Recurrence of Tough Lecture Rules

If you, like me, ever thought of being finally free from ‘tough lecture-time rules and regulations’ from the likes of Madam Julio Korongo and Emily Ng’enoTuitoek, then you are surely wrong! This conclusion seemed unlikely to come by until yesterday afternoon in Lecture Theatre 1.

“So I am Dr. Odero and I will be teaching you this course; INS 319 – Subject Indexing and Thesaurus Construction.” Her soft voice could not promise to draw attention from the entire crowd almost immediately, as it is always the case when both the third-year Media and Information Science groups converge in a common forum. It was not different yesterday. You could still hear, although not necessarily comprehend, voices from different corners of the venue until the MU FM Director, Mr. Gilbert Lang’at was completely done with assembling the projector components.

“Now as usual, before we begin our lecture, let me give you some simple dos and don’ts regarding how we are going to relate to each other and what will be expected from each of us – which will not be any different from other lecturers’.” I quickly took out a pen and slid my exercise book towards myself, away from Tom who, as usual, was sitting beside me at the foremost two-user table – just before the lecturer, who was by now resting her right hand on the other side of our small wooden table. I was prepared to write anything that I would consider important. That is my habit.

“I will not expect any of your gadgets [as she lifts up her black flapped phone using her free hand] to ring during lectures. If you are expecting an emergency call, kindly put your phone in silent or vibration mode and sit strategically at a point where you can move out to answer it without interfering with the others. That will be allowed.” Well, to me, that sounded almost normal because if all students decide to leave their phones in loud ring modes and they start receiving calls or messages at, say, a five-minute interval, with all the funny ringtones I have heard before, it would sincerely not be a serious class. However, that was not the end of her first instruction. “But just to reinforce this rule, if one phone rings, I will assume that you are sending me a message of either you are too tired and therefore want me to leave or that I should skip what I intended to cover for that particular lesson. Trust me; I will walk out and expect you to read on your own. If one person’s phone rings, we all suffer!”

At that point, I could hardly distinguish Dr. Odero and Madam Tuitoek. Perhaps the only observable difference was the fact that the latter said the same while sited on a blue rotatable chair but the former was currently upstanding. That was the time when all the initial noise from the students went down and a deafening silence fell over the room. You could easily confuse the situation with some degree of cowardice.

“Secondly, we shall be using this reference manual for all our lectures.” She said this while showing out a fat document titled, ‘Guidelines for Indexes and Related Information Retrieval Devices’. So she continued, “You can choose to print a copy for yourself alone or do it in groups of up to three, but you will always have to sit together. It is only 53 pages long so you will not spend a lot of coins. If you want it in soft copy, I will send it to your class e-mail addresses, together with the course outline. If you go for the soft [copy], you will have to carry your laptop each time we have a class.” Still on the same, Odero promised to be occasionally giving out bits of notes, especially on areas she feels are slightly technical. Where she thinks that everything is straight forward, she will never do so. Comrades will therefore be expected to always be on toes and absorb such content during the discussions.

“You will also be required to be signing the attendance list.” On this note, the lecturer discouraged anyone from signing on behalf of a friend. “The first signature I receive today must be consistent. Do not sign for anyone else because that might force you to do so throughout the semester. You do not know at what time I will randomly cross-check.” Now, something good about class attendance is her consideration for the group’s having two four-hour lessons on Wednesdays. She promised to allow additional 30 minutes on top of the one-hour break from the first lesson which ends at noon in the same venue. “We shall be starting our classes officially at 1.30pm instead of 1.00pm unless otherwise communicated,” she confirmed. However, she chose to remain silent on what happens if a student arrives late for class.

“You will be working in groups for your assignments, projects and even the sit-in CAT.” She then proceeded to give a warning on how one may lose some or all assignment marks. “If your name appears in two different groups, then you automatically won’t get any mark.” According to the woman, any assignment handed in late will also face a thorough deduction of marks. “Whichever group hands in an assignment a day after the stated submission deadline, I will deduct five marks; two days, you lose ten and on the third day, it will be minus 15. Afterwards, you get a zero because an assignment carries 20 marks in total.”

