Project Runeberg

I am currently taking a course in Nordic literature through online studies with the University in Bergen, Nordisk. This semester we are reading and studying Nordic literature from the Viking Age and up to 1900, from Snorre Sturlasson to Henrik Ibsen. There's lots to read and books are heavy as well as expensive. Of course there is the library, but I have discovered a great resource online, Project Runeberg, a sister project to Project Gutenberg, were they aim to digitalize and make older Swedish, Norwegian and Danish literature available online. It's a great initiative.

So far it's mostly Swedish and Danish literature, but some Norwegian editions are available. The romantic writer and poet Henrik Wergeland's "Digte" has recently been publihsed on this site, and it's a remarkable feeling to flip through the 1853 edition of Digte with famous poems like "Jødinden" (The Jewish Girl) and others. Some books are scanned by the Google Book Search while others are scanned on private initiative.

Imagine having these Scandinavian clenodiums at our fingertips on our laptops? And it makes my reading easier.

Back to school

It's been a while since I've blogged, but I hope to come back stronger as the weeks progress. Summer has been fantastic with friends and family, home and abroad.




I was back at work three weeks ago and I feel it's good to be back in the swing of things, and I'm excited to continue building up a school as we are in our third year now. I will continue experimenting and exploring the opportunities of using digital media in my lessons. An increasing number of the students have laptops, digital cameras, smartphones and what not. We need to take advantage of this. Kids use these tools on a daily basis, and school has to become competitive using its first and foremost advantage - knowledge.

I am also happy to report that I've finally got my hands on an iPhone 3G, and I must admit I'll never go back to old school mobiles ever again. It's a different world altogether. Bless my Sony Ericsson K810i - it was a fantastic phone. Thing is, iPhone is just part phone, part everything else. Of course, it's not flawless, and some flaws are frustrating. I hope to write a post with a personal review after some more weeks of testing and working with it.

Now to sharpening pencils.