The Internet Cafes As Tools For Ict4e Integration In The Philippine Educational Setting

The Internet Cafes as Tools for ICT4E Integration in the Philippine Educational Setting. I.

Introduction

For a long time now there is a raging argument as to what role will the internet café play in the development of a particular community, most of the time due to the digital divide that is very evident in Philippine society, the internet cafes are usually seen on a bad light. Local government officials have been enacting laws and regulations from banning the presence of students in internet cafes during school hours, limiting the number of hours that they could operate to banning gaming activities all together. II.

The Internet Café

Much of the problem that arises in particular to the internet cafes can be traced upon the lack of understanding on the nature of its operations. For most people they see one side of the various services offered by internet café which is gaming and unknown to them, it actually has a vast amount of services in which represents the totality of the services in the digital age.

III.

The Internet Café as a tool for ICT4E Integration?

The internet café is one of the best tools that the Department of Education in order to integrate ICT programs in the Philippine educational system. As an internet café association with an advocacy of breaching the digital divide through education, we firmly believe that the internet café would be a big help in the integration of ICT in the school curriculum due to the following reasons: •

On the average there are about at least 300 internet cafes operating in a particular municipality or city. Most of them are concentrated near schools making it very accessible for teachers and students to gain internet access.

•

These internet cafes have sufficient amount of ICT resources that could be made available to suit the needs of a particular school. They have a

very fast internet connection and most of the time they are using top of line computer units in their operations. •

Most of the owners of the internet cafes are trained ICT professionals that would be able to guide and provide assistance to school administrators as to the integration of ICT in the school’s daily activities.

Internet café operators could provide the best possible service to educational institutions in the following areas: •

Determination of the computer hardware and software needs of a particular educational institution based upon their needs and use.

•

The professional maintenance of computer resources of the schools

•

Providing internet access to teachers and students in order to fully integrate ICT in their day to day activities in schools.

•

Setting up of self sustaining ICT learning centers in school campuses in order to provide adequate ICT resources for ICT integration.

IV.

Tapping the Internet Cafes for ICT4E Integration

The draft of the Five Year Information and Communication Technology Strategic Plan (DepEd ICT4E Strategic Plan) provides us with an insight on the role of the internet cafes in the ICT4 integration.

“Local community facilities such as Community eCenters and local Internet Cafes will play animportant role in overcoming the digital divide. Equity of access is an issue facing many Philippine students. While there are plans to increase the number of computers and access to ICT in each school, schools should continue to seek alternative ICT access for their students. This may include establishing an agreement with local Internet Cafes, providing students with vouchers to use in the cafes and where possible, making use of public internet access points.”

In order to harness the resources of the various internet cafes in a particular municipality or city we must be able to provide a framework in which all the players in the ICT integration would be able to come together and form a community with a single thrust. In order to remove the stigma that is associated with the internet cafes, avenues must be established in which the different players like the government units, parents, teachers and school administrators will have a deeper understanding on the role which the internet cafes would play in this integration process.

V.

Imus Model of ICT Integration for Educational Institutions

The Imus model of ICT integration for educational institution is based upon the following premise: •

Schools and government institutions are able to come up with a sound ICT integration programs that would incorporate the use of technology in the school curriculum.

•

Schools and government institutions lacks the necessary ICT infrastructure needed to be used in the implementation of the said program in the grassroots level.

•

There is willingness and acceptance on the part of the different players in the community to use the facilities of the internet cafes that is located in the vicinity of the schools and their community.

•

There is an existing internet café organization that already exists in the community that would assist in the implementation of the said program.

The Imus model is actually composed of two parts: 1. The accreditation of existing internet cafes around schools and the community that would serve as the access points of school teachers and students for their day to day activities in school

2. The creation of a self sustaining elearning centers in schools which

would be managed privately by the internet café owners or operators in a particular community. Both of this requires the active participation of an internet café organization in a particular municipality or city. They will be part of a much bigger body which is mainly composed of the local government unit, the representative of the Department of Education, School administrators and internet café organization.

It is preferable that a cooperative type of internet café organization should be organized instead of the regular non stock non profit internet café association. This form is preferred due to the following reasons: 1. The cooperative form is much more flexible than a non stock non profit organization. It would be able to conduct business transactions that are needed in terms of purchasing the much needed computer hardware and set ups that would be needed to implement the said program.

2. A

more professional management team could be formed in a cooperative setting since it is a self sustaining organization that would be able to afford to pay for the salaries and benefits of its officers. Furthermore the internet café operators would be more inclined to join in the various programs since they would be able to derive benefits from the operations of the said cooperative.