A PAPER on “HiStorya: A mobile game for Araling Panlipunan” by Ms. Saturnina F. Nisperos and company from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) won third in the Best Paper Award at the close of the 2^nd International Conference on Open and Distance e-Learning held at the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria, June 19-20. Nisperos is a faculty member at the Computer Science Department of CAS.

            Organized by the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) Foundation, Inc., and the Philippine Society for Distance Learning, Inc., the conference was participated by about 200 delegates from Malaysia, Isabela State University, Thomas Jefferson Foundation-USA, UPOU, and MMSU.

            Nisperos’ paper involves the development of a cell phone application called “HiStorya”, a game-based learning technique that can be used in teaching Araling Panlipunan (AP) subjects in Grade 8. According to her, this mobile application system integrates playing and learning that takes advantage of the portability of cell phones and other mobile devices.

            In the conference, Nisperos described the design and development of “HiStoya”. Her group studied the topics, teaching methods, and evaluation techniques used by AP teachers and the game preferences of AP students.

            “HiStorya was developed using the Android platform and the Digital Game-based Learning Instructional Design Model,” Nisperos said in her report adding that this mobile game is very relevant in an environment where smart devices are popular and widely available. Students who will use the application can play and learn AP during or outside school hours. The immersive challenge and reward aspects of the game will motivate them to study and learn more about the subject.

            “With the game statistics report generated by the system, “HiStorya’ can help the teacher evaluate the subject proficiency level of their students,” Nisperos said.

            Meanwhile, the paper “Mobile learning for kindergarten in the K-12 curriculum” by Wilben Christie Pagtaconan, another faculty member of CAS, emerged finalist in the same competition.

            The paper presented the development of a mobile learning tool for kindergarten called “iSuro” which is implemented only in Android-based mobile devices. The contents of the application are based on the existing learning modules in Ilocano for kindergarten.