Although she left it unclear whether or not she will be giving unpredictable sit-ins and assignments, one could easily smell such intentions from the conclusion of her instructional speech. “If you won’t attend a class, please inform your class representative earlier enough because a valid reason may give you considerations for a second chance in case of a missed CAT or presentation assignment.”

It was until she had coughed out all what she had to, when the first lecture kicked off. Though this may not be the right moment to evaluate her mode of facilitating, in my view, she may be assumed to deliver content well. She does not quickly move to point B unless she notices some few nodding from the audience, signaling a sense of understanding to the explanations of point A. At some points, she notably seemed to create fun which, minus the regulations, made her appear substantially friendly.

When asked about the long-awaited trip at the end of the lesson, the lady had this to say, “You people think that my department of Library and Records Management has the sole responsibility of organizing for the trip. No, this is an issue for the whole school.” However, she went ahead and made another fresh sweet-scenting promise of pushing for the coordination of all concerned departments in terms of budgeting because that is the major issue. Nonetheless, she had some reservations concerning how soon the trip can come. It cannot be as soon as this month. The whole process may take a while because preparations for the 29^th Graduation Ceremony to be held on 30^th August are also on, at least according to her. The first week of September is also ruled out because there will be a conference and so, most of the university buses will be committed to ferrying attendants to and fro. It follows that the second week of next month is a probable moment for the trip unless something else presents itself in due course.

Splending Start for Africa, World Champions and the Host

Oduamadi, celebrating his goal with team-mates

Nigeria, representing Africa in the 2013 FIFA Confederation Cup, produced a commendable start in the competition after claiming an easy 6-1 victory over Tahiti on the night of Monday 17^th June, 2013. The tournament, being hosted in South America’s Brazil, commenced on Saturday 15^th and will have its final played on 30^th this month.

Nnamadi Oduamadi completed a hat-trick while Uwa Echiejile scored a brace for the Super Eagles as they subjected the Pacific Islanders to humiliation in their first match at a senior FIFA world tournament. The only Tahiti consolation goal came from Jonathan Tehau, who converted Marama Vahirua’s corner with a wonderful header past Nigerian goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama on the 54^th minute. Tehau however erroneously scored a 68^th minute own goal to add to the African champions’ tally on their 19^th match without defeat, their longest ever unbeaten run.

The Super Eagles defeated Burkina Faso 1-0 in the February 2013 Africa Cup of Nations final in South Africa to earn the right to represent Africa at the FIFA Confederations Cup. They currently sit on 31^st world position and 4^th in Africa according to the latest FIFA rankings and top of group F in Africa’s 2014 World Cup Qualifiers.

Tahiti, the Oceania champion’s next match will be against the World and European champions, Spain on Thursday 20^th in a match which weighs the world’s 1^st position against 138^th in the FIFA Ranking. On the other hand, the Super Eagles will battle against South American champions, Uruguay, on Friday 21^st.

In the previous matches, Brazil (who qualified automatically as the host country) started with a 3-0 clean sheet against Asian champions, Japan in the competition’s opening match on Saturday. Neymar da Silva, FC Barcelona’s new signing, opened up the goal-scoring campaign with a 3^rd minute long range strike, followed by José Paulinho and João Alves’ goals on the 48^th and 93^rd minutes respectively. Brazil is the defending champion of the Confederation Cup, having won it in both 2005 and 2009.

Later on the same day, Spain who qualified for the Confederations Cup as the reigning FIFA World Cup champions also started with a 2-1 victory over Uruguay. They took an early 2-0 lead, courtesy of Pedro Rodriguez and Roberto Soldado’s 20^th and 32^nd minute goals. With just two minutes to the end of the match, Liverpool forward, Luis Suarez’s 88^th minute brilliant free kick outdid Iker Casillas to give the South American side their lone goal.

Did you know?

