Fifteen years ago, Computer classes were conducted with huge books and huge computers. The moment you missed your precious diskette at home would mean you would not have the privilege of using the computer to perform tedious MS DOS activities on a black and white screen. It was a process of numbers and letters, black and white, type and command, inserting and ejecting. The Computer teacher is like a god who knows every little thing about those machines stored in a very cold room, and students- well, are like students, trying to follow every little thing the teacher said, typing letter by letter, staring at the screen every once in a while to make sure you got the instructions correctly.
Fifteen years seems like a very short time. For some, it is just the start of something, a coming of age, a revolution, puberty, a stage of experimenting and discovering. However, in technological perspective, fifteen years is more than enough to change the landscape of information, communication and technology altogether.
‘Computers’ was originally a job title used to describe human beings, predominantly women, whose job was to perform the repetitive calculations required to compute things as navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for astronomical almanacs (Kopplin, 2002).
Issues of efficiency and reliability surfaced, and people searched for ways to have a definite mechanism to save time, energy and guarantee reliable and accurate results, therefore, the computer revolution began. From abacus, Napier’s bones, EDVAC, ENIAC, Pascaline and now, the supercomputers, the simple aim of computing large numbers has transcended to address the ever-growing human needs of productivity, efficiency, accuracy and reliability (Wolfe, 2005).
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) refers to information-handling tools that are used to generate, store, process, distribute and share information. The use ICT in education is obviously not a new rally for the protection and promotion of life. There are many evidences that the use of ICT in education provides positive pedagogical, social and economic benefits (Marcial, 2012).
ICT in education has at least four stages: emerging stage which means awareness, applying stage which means learning, infusing stage which means the use and integration into the curriculum, and transforming stage which means innovative learning by developing new ways of teaching-learning using ICT. For developed countries, ICT in education is undeniably has produced significant positive impact. ICT is changing the developed world’s attitudes and approaches to education” (Loxley, 2004).
In a study on the ICT Integration in Southeast Asian Nations presented in the Tsukuba International Conference in Japan, it showed that Cambodia, People’s Democratic Republic of Lao, Myanmar and Timor Leste are on the first stage of ICT integration while Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are on the infusing stage and Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei are already in the fourth stage, which is the transforming stage (Maftuh, 2011) .Results showed that although the country is in the infusing stage of ICT integration, we still lag behind our counterparts in the group because of the huge rural-urban gap. That means, ICT integration in the urban areas are evident, but most rural areas are still on the process of integration ICT.
In 1996, DepED embarked on a 10-Year Modernization Program (1996-2005) that introduced use of information technology in the improvement of the teaching and learning process, educational management and operations. This program was supported by other government agencies and the private sector. Previous to the adoption of this policy, DepED introduced the use of radio broadcast in education in the 1960s and educational television in the 1970s. Through the support of Channel 4, the Tulong Aral program of the 1980s was the first major initiative that combined the use of radio and television in public basic education (Ronda, 2012).
In the Five-Year Information and Communication Technology for Education Strategic Plan proposed by DepED to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), it aims to achieve the curricular goals outlined in BEC through ICT where students, teachers, school managers and administrators should achieve a certain level of competence in the use of ICT in the following six areas: basic operations and concepts; social, ethical and human issues; ICT for Producing; ICT for Communicating; ICT for Researching and ICT for Problem-solving (UNESCO, 2009).
In fact, in the recent K to 12 system adapted by the Department of Education, one of the salient features of the program is to equip the K to 12 learner with information, media and technology skills through the technical-vocational courses offered in the junior and senior high school programs of the new curriculum (DepED, 2012).
In policy, ICT in Philippine Education is a big thrust towards the development of a world-class and globally competitive curriculum, however, in practice, as showed in the study of Maftu, although the Philippines is in the third stage of the curriculum integration, the country still needs to bridge the gap between urban and rural communities to fully implement the program. While most schools in urban areas like Metro Manila can easily infuse ICT in the curriculum because of available materials, competent teachers and proximity to training centers, there are many public schools in the barrios that still have no electricity to supply power to computers needed to achieve ICT awareness (Valerio, 2014).
However, with the help of private sectors, such as publishing companies, producing ICT –skilled graduates will not be too far-fetched. Especially with the advent of technological tools like tablet, smart notebooks and the like. In a report published on the Philippine Daily Inquirer, one of the leading textbook publishing houses in the Philippines, Vibal, has tied-up with Microsoft and the Department of Education to produce e-textbooks that come in a handy tablet to ‘revolutionize and maximize classroom instruction’ (Santos, 2012).
Bibliography
DepED. (2012, November 27). The K to 12 Basic Education Program. Retrieved from Official Gazette of the Philippines: http://www.gov.ph/k-12/#about
Kopplin, J. (2002). An Illustrated History of Computers Part I. Retrieved December 9, 2014, from Department of Computer Science, Kent State University: http://www.cs.kent.edu/~rothstei/10051/History.htm
Loxley, W. (2004). Asian Development Bank Publications. Retrieved from Asian Development Bank: http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/28989/ict-education-training.pdf
Maftuh, B. (2011). Center for Reasearch on International Cooperation in Educational Development. Retrieved from Center for Reasearch on International Cooperation in Educational Development - University of Tsukuba: http://www.criced.tsukuba.ac.jp/math/apec/apec2011/19-20/06_BunyaminMaftuh-paper.pdf
Marcial, D. E. (2012). ICT in Teacher Education in Region 7: Benchmarking, Training, Technology Development, and Evaluation towards Innovative Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from Learning Is Fun!: http://www.davemarcial.net/phernet-ict4ted.html
Ronda, R. A. (2012, July 26). DepEd to use ICT to enhance K to 12 basic curriculum. The Philippine Star.
Santos, M. A. (2012, March 14). When Digital Classrooms Become A Reality. Philippine Daily Inquirer.
UNESCO. (2009). Planipolis. Retrieved from A portal of education plans and policies from UNESCO Member States providing a single entry to documents from various official sources.: http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/Philippines/Philippines_ICT4E_Strategic_Plan.pdf
Valerio, A. P. (2014, June 30). DevEx News. Retrieved from A media platform for the global development community: https://www.devex.com/news/the-link-between-electricity-and-education-83789
Wolfe, V. F. (2005). History of Computers. Retrieved from Department of Computer Science, University of Rhode Island: http://homepage.cs.uri.edu/faculty/wolfe/book/Readings/Reading03.htm
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