EuroPLOT at DeLFI 2011

A presentation of EuroPLOT was made at DeLFI 2011 conference in Dresden, Germany, and a short paper published in the conference book. The poster outlines of the main outcomes and the methodology of the project. In the presentation we demonstrated the value of persuasive design principles, referring in detail to some of Fogg's principles, and we discussed the impact that it can have on the design of learning resources and learning technologies. The feedback received from the participants was positive and confirmed an interest in the new innovative design approach that EuroPLOT is aiming to realise.  Download:  Poster Conference Web Site: http://delfi2011.de//

Publication of interest for persuasive Hebrew learning

A fresh publication from Brill in Leiden has two articles of special interest in relation to the Emdros databases used in the EuroPLOT. Ulrik Sandborg-Petersen describes how he developed the Emdros database management system. Nicolai Winther-Nielsen describes a part of the prehistory of the EuroPLOT in so far as it evolved from experimental work on learning technology and linguistic research based on the Emdros database of the Hebrew Bible.

The new book Tradition and Innovation in Biblical Interpretation. Studies Presented to Professor Eep Talstra on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday (Studia Semitica Neerlandica), edited by Wido Th. van Peursen and Janet W. Dyk (http://www.brill.nl/tradition-and-innovation-biblical-interpretation#DESREAD_1), celebrates the work of professor of Old Testament and Bible and Computing&Humanities Eep Talstra. Pioneering innovative corpus-driven research of the Hebrew Bible in 1977, he started developing pascal programs at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, and then established the Werkgroep Informatica research project which developed syntactic programs for linguistic analysis of the Hebrew Bible. This innovate corpus-driven research has had many valuable applications, including persuasive learning from annotated text corpora.

The first article is Ulrik Sandborg-Petersen's "On Biblical Hebrew and Computer Science: Inspiration, Models, Tools, and Cross-Fertilization", p. 261-276: He traces the history behind the database of the Werkgroep Informatica of the Vrije Universiteit (WIVU) through the 1994 dissertation of Crist-Jan Doedens. Sandborg-Petersen's prize winning dissertation from 2008 developed the Hebrew Bible database into an Emdros database in a Aalborg University project on the collected works of pastor, poet and playwright Kaj Munk, and this database is used in the EuroPLOT.

The second article is Nicolai Winther-Nielsen's "Persuasive Hebrew Exercises: The Wit of Technology-Enhanced Language Learning", p. 277-298: Tracking the role of learning technology in Hebrew language learning courses, it describes how several of Ulrik Sandborg-Petersen's programs were used in course development since 2004. These programs are now developed into the commercial Paradigms Master Pro as well as the open source grammar and syntax tool Linguistic Tree Constructor. This experimental work also formed the core in a partner project with programmer Claus Tøndering who developed the Ezer Emdros-based Exercise Tool - 3ET, using the Emdros database of the Hebrew Bible for generating random exercises for language learners. The 3ET is now developed into EuroPLOT's PLOTLearner tool for persuasive language learning.

EuroPLOT at Interact 2011

A small corner of the persuasive Learning Design process was presented at Interact 2011 in Lisbon in the beginning of September.

When the euro PLOT partners met in Aalborg in May 2011, they were asked to participate in an Inspiration Card Workshop, which aim was to help develop a common language between case representatives, designers and developers, and to ensure that all partners left the meeting with an understanding of the challenges and possibilities within the 4 PLOT work cases, as well as a general understanding of Persuasive Design.

The short paper very briefly describes how the workshop furthermore helped integrate ethical considerations into the development process. The paper was originally submitted as a full paper but was accepted as a short paper and poster, as the actual workshop had not yet been held at the call for papers deadline. Reviews were however very positive and we expect to publish the full paper version of this paper at a later time.

In Lisbon, the paper and poster was presented by Jens Dinesen, and was met with much interest, not only regarding the particular perspective of the paper, but also regarding euro PLOT in general.

Both paper and poster are available in the publications section.

EuroPLOT at SBL in London in July

EuroPLOT was presented in London in July and the papers are now online.

The main international conference for Bible scholars at Kings' College in London on July 6 2011 had a special session on Persuasive Hebrew Learning. Members of EuroPLOT introduced the project and made the case for developing new technology for learning from the Hebrew Bible database published by the German Bible Society.


Chair and first presenter Nicolai Winther-Nielsen introduced EuroPLOT. This is the first part of the presentation video. The second part is here.

The key speaker was Professor Tom Boyle from the Learning Technology Research Institute who presented GLOMaker. This is his introduction to GLOMaker; the second part can be found here

The other presentations are available at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/nicolaiwn.

Programmer Claus Tøndering and research student Daniel Lundsgaard Skovenborg presented aspects of the new PLOTLearner which we develop for the Hebrew Bible. Nava Bergman is an Associate Partner in the EuroPLOT and she introduced her online learning at Gothenborg University. Jari Metsämuuronen, Senior Researcher of National Board of Education in Finland presented the results of measurements on training of proficiency in Biblical Hebrew at Helsinki University.

The program is accessible here: View or Download

Presentation at SLE 2011: "ULM Revisited: ..."

Elizabeth Guest (Leeds Metropolitan University) presented a paper at the Societas Linguistica Europea (SLE 2011) conference in Logrono, Spain. The paper was entitled “ULM Revisited: A Semantic Framework that incorporates Syntax and Information Theory”. The focus is an exploration of automatic construction of semantic databases. This has particular relevance to the Kaj Munk project and potential relevance to the Ancient Hebrew project, which are among the case studies in EuroPLOT .