Image hosting in Blogspot (www.blogger.com)

If you're using a blogspot account like I am on this blog, you will find the new image feature helpful. Until now, you had to create external links to images hosted somewhere else on the net, such as Flickr or Picasa. Now it seem to be possible for us to upload images directly to the blogspor server; the message editor has a new image icon button in the menu bar.

Yes, it works. And the title of your image does appear underneath!

Great Bridges day

Great Bridges day
Read more about this Webheads event at my blog www.xanga.com/susnyrop
and see my slides presentation in my flickr album www.flickr.com/photos/netopnyrop/sets/491420/

Revitalization of small languages

"I ka ‘ölelo nö ke ola, i ka ‘ölelo nö ka make." In the language there is life, and in the language there is death. Hawaiians have a proud history of taking advantage of a wide range of media, from song to dance to print, to preserve and the life of their language and culture. Now they are using the computer to provide one more powerful voice for language use and revitalization, and their example can be of potential benefit to other indigenous communities throughout the world." Read more in an article by Mark Warschauer and Keona Donaghy, University of Hawaii, 1997

This is parallel to what now happens in so many places around the world, such as Greenland, a country still closely connected with Denmark ecomonically and culturally, but now struggling to revitalize their own language. Some days ago I heard in the daily Greenland news broadcast (in Danish), that the streets are now renamed as they used to carry traditional Danish names. There is also an ongoing discussion whether Danish or English should be considered as the future first foreign language in the schools. In Denmark people have a tendency to ignore that we used to have colonies in the past, and often romantizing the almost paternal care taking for the Inuit people in Kalaalit Nunaat (which we still know as Greenland). No doubt that there were also rich resources to exploit, as well as todays' very strategic position on the US military world map. Can a more direct access to active usage of their own language embedded in their cultural heritage help the indigenous population to feel pride in their roots and seek to develop local strategies for survival as a people? I think that knowing your own language in an uptodate version must be powerful in achieving this.

Managing with Rosa Say and her Hawaiian Aloha approach

In the past, I've been working more or less systematically with getting hold on my files, my emails, my links - all that external knowledge that my memory does not hold willingly. I've been looking into the self management ideas that are so trendy nowadays, suffering myself from serious disorganization in my everyday work. Well, these bad habits of not getting things done do not include those time scheduled appointments that I don't miss; after all, the traditional one year paper-and-spiral calendar has been part of my habit since I was in the pre-teens. And I know where I store my library books and I'm timely getting them back where they belong, almost always. I know where I can find my own books, too - and I have bookmarked important pages. I even keep my printed material in binders, but from there it begins to get harder to retrieve - the systematic is not consistent, and perhaps I even forgot that I've printed out those papers anyway. What has made our lives both funnier and more complex to manage and keep hold on, are of course the digital content.

Well, and all this brings me to some popular best seller management advisors, such as Stephen Covey's 7 habits and David Allen's GTD, or getting things done. In the entrepreneurship class project that I'm following once a week this year, our brilliant and engaged teachers are approaching these principles from many different views - personal life management, project planning, accountability issues, mentoring, business and career coaching, networking and more. And they all have their personal preferences and ways of sharing the good news. I guess that's just me who need to find out my own way and even intuitively resist against too many quick fixes with smart oneliners and neat diagrams. On the other hand, I can feel how all of this is fertilizing my ways of getting things done - first things first - using a compass instead of a time planner, etc.


But who's this Say?

Some weeks ago, I was reading a book discussion at the Virtual Chautaugua and was struck by someone apparently talking to me directly in her blog, in a voice that resonates with my mind! Her name is short and poetic, Rosa Say. She's from Hawaii, and her book is called Managing with Aloha. And, her well written and thought provoking weblog is commented by a lively community. This makes me want to have a more systematic weblog myself! I've been playing with blogs for some years, how to use blogs in education and for professional development, but not really making any effort to keep my blogs focused, topic oriented and straight forward enough to become of real value in a community context. This is going to be another future goal...

Aloha defined in Hawaii to English dictionary

When I am challenged with new words I need to find out what they mean, even if teh language is totally unknown to me. Before Rosa Say's book Management with Aloha, this term gave me images of rich tourists welcomed on palm beaches with flower garlands around their necks. After all, Hawaii is very far from Denmark!

I found an online dictionary that helped me find more about how to interpretate the so-called Aloha spirit, and below I'll copy & paste all that. Just to save it and read again soon! For now, it is far too much as I need to get back to work.