That the England Barclays Premier League fixture of the 2013/14 season will be announced tomorrow, Wednesday 19^th June 2013 at 11:00am local time?

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The Sleeping Class!

From left: Sleeping Vivienne, Jacinta rubbing her sleepy eyes

 “If readers fall asleep while reading your sales letter, then something is wrong…”

This is neither my personal opinion, nor is it a philosophical saying. It is just a statement that I managed to quote from the recently-ended lecture – Writing Sales Letters in Mr. Mbengei’s Specialized Writing Course on the afternoon of 12^th June, 2013. However, this statement quickly turned out to hit back at the lecturer unfortunately!

The irony started right from the class attendance. Only 13 members of the 3^rd year Media Science class turned up for today’s lecture session, out of a possible 28. Of course noticing the absence of somebody like Irene equals to zero, as opposed to Chrispinus which is news. Anyway, the beginning never seemed to predict the end, as everyone looked attentive, wanting to know all about writing a sales letter.

However, all hell broke loose when a cloud of sleeping spirit started descending upon a few members as the session proceeded. The first to drive away to a far away land was her Excellency, Vivienne spp, who upon giving up with the struggle to stay awake, danced to the tune of a comfortable sleep, but opted to maintain an upright posture like a hen would do.

As if that was not enough to create humor and probably encourage the rest to stay awake, it did not take long before Hon. Kiathi joined the battle. He started by eliminating his jumper for reasons best known to himself. As soon as he noticed my suspicion about his wake, he devised a tailor-made approach at least to hide something from the journalist me. He constantly changed and modified his sitting position and this went on for the rest of the session. Thank God he escaped the blast.

Then it was time for the M.U FM Director, Mr. Lang’at to show his mighty. You could not realize this by anything tangible, but from the look of his drowning eyes. His effort of wanting to keep them open was eventually futile and the man quietly walked out, just as a cover up for the defeat. Or maybe he was going to attend to an urgent delicate issue arising at the studio – who knows?

Victor supporting his head against chest

Major General Nyakachunga emerged as the man of the match. He took advantage of his far proximity from the lecturer to give in to the situation. Using his chin, he successfully supported his little-sized head against his chest in a manner unlikely to pose any doubt about his full concentration on the lecture. After failing to notice any kind of movement of his body for more than 30 minutes, it prompted me to be keener on him and surprisingly, Victor had already drifted away from the world of reality. He too, upon the return of Lang’at, opted to vacate the class and never came back. The next venue I spotted him was in the computer laboratory after the class, updating his friends on facebook and twitter.

 I would therefore like to express my sincere congratulatory message to those who managed to struggle with me, just to keep our eyes open to the very end:

The likes of Agak, Tom, Sugut, Brioo, Wambua and Jeff; without forgetting my sisters Jacinta and Cynthia.

“If students fall asleep while attending your lecture, then something is wrong…”

The Effects of Sheng

Sheng is a generative language that emerged as a result of code mixing. It involves the use of words from different languages in the same sentence, paragraph or an entire communication piece. Most words come from the Swahili and English languages. For example, ‘Before uende home pitia kwangu tu-discuss a few issues kwanza.’
Sometimes sheng just involves the addition of unnecessary syllables to a word. For example, ‘Nipe ma-chapati mbili.’ 

Sheng has far-reaching effects especially at the present time. Its over-use has made it gain popularity and spread very fast especially among people living in urban centers. Some of the areas affected by sheng include the Swahili language, schools, homes and work places as discussed below.

1.      Swahili Language

·         The code has interfered with the poor performance of students in National examinations. Some manifestations of this code can be seen in their class work especially in sentence constructions. For instance;

Sheng – Wenye hawajamanga wakamanga

Kiswahili – Wale ambao hawajakula, wakale.

English – Those who have not eaten can go and do so.

·         It has also been observed by teachers that many students are more fluent with sheng than with the standard Kiswahili or English language.

·         It has created a lot of ambiguity in meanings of original Swahili words. For example, the word ‘mbao’ means pieces of wood. In Sheng, the word can either mean a twenty shilling coin or it can also mean luck.

