Bereshit Basic Biblical Hebrew (3BH) on Moodle is now released for third party testing following the world wide marketing of two important exercise tools by January 2010.

And Mission Accomplished! Read the latest news on how a graduate school in Madagascar, among the poorest coutries in the World, today is using the 3BH as technology for self-directed learning!

Bereshit is Hebrew for 'beginning'. It is the first word of the Hebrew Bible, and therefore also the name for the Book of Genesis in Jewish rabbinical tradition. And Bereshit Basic Biblical Hebrew (3BH) is a beginner's learning environment to help the student learn to master basic Biblical Hebrew from the first three chapters of Genesis.

3BM is developing the 3BH for online learning of Biblical Hebrew in Moodle (cf http://www.3bmoodle.dk/). It supports learning for students who have access to the morphology of the WIVU text in the Libronix software products SESB or the Logos Original Languages Library.

Nicolai Winther-Nielsen gave an introductory presentation of the 3BH project in a paper at SBL in New Orleans November 24 2009 and he has recorded it in the screencapture Hebrew Learning - SBL 2009 (Login as guest).

He is developing the theory of Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOT) for learning and teaching introductory Biblical Hebrew. He focuses on open and low-cost tools and develops learning objects, experiences and quizzes in Moodle and in screencapture videos. 

The 3BH integrates 3ET, PMP, LTC and SESB: 

• Ulrik Sandborg-Petersen released the Paradigms Master Pro (PMP)  in December 2010 (cf Paradigm exercises and http://paradigmsmasterpro.com/). 3BM co-director Nicolai Winther-Nielsen was involved in the early stages of developing the first version of Biblical Paradigms (http://quiz.emergence.dk/quiz/hebrew/), and he has supplied the data for Hebrew from the 3BH Moodle. 3BM is proud to the first distributor for Sandborg-Petersen on the world market has entrusted us to marked the first version of the new Hebrew Master Pro for sale through our internet shop here.  
• Claus Tøndering released the Ezer Emdros-based Ezercise Tool (3ET) (cf 3ET exercises) January 2010. This program has a license to the Emdros database of Ulrik Sandborg-Petersen. In the 3BH we use the 3ET exercise tool with the Werkgroep Informatica Text (WIT) of the Hebrew Bible, and the texts of Genesis 1-3 can be downloaded for free  here. (File size: 35 MB.) 
• Ulrik Sandborg-Petersen has also developed the Linguistic Tree Constructor  (LTC) tool for teaching and learning intra- and inter-clausal grammar. Thanks to his development work and the kind permission of the Director of the Alan Groves Center for Advanced Linguistic Research we can supply an interactive version of the Westminster text for Genesis 1-3 to be used in LTC. 
• Furthermore, we are also able to supply the word, phrase and clause-level functions in the WIVU-database of SESB for Genesis 1-3 allowing learners to inspect these chapters interactively and engage with the levels of the text.  

3BH DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS 2010

The 3BH learning environment is now being implemented in several courses as part of the testing and development of the new tools in teaching.

In February and March 2010 Nicolai Winther-Nielsen directed a pilot project as a visiting professor at the Lutheran Graduate School of Theology (SALT) in Madagascar.. The country does not yet have broadband connection, and as in most African countries nearly no students at the school could afford books and PCs. The 3BH tools were successfully installed on stationary PCs with XT, and the results were excellent. Videos and training with PMP and 3ET helped the students progress very fast, and they have now learned how to acquire basic skills, and train others in collaborative learning.

3BM is now working on online access for SALT on Moodle. We prepare for a possible access via the East African high bandwith fibre optic submarine cable which may be become available at the school later this year. The project will demonstrate how schools of Theology in Africa can connect to an online learning environment by using open source solutions and free or low coast academic ressources. It is the vision of 3BM to develop this solution as a IT teaching technology for young vibrant, non-government funded schools of Theology globally.. 

Other international projects so far only involves testing of the paradigm quiz tool (PMP) for class teaching:

• January 2010: Dr Jack Klem, VP of Academics and Graduate School Dean at Northland
  International University (http://www.ni.edu/)
  in Dunbar, WI
• Summer of 2010: testing in class by one of the leading experts on Hebrew Grammar, Professor Christo van der Merwe at University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
• November 2010: The system will be demonstrated at the SBL meeting in Atlanta.    

