Last July 30, 2014 MSU-IIT through the Google Educators Group (GEG) Iligan has been chosen as an organizer for an orientation and workshop of the Doodle 4 Google competition in Iligan city. Katrina Carmela Lopez of the Doodle 4 Google Philippines said “At Google, we use the homepage logo designs to celebrate different people, events or special dates. These Google ‘doodles’ are usually created by our web designers and represent important cultural occasions. For the first time, we are opening this space up to the designs of Filipino students and learners.” This year’s Doodle4Google theme is “What can I do for the Philippines?”

The event was held in the afternoon of August 20, 2014 at the College of Education Amphitheater. It was attended by more than 100 students and teachers from public and private schools in the city. The competition is open to all Filipino children ages 5-17 years old.

The event opened with a Guess That Doodle! game. For this, Google doodles were shown on the screen and the students and teachers guessed what event or famous person’s birthday was alluded to by the doodle. Winners received goody bags from Google.

There were three speakers during the event. Mark Plaza, the GEG-Iligan manager, discussed what Google doodles are and the details of the Doodle 4 Google competition, the judging process and the prizes. Mr. John Alan Lee, adviser of HalongKulay, gave a lecture on how to incorporate the colorful Mindanaoan art designs in their doodles. Prof. German Gervacio, gave a talk on Mindanao story themes that may be used to backdrop the young artists’ work. He also promoted what he calls the Sendoodle, doodling designs about Sendong and the tragedy it brought. Gervacio emphasized the role of the artist in the community—to keep a record of a memory.

The workshop of the students was facilitated by the HalongKulay, the resident visual arts group of MSU-IIT. Google will choose 400 top doodles from the submitted entries and one overall winner will be declared in October 2014.