Dr. Aurelio Vilbar presented a collaborative research entitled, “Development of ebook on Local Indigenous Knowledge System (LINKS) in Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand, and the Philippines through Telecollaboration” at the 20th International CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) Conference at the Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong on 10-12 July 2019. The travel was personally funded amounting to Php 57,000.00.
Dr. Vilbar defined LINKS as the cumulative and dynamic knowledge possessed by peoples with long histories of interaction with their natural milieu. He stressed that despite its important role to sustainable development, LINKS has deteriorated due to content assimilation which resulted from the loss of interest from the young generation.
To preserve LINKS, the research developed an ebook on the LINKS from Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand, and the Philippines using telecollaboration. Findings from the survey and key informant interviews show that the four countries’ common LINKS are related to navigation, farming, fishing, pregnancy and health. Then, the students collaborated in designing the ebook.
This research was an output of workshops organized by UNESCO Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development in Bangkok, Thailand.
When asked about their comments on my presentation, Dr. Shih-Yin-Hsu from National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology said the research promoted project-based learning.
Dr. Hiromi Nishioka from Macquire University, Australia suggested to included theoretical framework of the study for further publication.
The research was published in the conference proceedings. The other UP Cebu researchers were Prof. Jeraline Gumalal, Prof. Magnolia Laus, and Dr. Cherry Malaque.
