Improve your English language skills while shouting at your friends with Ibigkas! This drill-type game helps you practice rhymes, synonyms and antonyms independently or with a group of friends. Speak loud, speak fast, and work together to win.
Check the Ibigkas! User Guide for the complete steps of the game! Know how to get started, how to play the single player mode, and how to play multiplayer mode with friends. Have fun and help your friends learn how to play too!
ALLS reintroduces What-If Hypothetical Implementations in Minecraft (WHIMC) to the public with the continuation of the project, Nurturing Interest in STEM Among Filipino Learners Using Minecraft. This project aims to deploy WHIMC to other schools, specifically public schools to determine the impacts of using WHIMC and Minecraft in cultivating the interests of students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES – The Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences (ALLS) has conducted a series of teacher trainings for basic education teachers that focused on module development using the What-If Hypothetical Implementations in Minecraft (WHIMC) worlds. The goals were to introduce Minecraft and WHIMC to the teachers, and develop their skills on module or lesson plan development using WHIMC in their classes.
Through its project Nurturing Interest in STEM among Filipino Learners using Minecraft funded by DOST-PCIEERD, ALLS was able to conduct four (4) teacher training sessions in total – two online and two on-site trainings.
In March 2021, ALLS conducted one (1) online teacher training on the purpose and use of WHIMC in partnership with Dr. Jeff Ginger of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), a postdoctoral associate of the WHIMC project of UIUC. A total of six (6) teacher participants attended the training. ALLS then conducted another online teacher training on developing learning modules using WHIMC last May 2022, which was in partnership with the Ateneo Teacher Center. A total of sixteen (16) teachers have successfully completed the training requirements and received Continuing Professional Development (CPD) units.
Then, in October 2022, ALLS started to conduct on-site trainings for for Ramon Magsayasay Elementary School (RMES) and Leopoldo B. Santos Elementary School (LBSES) intermediate level teachers.
Workshop on the use of WHIMC EE at RMES. The training facilitators and the school principal intently observe the teachers trying the game.
Dr. Rodrigo discussed the training program during the training with RMES teachers.
A teacher from LBSES presenting the sample module their group drafted as an exercise.
After the training, each school endorsed teachers from Grade levels 4, 5 and 6. The teachers drafted lesson plans integration WHIMC in a topic from the school curriculum, and implemented it to a pilot class from said levels.
ALLS team and the teachers of ERSES
ERSES teachers showing their WHIMC Education Edition apps through the school’s tablets
With the new grant under the University Research Council (URC) of the Ateneo de Manila University, ALLS was able to conduct another on-site teacher training for Eulogio Rodriguez elementary school for their Grades 2 to 6 teachers. This is part of the laboratory’s effort to continue the school deployment of WHIMC in Education Edition
Dr. Maria Mercedes T. Rodrigo of ALLS attended EduSummIT 2023 from May 29 (Mon) – June 1 (Thu), 2023 in Kyoto, Japan. EduSummIT was a gathering of about 90 international researchers, educators, and practitioners interested in the use of effective and appropriate use of information technology in education. It was supported by UNESCO and hosted by the Ogata Laboratory at Kyoto University.
Games are used in classrooms in order to increase student motivation and engagement. But do they, really? This question is at the crux of research performed by the Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences (ALLS). Using the What-If Hypothetical Implementations Using Minecraft (WHIMC) developed at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC) as a platform, ALLS studies the effects of WHIMC on student interest in STEM, student affective states, and student in-game behaviors, among others.
For this research, Ms. Maricel A. Esclamado, Dr. Maria Mercedes T. Rodrigo and Dr. Jenilyn A. Casano were awarded the Best Technical Design Paper Award for their paper entitled, “Achievement, Behaviors, and STEM Interest of Frustrated and Bored Learners using Minecraft” at the 30th International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE 2022) held on Nov. 28 – Dec. 2, 2022 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ICCE is the flagship conference of the Asia Pacific Society for Computers in Education. The Best Technical Design Paper award is given to papers that discuss the application of existing technological tools to teaching, learning, and/or assessment in a highly innovative manner.
Analyzing student-game interaction logs and out-of-game assessments, the authors found that the game had no impact on the STEM interest of students who expressed boredom and frustration. Students who are frustrated tended to disengage from the game while students who are bored tend to do less well on post-game assessments.
