Hi everyone,
Here's the latest update on Usbong.
Towards the end of this month,
I, along with my advisor, Dr. Reena Estuar,
will be conducting an Usbong workshop
at Ateneo de Davao, Philippines.
Our focus will be on mLearning,
i.e. using Usbong to build storybooks,
for interactive digital storytelling.
Incidentally, here's a news article
from inquirer.net about an
English-Filipino-Cebuano storybook app.
This can be done using Usbong as well.
Right now, I am building a sample app
that will further showcase what Usbong can do.
While our initial idea was to help people
build apps, we have learned that
we are also building people.
This is why, I would like to share here
on our mailing list some quotations
I've recently read from Gandhi on Law
and Viktor Frankl on Medicine.
I believe these help further our cause.
1) Law (according to Gandhi)
"I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby-- not even money, certainly not my soul."
--> From Gandhi's autobiography: "All Men Are Brothers"
2) Medicine (according to Viktor Frankl)
"A patient once declared that she thought her life meaningless and therefore did not want to get well; but that everything would be different and fine if only she had a job that fulfilled her--if, for example, she were a doctor or a nurse or a chemist or were engaged in some kind of scientific research. It was necessary to show this patient that the job at which one works is not what counts, but rather the manner in which one does the work. It does not lie with the occupation, but always with us, whether those elements of the personal and the specific which constitute the uniqueness of our existence are expressed in the work and thus make life meaningful.
What, really, is the doctor's condition? What gives meaning to his activities? Practicing all the arts of medicine? Giving an injection in this case or prescribing a medicine in that? To practice all the arts of medicine is not to practice the art of medicine. The medical profession merely provides a framework wherein the doctor finds continual opportunities to fulfill himself through the personal exercise of professional skill. The meaning of the doctor's work lies in what he does beyond his purely medical duties; it is what he brings to his work as a personality, as a human being, which gives the doctor his peculiar role. For it would come to the same thing whether he or a colleague gave injections, etc., if he were merely practicing the arts of medicine, merely using the tricks of the trade. Only when he goes beyond the limits of purely professional service, beyond the tricks of the trade, does he begin that truly personal work which alone is fulfilling.
And what about the work of nurses, which our patient so envied? They sterilize syringes, carry bedpans, change bedding--all highly necessary acts, but scarcely enough in themselves to satisfy the human spirit. But when a nurse does some little thing beyond her more or less regimented duties, when, say, she finds a personal word to say to a critically ill person--then and only then is she giving meaning to her life through her work. Every occupation allows for this, so long as the work is seen in the proper light. The indispensability and irreplaceability, the singularity and uniqueness issue from the person, depend on who is doing the work and on the manner in which he is doing it, not on the job itself."
--> Frankl, Viktor. 1969. The doctor and the soul. USA: Bantam Books, Inc. p95-96.
Finally, let us recall to mind
Dr. Juan Flavier who recently passed away.
May he rest in peace.
Mike
p.s. for those who would like to opt out of the mailing list, please feel free to let me know.