·         It undermines the rate of growth of Swahili language because most young people now strive to learn more sheng words than Swahili words.

2.      Schools

·         Teachers have complained that the code interferes with formal language learning inside the classroom. This is because students fail to mark the boundaries between Sheng and standard Kiswahili or even English.

·         Creates a huge linguistic disparity between students of the same academic level but from different schools. Urban school students may be used to speaking sheng which may be a mistery to rural school students.

·         Sheng has bridged the social gap between teachers and students. While teachers adhere to their code of ethics in using official language, students admire teachers who can speak sheng in class. Sometimes teachers are forced to use sheng in order to please their students.

3.      Homes

·         It is causing conflict between the youth and parents or adults, and is also creating confusion in the family. Most parents of school going children who have little contact or regular experience with Sheng feel that it is creating a language barrier.

·         It has increased bad behavior in children and lack of respect to their parents. The youths come up with words that are not known to the adults and may use them in the homes to talk ill about their parents even in their presence.

4.      Work Places

·         It has reduced professionalism at work because workers who are addicted to sheng may find themselves using it in official communication with their bosses and managers.

·         Due to its popularity, local TV and Radio stations have also allowed the use of sheng in certain programmes e.g Tahidi High in Citizen TV. This has a linguistic effect on school children and the youth since some of them tend to identify themselves with certain characters in these programmes through the use of this code.

When the Projection Failed…

A student added humor during a group presentation when he opted to utilize the advantage of his height to solve a projection problem.

The third year Information Sciences class, comprising of students pursuing both Media Science and Information Sciences bachelor’s degrees, had a session of group assignment presentation in the morning of Wednesday 29^th May, 2013 in the faculty’s LT2. The class of about 120 undergraduates was segmented into a total of 17 groups and each was given a similar task of evaluating a different web search engine under the course, Information Retrieval System, coded as INS 313. A search engine is a software system that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web (www), such as Google.

As the faculty name suggests, the School of Information Sciences serves as a leading role model to the entire Moi University’s Main campus in embracing the use of advanced technology in its operations, especially as far as information is concerned. It allows students under its umbrella to obtain maximum technological exposure through the interaction and use of IT-based machines and services such as computers, projectors, internet connection and the FM Radio station.

It was time for group 8 to present to the class their research findings about a search engine of their choice under the supervision of lecturer Mrs. Emily Ng’eno Tuitoek. They had chosen to evaluate IXQUICK as a search engine. The presentation commenced, using a projector to visually display the PowerPoint slides from their laptop as an aid to enhance the audience understanding.

However, the group encountered a challenge in the course of the presentation process when one of the members wanted to use a demonstrative illustration that had not been included in the current slides. He tried to find it from the computer location where it was saved but his efforts were futile. Several other members quickly came to his rescue and after a while, the problem was half-solved. They located the file but somehow failed to immediately incorporate it into the slides for display through the projector. This created a moment of silence that was almost going to hijack the audience concentration on the presentation.

Interestingly, one of the members of the group never seemed to show any sign of being disturbed. As the rest were sweating around the laptop, trying to fix the problem, he just maintained his sitting position as if not aware of what was going on. However, seeing that more time was going into waste, Joseph (not his real name) made up his mind and came up with a ‘crazy’ solution. He got up quickly and as if only half-serious, took the laptop away from the table and lifted it up for the audience to see what was refusing to go into projection.

“Okay, since time is not there, I will just lift it [the laptop] up for you to see so that we can continue instead of waiting…” the comrade clarified.

The whole crowd busted into laughter, the lecturer not being an exception, but the tall man never seemed to put a smile on his face. He was quite certain that his idea was going to work. After a short relief from the uncontrollable laughter, the lecturer credited the idea and confessed that it helped to add humor to the presentation, hence making it livelier.

The demonstration therefore proceeded and the group apparently emerged one of the best. Thanks to the hero; that is what had to be done when the projection failed.