saturday (6/16)

Chimborazo as seen from San Gerardo

Thursday (6/14/2012) we travelled to a pueblo San Gerardo and visited their school.  There we were received with open arms.  I asked Dr. Magdalena Herdoíza how she originally found San Gerardo and of course there is a story behind it, but the short story is that she found it through her contacts at UNESCO some 8 or 9 years ago.  San Gerardo is located in the foothills of the inactive volcano Chimborazo.


The people of San Gerardo welcomed our group with open arms.  We started with a ceremony which included speeches of gratitude for our visit and various performances from the children at the school.  They fed us a snack for dinner that was more like a meal for dinner on Thursday night, and the gave us handmade gives.  I received a scarf and earrings para me esposa (for my wife).


Friday we returned early in the morning to San Gerardo to work for a short while with the children in their classrooms, and then we conducted three different seminars for the teachers of the school and adults of the pueblo; the teaching seminar was conducted by Dr. Magdalena, health by the nursing student team, and computing by the computing student teams (San Gerardo has a computer lab with computers donated by IU Southeast).

In Riobamba (map) we stayed at the Hotel Montecarlo and on Saturday, we were up and ready to leave at 8:45 for a day at Baños de Santa Agua.  Baños is an hour or two away from Riobamba because both are in the Andes and there isn't a straight road to Baños.  Baños is on the Pastaza River which flows to the Amazon region.  This the first time that the Summer in Ecuador class has visited Baños and this was because of the insistence of four of the teachers of San Gerardo, they were our guide for the day and paid for many of the attractions.

Joe in front of el Pailon del Diablo

There we visited the el Pailon del Diablo where there is a waterfall and it is said you can see the face of the devil in a rock formation.  We climbed a trail to near the top of the waterfall where you can get under/behind the waterfall and get really refreshed by the splashing of the water as it falls to the bottom.  We also visited a thermal bath/spa which are heated by bubbles coming up from the volcano below us.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Today was our last day at Quitumbe School.  Teaching by Teams 5 & 6 went off without a hitch.

After lunch we had a debriefing with the docente (teaching staff) of Quitumbe.  That is where we provide feedback on the good things we saw going on as well as places for improvement.  All the computing students had things to say and volunteered w/o prompt to lead off the session.  You always hold your breath a little when one of your students starts to talk about how things could be improved, but yet again, they were excellent.  Later in the session the Principal asked me to give my perspective, I responded in (pretty choppy) Spanish that he already knew what I thought because of what my students had already said.

Tomorrow we leave for San Gerardo School.  San Gerardo is a small pueblo Riobamba.  We're bringing school supplies for the children and we will do some teaching there.  Here's a YouTube video taken by a past IU Southeast professor.  We get back on Saturday evening.

Tuesday June 12 - Part 2 - My visit to San Francisco University

Coming from the south of Quito, I had no idea how long it would take because of traffic, and I ended up arriving an hour and 45 minutes early.  Oh well.  I walked around campus just to get a feel.  I visited a few classrooms which appear to support the lecture mode of teaching best.

At about 3 p.m. I met with the following: Carlos Montúfar (Vicerrector - which translates to deputy to the vice-chancellor of a university), Víctor Viteri (Decano del Colegio de Postgrados), Fausto Pasway (Coordinador de Ingeniería de Sistemas), and Eduardo Alba (Coordinador del Departamento de Matemáticas).

We talked for at least an hour.  It was almost like an oral defense/examination.  They were trying to determine if I would be worth there time this fall.

In the end, I have a job at San Francisco starting August 22.  They are interested in having me do the following:

• Teach a data structures class with about seven students - here I'll introduce program proving/formal verification
• Work with Professor Alba and his upper level math students to understand analysis of algorithms
• Help them with learning how to write learning outcomes for assessment purposes - assessment is playing a bigger part here - in preparation for accreditation
• Do peer review of some junior faculty members and train them on how to do their own peer review
• Introduce them to the concept of an Informatics degree

My research with the Resolve/Reusable Software Research Group and more recently my work as the Director of our teaching and learning center is coming in handy.

Tuesday June 12 - Part 1

The days are long here, and it's difficult to keep up with my posts.