The Madagascar pilot project was made possible through gracious offers for tools free of charge, and 3BM would like to express its deepest and sincere thanks for cooperation: 

• Dr Bertram Salzmann, former director of software development at the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, for installation of SESB on the school's computers.
• Dr Ulrik Sandborg-Petersen, Emergence, for free licenses to students for use of Paradigms Master Pro and the Emdros database in all programs. 
• IT-consultant Claus Tøndering, Ezer, for free licenses to students for use of 3ET.

The 3BH is being developed as a case of a PLOT for language learning. In the Autumn of 2009 Nicolai Winther-Nielsen directed a project for Daniel Kjøller Skovenborg who wrote PLOT applied to Hebrew language learning.

Finally, Winther-Nielsen is also for the 3BH using the linguistic transliteration and glossing available for the 3BH in the Role-Lexical Module. This transliteration follows the Bergman system and is described in Winther-Nielsen, Nicolai; Claus Tøndering & Chris Wilson, “Transliteration of Biblical Hebrew for the Role-Lexical Module” Technical Report SEE-J Hiphil 6 [http://www.see-j.net/index.php/hiphil] (2009).   

3BH was developed to exploit the Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar published by van der Merwe, Kroeze and Naudé (1999/2002), and available as a ressource for Logos. However, Winther-Nielsen is also looking into a cooperation with Nava Bergman on how to implement her unique and acclaimed pedagogical concepts and practices into the 3BH environment.

The long term goal is to explore how persuasive technology can help us influence the attitudes and engagement of learners working with the WIT text which is commercially available in the SESB.

The 3BH technology is a perfect match for students using the SESB, the Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible, but the WIT morphology is also available in the Logos Bible Software OLL. Teachers can use their own teaching material, and it will be possible to get class access to the material through Moodle. Further details on the project can be found at 3BH - News (Login as
guest) (http://www.3bmoodle.dk/course/view.php?id=33).

HISTORY

The current Genesis project continues years of developing and testing a digital teaching material. Since 2003 Nicolai Winther-Nielsen has worked on an interactive course material for Biblical Hebrew at the introductory level and achieved significant results. It started up as a hyptertext system based on the best reference grammar commercially available at the time, the van der Merwe and al., A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar.

At an early stage Assistant Professor Ulrik Sandborg-Petersen of the University of Aalborg developed Biblical Paradigms Quiz for Hebrew  for this course (cf http://quiz.emergence.dk/), and the course also exploited his tool the Linguistic Tree Constructor. Furthermore, Winther-Nielsen was using the LMS-platform Moodle Also from the early days of the project for distribution of course material and collaboration among students.

In 2007 Winther-Nielsen started testing of the first experimental version of a Danish teaching grammar called Bibelhebraisk I Begyndelsen (Biblical Hebrew 'In the beginning'; see in Danish Bibelhebraisk IKT). This version was developed for Logos' Personal Book Builder (PBB) tool and was tested in class and online teaching by students using Logos Bible Software products, but not by SESB, because this program lacks the PBB-reader key. 

The text of this Logos tool and the teaching resources was revised and tested in class experimentation in the Fall of 2008, and the ideas and technology was developed in discussion with programmer Claus Tøndering who followed the course and shaped the technological angle for the work.

Nicolai Winther-Nielsen is now combining the 3ET tool and its export functions with development of material for a fully revised version of the 3BM material, and this is now in a beta testing version. This whole new learning environment will hopefully be ready for global release by the Summer of 2010. After this project the goal is to integrate the new technology into the pedagogical ideas of Nava Bergman's seminal Cambridge Biblical Hebrew Workbook (see Bergman eLearning and available at e-3bm.com).

DEVELOPER OF 3BH

Nicolai Winther-Nielsen is Associate Professor at Copenhagen Lutheran School of Theology and the University of Aalborg, and adjunct faculty at the University of Wales. He started teaching Biblical Hebrew in 1977 as a student and did his doctorate at the University of Lund on a functional discourse of the Book of Joshua in 1995. He teaches Hebrew Bible and Language Studies. He has been actively involved in e-Learning since 2003 and also teaches Persuasive Design for World Views Studies with a specialization in the information architecture of computer software.

He has skills in computer-assisted analysis of Biblical Hebrew as a member of the Werkgroep Informatica at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam since 1987, and he is currently involved in developing a Role-Lexical Module for a Role and Reference Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. He has developed teaching material as PDF and video resources for Moodle as well as a “Personal Book Builder” resource for use in Logos.