iSchool History

The Commission on Information and Communications Technology or the CICT was created under Executive Order 269 in January 2004 to serve as the primary policy, planning, coordinating, implementing, regulating and administrative entity of the executive branch of the Government that will promote, develop, and regulate integrated and strategic ICT systems and reliable and cost-efficient communication facilities and services. The National Computer Center (NCC), Telecommunications Office (Telof) and the Communications component of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) will form part of the CICT with the National Telecommunications (NTC) and the Philippine Postal Corporation (PPC) as attached agencies. With the transfer of the NTC back to DOTC by Executive Order 454 on August 2005 and Telof and the DOTC Communications on February 2007, the CICT today is manned by NCC personnel and the Office of Chairman and a few others from Telof to handle admin matters. CICT at present is headed by Chairman Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III. Commisioners who head the different groups, Commissioner Angelo Timoteo M. Diaz de Rivera for eGoverment ,Commissioner Monchito B. Ibrahim for Cyber Services and newly appointee Com. Atty. Consuelo S. Perez for Human Capital Development Group.

Project Brief

Flagship Project of the CICT

The iSchools Project is the brainchild of former CICT Commissioner Emmanuel C. Lallana. Dr. Lallana recognizes the need to modernize the educational system. He believes that education, like medicine and business, should take advantage of the benefits of ICT and explore what ICT has to offer. According to Dr. Lallana, unlike the other fields, the educational system is still stuck with 19th century methods of teaching and learning. It's time to bring education to the 21st century.

Internet for Public High Schools - Bridging the Digital Divide

To promote the use of ICT in basic education, the iSchools project deploys Wireless Internet Computer Laboratories (WILL) Public High Schools all over the country. The WILL is composed of top of the line computer laboratories complete with one year internet subscription.

With the help of partner State Universities and Colleges, the project is able to reach even the most remote high schools. The WILL will be the Public High School's window to the sprawling web of online education material.

The iSchools WILL is composed of the following:
19 Desktop computers w/ LCD monitors
Server w/ webcam
Laptop
HP Four-in-one printer
Multimedia Projector
All computers come with speakers and UPS


Capability Building for Teachers

The WILL is but one part of bridging the digital divide. The project understands that even the most sophisticated technology will be useless without the knowledge to use them. For this reason, the project also conducts training programs to help teachers master the use of ICT in education. With expert resource persons, the project holds workshops like the Computer and Internet Literacy Course (CILC), Laboratory Management Training, Web Development Trainings and Sustainability Planning Workshop.

Use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)

The project believes that open source software provide equal or better quality than their proprietary counterparts. That is why computers deployed by the project are based on open-source software. All the computers of the WILL run on Edubuntu Linux. The Edubuntu comes complete with all the necessary applications. It provides fun and educational content with the power and security of the Linux Platform.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

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