We are teaching in the south of Quito, it is at least an hour and a half bus ride from my host's apartment in the north of Quito.  I've been told that the north and south of Quito are two different cities.  I get up this week at 5:30 a.m., do some exercises (push ups, sit ups, leg stretches, etc.) take a shower, eat (and talk with María) and run to catch the bus at 6:30. 

Yesterday was our first day at Quitumbe school (map).  Teams 5 & 6 again taught on the first day while others observed.  They performed well yet again.

After we were done, Jon and Colton wanted to visit the Politécnica University to talk to them about their computing program.  Jon is fearless, and within 20 minutes of arriving at the campus we were talking with the Dean of systems engineering (that's often what they call computing here).  The Dean talked with us for at least 45 minutes in his office's conference room.  Jon and Colton asked all kinds of questions about specific classes, overall curriculum, jobs after college, etc.  About 30 minutes into the meeting I explained to the Dean (Carlos Mantenegro) that I am a Fulbright Scholar and will be back in September, and that I would like to teach a seminar (all in Spanish).  He was delighted and even proposed that I might be able to do it through a federal program that pays for professors to come to Ecuador to teach.  So here's yet another opportunity for me this fall and maybe sometime thereafter.

Today I visit University of San Francisco Quito for a 3 p.m. meeting to try to arrange for work there for this fall.  Wish me luck.

7 de junio - jueves

Today was another teaching day at America Latina.

In the afternoon, I was able to get an appointment with the Executive Director of Comisión Fulbright del  Ecuador (Map), Susana Cabeza de Vaca.  We had a very long talk about my upcoming Fulbright Scholar, universities in Ecuador, SENESCYT, higher education in Ecuador, etc.  In the end she arranged for me to have a meeting with Dr. Carlos Montúfar of Universidad de San Francisco de Quito (Map).  My appointment is scheduled for Tuesday, 12 de junio.  There might be an opportunity to work with San Francisco during my Fulbright trip to Ecuador.

After my meeting at Fulbright, I walked to Mall el Jardin Quito and awaited the others.  They had visited Panecillo while I was at my meeting.  After the mall, we went to see the dance Obra Una Puerta at the Teatro Nacional.

6 de junio - miércoles

Today, instead of having the IU Southeast students teach I escorted Teams 5 & 6 (the computing teams) for a visit to UDLA (Universidad de las Americas - Map).  We learned that they follow a more European model for undergraduate studies, i.e., very few general education courses, 5 years instead of 4, more hours in the degree program.  The IU Southeast students were impressed, and they think this non-well-rounded model is better than the well-rounded model of the United States.

Two of the IU Southeast students want to start a mobile app business and outsource software development to UDLA students/graduates.

5 de junio - martes

Today I was fighting stomach problems.

At the Mitad del Mundo on Monday afternoon I drank a Latin American drink called chicha (the unchewed kind).  On Tuesday morning, me duele el estómago.  The International Travel Clinic said don't be stupid and wait to start taking your Cipro, so I decided not to be stupid, even though I'd been stupid the day before.

I made it through the morning at America Latina and then took a taxi back to my host's house where I rested the rest of the day.

Thank goodness for the Cipro.

My first day in Ecuador has been very good.  My host María lives here: http://goo.gl/maps/3m8C and her place has an excellent view of Quito.  I'll post some photos soon.  Since I've been here we have spoken in Spanish almost the entire time.  I don't know how she puts up with my wrong verb conjugations, mismatches in number and gender with my nouns and adjectives, and limited vocabulary, but she does.

This afternoon we traveled a mile across Quito to go where there was a marathon.  There were a lot of runners, street vendors, and spectators.  I bought a baseball cap (una gora) with the name of the local futbol team.  I figured this would completely camouflage me from the Ecuadorians.  After looking at the marathoners, we went to Parque de Carolina and watched the local Ecuadorians playing futbol, having picnics, playing Ecuavolley (a form of volleyball), y más.  We ate lunch en un restuarante de comida del mar.  Fue muy rica!

María has a second person boarding at her apartment, his name is Pablo.  He's studying law at a local university.  He's from Guayaquil and will return home in just a few days.  He invited me to go to a futbol game this coming Sunday, but I will not be in Quito.  My loss.