A trainer and a trainee learning for IMPACT by BibleOL
The goal of the university is to lead in innovation and make an imPACt. After the first week of Intensive Biblical Hebrew at PAC we will now embark on a new journey to create a new learning environment driven by Bible Online Learner and my Global Biblical Hebrew and by TheWell.
The impact of this course after the first week has been way beyond my wildest dreams. I believe and expect that we will come far in Kenya and beyond. Setting this project up at PAC was recommended by our partner Dr Renier de Blois, the Director of the NIDA Instiute.
The two typical participants in our course are our “prophet” Elija (on the right) who has already learned Biblical Hebrew. He is now relearning Biblical Hebrew through Bible Online Learner and in training to become one of the trainers for news learners. He is the coordinator for the Nairobi group, and he is facilitating beginner students like Patrick (on the leaft). The course was succesful because we after a few days got the learning teams up and running.
This is possible because the leadership of the university is fully endorsing this new way of peruasive learning through Bible Online Leaner. Even the Dean of Biblical studies, Professor Joseph Koech, and a heard of one of the departments of Biblical Studies, Dr Micah Moenga, particpated in the course.
Last, and event more importantly, Dr Victor Lonu, the main lecturer for Biblical Hebrew participated in the course. He fully embraces the new program and plan to include the new approach in his instruction for the future.
Dr Lonu is now the local director and a cordial supporter with whom I will collaborate to implement this new approach in Kenya. He is also a French speaker and a native of DR Congo and may very well have an influence beyond PAC and Kenya in years to come.
Countless projects have helped me realize that the new revolutionary BibleOL-driven approach to language learning will always fail unless all decision makers fully believe in it and supports it! If on the other hand the entire chain of command is fine-tuned for this, the sky may be the limit
The goal was the same as in my Copenhagen classroom. Beginners are able to read Biblical Hebrew in five days and with some help can spell their way through Genesis one. The was achieved for the first time in an African classroom. It was a great moment as one of the learners on the fifth and last day of the course was able to read Genesis chapter 1 verse 26.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor of PAC, Professor of Biblical Hebrew, Diphus Chemerion was present at this reading and explained what it means to be created in the image of God. He also expressed his admiration for what this new way of learning can achieve.
At this great moment in the final hours of the course, the true sense of “Let us make” took on an entirely new meaning. Our mandate to modulate the mandate of God extends also to creating a rich learning environment where we can enhance acquisition of skills to understand God’s communication. And, we will indeed then be able to govern over our fellow learners as we facilitate them in active learning this language of the original divine communication.
In order for beginners to be able to read Biblical Hebrew after just five days they must practice on the words of the Creation Account in Genesis 1 and learn to spell names of persons and countries in the Hebrew Bible. They must learn this as a game and enjoy the fun of it in an environment of collaboration.
On the first day they ideally learn the first 10 consonants and two vowels and familiarize ourselves how to use Bible Online Learner for practice and on the next day learn the remaining 13 consonants as well as the most essential vowels. Day three is about learning to master the tricky business of understanding syllables and doubling. On day four they will learn the rest of the elements of the writing system and do spelling exercises. They will also begin to train the 72 proper names occurring more than 50 times in the Hebrew Bible. The final day is the big Bible Olympics day!
Learners have lots of fun in friendly competition in learning teams trying to write these proper names correctly and we will discuss how best to proceed over the next months.
This kind of empowering and successful upstart is at the core of the new PERSUADE model I am now going to test and refine under these optimal conditions in East Africa.