Professor Marvin Gimmelstein and his sister, Gila, the imaginary heroes of our Hineni Interactive CDs, are fast becoming part of students’ Hebrew school lives. The forty-eight 5th and 6th graders who formed the beta group to test Hineni 2 Interactive referred to the characters in their evaluations with, dare we say, affection. "Did you like the story line?" we asked. "Totally, yeah, Marvin is great," responded a student at Westchester Reform Temple, Scarsdale, NY. "I liked Marvin’s evil side," said another. (Just Marvin, no last name necessary.)

     In response to the games, Alexa, a fifth grader at Temple Beth Or, Springhouse, PA, told us "it’s a very cool and high tech idea." Said Cori, "I really enjoyed how you made learning an adventure." An adventure, indeed - Hineni 2 Interactive tells the story of an intergalactic kidnapping where students gather power in their PowerPak to vanquish the evil professor as they learn the Shabbat morning Amidah and other prayers in
Hineni 2.

     When feedback wasn’t positive, we made some changes. Some students wanted clearer instructions for the activities; the CD now provides them visually and in audio. Others needed help completing the vocabulary activities, so we included a drop-down dictionary with all the words in the chapter. And we listened carefully to the teachers’ advice too. There’s plenty of reinforcement, the software reviews terms and concepts regularly, and corrects wrong answers. Yes, the CD must be fun for the kids, but it needs to be pedagogically sound and developmentally appropriate if it is to be used in religious school classrooms and at home.

     Beta testing is an invaluable step in refining the CDs. Plans are already under way for the Hineni 3 Interactive beta testing (the CD is due out in December). This time, we’re planning to involve more schools. Watch your email to learn how you can participate!