Teachers Laud Success of Vibal Group's Youtube Channel

Vibal Group Inc. (VGI) celebrates another milestone as it reached more than 690,000 subscribers on its Youtube channel, VibalTV. As of October 2021, VibalTV has more than 15.2 million views.

VibalTV primarily aims to educate students with their lessons, train teachers’ skills and techniques of the 21st-century teaching and online distance learning, and present diverse content that tackles different topics such as culture and history. Through Vibal TV, VGI continues its steadfast commitment and dedication to rethink and reimagine the entire teaching and learning experience.

Videos for 21st Century Teachers
Among the many digital initiatives VGI has produced are free webinars for teachers. These webinars let the participants learn from respected resource speakers from various fields, as well as receiving certificates of attendance. Some of its videos include Speaker’s Demo Reel and Learn@Home webinars that are shown live on YouTube. Currently, both Learn@Home and Speaker’s Demo Reel have more than 50 webinars each on the VibalTV channel.

Prior to the pandemic, VGI had already shown support to the Department of Education's (DepEd) call to improve the quality of teaching that meets the needs of ASEAN integration, K to 12 education system, and other emerging global learning frameworks. When the pandemic affected the education setup, VGI rose to the occasion and maximized its digital platforms to assist public and private school teachers as they transitioned to online teaching.

Videos for Learners
Other video contents that VibalTV produces are educational videos for students such as Teacher Vibal, 3-Minute Lesson, and Mga Kuwentong Chikiting. The Teacher Vibal and the 3-Minute Lesson videos help students learn school lessons in a fun and interactive way. The lessons on these videos are written and presented by licensed professional teachers, making sure that the lessons adhere to DepEd’s approved curriculum. Teacher Vibal and 3-Minute Lesson videos may also be used by teachers for their lessons.

Teacher Vibal has more than 150 videos posted on VibalTV, while 3-Minute Lessons have more than 40 videos posted on the channel. Videos from Mga Kuwentong Chikiting are based on VGI’s storybooks, Chikiting Books. Currently there are more than 80 episodes of Mga Kuwentong Chikiting on VibalTV’s channel.

Tertulia Videos
A new addition to the channel are short videos from VFI’s tertulia. The tertulia is a special online gathering, where viewers and visitors honor and remember the Vibal matriarch, Mrs. Esther A. Vibal. This is also where VFI launches new books and presents song and dance performances by renowned Filipino artists and groups such as the Sheila Ferrer, Ramon Folkloric Group, and the CCP Dance Workshop.

VibalTV's Success
More than just the growing number of its viewers and subscribers, VibalTV's success is measured by the positive impact that it makes on Philippine education. Teachers become more capable to be masters of technology in order to facilitate more personalized learning experiences for their students through the easily accessible free video content on YouTube.

You can subscribe and watch VibalTV on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/vibaltv and stay updated with VGI's latest projects and announcements.

Vibal Foundation to Launch Púgot: Head Taking, Ritual Cannibalism, and Human Sacrifice in the Philippines

Vibal Foundation, Inc. (VFI) will be launching Narciso C. Tan's Púgot: Head Taking, Ritual Cannibalism, and Human Sacrifice in the Philippines at VFI’s monthly virtual tertulia this October. Encyclopedic and analytical in its approach, this scholarly book dissects the ritualized forms of violence such as human sacrifice, ritual cannibalism, and head taking in the prehistoric Philippines.

Púgot: Head Taking, Ritual Cannibalism, and Human Sacrifice in the Philippines
Púgot weaves together historical data and archaeological studies with traditional myths, legends, and songs to create a seamless narrative of some of the most misunderstood aspects of Philippine culture and to shed light on deeply rooted cultures of violence.

Preceding the emergence of Islam and Christianity, deeply held religious beliefs led various Philippine communities to sanction ritualized forms of violence: human sacrifice, cannibalism, and head taking. Today, many Filipinos see these practices as “primitive,” “barbaric,” or pertaining only to so-called “tribes” and therefore not related to the national dynamic. Púgot forces Filipino readers to contemplate and confront the not-so-ancient past, when their ancestors sported loincloths, battle gear, and talismans, and participated in violent community-wide celebrations and rituals.

The book also reveals these practices not in isolation, but as part of the wider Southeast Asian and Austronesian milieu. The multilingual primary and secondary texts used for this work are sourced from across centuries and disciplines, including thirteenth to eighteenth-century Chinese records, Spanish-period missionary chronicles, and European and American ethnographies from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, as well as folkloric accounts and epics.

This book is the latest addition to VFI’s Academica Filipina+, which is an interdisciplinary series that pushes the boundaries of scholarly publishing with smart, literate, and thought-provoking works exploring the Philippine past, present, and future.

For interested readers, copies of Púgot: Head Taking, Ritual Cannibalism, and Human Sacrifice in the Philippines will be available for online purchase at the Vibal Online Shop at https://shop.vibalgroup.com/, Lazada https://www.lazada.com.ph/shop/vibal-books/, and Shopee https://shopee.ph/vibalgroup. For bulk orders or if you have queries, you may reach us through customercare@vibalgroup.com and marketing@vibalgroup.com or call us at +63 (2) 8580.7400 or 1-800-1000-VIBAL (84225).

Vibal Launches Quiz App

Vibal Group continues to make headway in making online teaching and learning more user-friendly and convenient for schools, teachers, and students by developing new dynamic applications. This October, Vibal releases the VSmart Quiz App where students can keep their memory sharp and their minds well-tuned—all while having fun competing with other students.

VSmart Quiz

Quizzes are effective in training and practicing our minds in analytical thinking, regardless of the platforms. It forces our brain to regain the information we learned and helps us imprint them in our memory for good. VSmart Quiz exactly does that. It is a free mobile application where users can answer questions on different subjects. The application has thousands of questions that cover topics about history,culture, politics, science, arts, sports, technology, entertainment, pop culture, and more. The questions are distributed according to three difficulty levels: low, medium, high so the users may test their knowledge as they progress through the app. Choose the difficulty level that best suits your mood.

There are also four modes for playing. Solo mode lets you challenge yourself to an exciting brain game. You may test yourself and earn points as you go from one level to another. Versus mode lets you play with another player. You may challenge a random player in a battle of wits and earn more points. Group mode lets a maximum of five players answer the questions for three rounds. Versus group mode lets one group compete with another group. All modes have a time limit for each question so be sure to be sharp in reading the questions and choices!

The group and versus group modes lets you create your own group, come up with a group name, and even select a group avatar. Teachers may also use the application to conduct a quiz bee through the Group or Versus Group mode.

The application is available to download at the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Users only need to register using their email address or Facebook credentials and they are good to go!