[Hawaiian Dictionary(Hwn to Eng)] aloha

nvt., nvs. Aloha, love, affection, compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity, kindness, sentiment, grace, charity; greeting, salutation, regards; sweetheart, lover, loved one; beloved, loving, kind, compassionate, charitable, lovable; to love, be fond of; to show kindness, mercy, pity, charity, affection; to venerate; to remember with affection; to greet, hail. Greetings! Hello! Good-by! Farewell! Alas! The common greetings follow: Aloha ʻoe, may you be loved or greeted, greetings (to one person). Aloha kāua, may there be friendship or love between us, greetings (to one person); dear Sir. Aloha kākou, same as above, but to more than one person. Ke aloha nō! Aloha! Greetings! (The nō may be prolonged for emphasis.) (Gram. 4.6) The following greetings were introduced after European times; Aloha ahiahi, good evening. Aloha kakahiaka, good morning. Cf. aloha ʻāina, hanaaloha. Aloha aliʻi, royalist, royal love. Aloha ʻino! What a pity! Alas! [Expression of regret, either great or small.] Aloha akua, love of god; divine love, pity, charity. Mea aloha, loved one, beloved. Aloha makua, considerate and thoughtful of parents and elders, filial. Aloha ʻia, beloved, pitied. Aloha pumehana, warm aloha, affection. Me ke aloha o Ka-wena, with the love (or greeting) of Ka-wena. ʻO wau iho nō me ke aloha, I remain, with very best regards. Aloha ʻoe, ē Maria, ua piha ʻoe i ka maikaʻi, hail, Mary, full of grace. Ē Maria hemolele, e aloha mai ʻoe iā mākou, Holy Mary, have mercy on us. Aloha aʻe ana mākou i ke ehu wāwae o ka lani (chant for Ka-lā-kaua), we remember fondly the footprints of the king. E aloha aku au i ka mea aʻu e manaʻo ai e aloha aku (Puk. 33.19), I show mercy tothose I want to show mercy to. Aloha nō ia mau lā o nā makahiki he kanalima i kūnewa akula! Affectionate [memories] of these days of fifty years past! hō.aloha Rare var. of hoʻālohaloha. Cf. hoaloha. (PPN ʻalofa.)

Aloha coach Rosa Say, you made MY day!

Dear Rosa Say,

and welcome to my virtual home office! For some weeks, I've known about you as an innovative writer and coach, with your Hawaiian woman's powerful approach to "Aloha management", and as soon as I joined your community blog at Talking Story the night before yesterday, I was very heartily welcomed, with a personal style welcome email from you, encouraging me to introduce myself. The headline of your mail was: You made my day! And all I can say is that this really made me feel good inside and want to come back for more!

I've been wondering what's your special approach that makes me relax and just like what I read without resistance, and I think I'm touched by this way of involving your readers so naturally in an online community. Another gift from you that I feel connected with, is your personal way of mediating practical life wisdom and profound insight in the local Hawaiian way of looking at life, expressed in the usage of Hawaiian terms to explain simple things and rules for your mutual engagement with others, also called Managing with Aloha, the title of your book.

It was introduced and discussed in Lisa Kimball's May book club at http://www.virtualchautauqua.com but I have to admit I was one of those silent readers, learning vicariously from the conversation of others. Too many time taking, meaningless engagements and useless stuff need to be thrown out of my life, before a more relaxed and back leaned summer where I can work at my own pace.

I've skimmed the first chapters of Managing with Aloha, but resisted to buy it yet. I'm directly touched and I see that I'm already on the move since the start of this year, and I've come a long way with some of these ways to keep my life more organized and leave out needless activities, scrap artifacts and time thieves that are noisy or irrelevant; But after reading your blog and joining your community, I cannot resist much longer :-)

OK, this was not much of an intro to myself. This blog would tell some more, and I'll be back soon with more thoughts and inputs. In the meantime just had to say,

goddag from Denmark

yours,

Susanne

4 NETS to better search stragegies

From Bernie "Webquest" Dodge's page I found a simple guide on how to narrow down your search engine hits. I was happy to see that this is how I do myself.

Start	Narrow
Use	Exact Phrases
	Trim the URL
Seek	Similar Pages

A Moodle meeting place, showcasing Moodle 1.5 beta

http://facultyroom.org/

This is yet another Moodle developer & teacher community, facilitated by Tom Murdock, Gina Stevens and Sheila Gatling. I've seen three courses here: Introducing Moodle, Teachers using Moodle, and Moodle features demo.

To me, this offers an opportunity to try out the new Moodle 1.5 beta version. It has Instant messaging, and I can choose between many different skins. What more is new? Will have to check it out and come back to share.