Vibal Publishing House recently opened to the public its I play I learn hub, an offshoot of the Vibal Digital campaign at the Nido Fortified Discovery Center, the country’s premier science museum at SM Mall of Asia.
The hub showcased the innovations of Vibal in creating and delivering context and systems for better experiences in teaching and learning. It is the integration of e-learning context enrichment for the various subject areas through the microsites i-Teach for Teachers, i-learn for students and i-Guide for parents.
This interactive content, plus the storybook and serious game apps also developed by Vibal, give learners today a different level of educational experience.
Vibal I Play I Learn has interactive exercise on touch screen PCs, storybook apps on ipod and Android tablets, Information and Photo booth, and Electronic and Traditional Library.
It is located at the second floor at the Nido Fortified Science Discovery Center and is open from 10 AM to 8 PM on Wednesdays and 10 AM to 10 PM on week-ends.
Alongside with the Vibal launching was the DOST-STII launching of the S&T Academic and Research-Based Openly Operated Kiosk stations or STARBOOKS, a one stop shop for S&T and livelihood information.
STARBOOKS is a stand alone, onsite research kiosk that provides free access on S&T information for academic and livelihood use. “STARBOOKS offers access to hundreds of thousands of book titles from the STII library alone,” explains STII Director Raymund Liboro.
It will also provide S&T contents from the DOST SciNet and the Philippine eLib which is managed by the National Library.
However, STARBOOKS differs from other library portals as it does not require internet connectivity to deliver information to its users. The kiosk has a built-in server that provides instant access to S&T information. These information can be printed or saved using standard Universal Serial Bus or USB.
STARBOOKS houses about 500,000 titles of journals/serial publications, reference materials, annual reports, theses and dissertations, technical and project reports, and directories, among others.
It also contains various videos on DOST-developed technologies for entrepreneurs looking for potential science-based livelihood.
On its initial run, 171 technology videos have been uploaded in the kiosk through the different DOST agencies. The videos range from food processing to laundry soap making and other livelihood materials.
STARBOOKS kiosks will be provided to ten provincial libraries, plus three units of computers with touch screen monitors. STII will continuously build the STARBOOKS content to ensure that the information offered are rich and timely.
“We hope that every barangay in the country will adopt a STARBOOKS kiosk to make S&T information accessible to every Filipino. We expect that this project will spur a wave of S&T enthusiasts and entrepreneurs,” says Liboro.
“I congratulate DOST-STII for coming up with this project that benefits not just our students, but also our entrepreneuring kababayans in the countryside who are always in search for livelihood opportunities but do not have the means,” says DOST Secretary Mario Montejo. “These opportunities come in a very universal medium which everybody can understand, such as technology videos,” he adds.
AGHAM Partylist Representative Angelo B. Palmones who led the ribbon cutting ceremonies graced the affair. PSciJourn MegaManila
