Special Program In ICT

 Information Communication Technology

ICT, or information and communications technology (or technologies), is the infrastructure and components that enable modern computing.

The term is generally accepted to mean all devices, networking components, applications and systems that combined allow people and organizations (i.e., businesses, nonprofit agencies, governments and criminal enterprises) to interact in the digital world.Diverse set of technological tools and resources used to transmit, store, create, share or exchange information.

These technological tools and resources include computers, the Internet(websites, blogs and emails), live broadcasting technologies (radio, television and webcasting),recorded broadcasting technologies (podcasting, audio and video players and storage devices) and telephony (fixed or mobile, satellite , visio / video-conferencng, etc).

History of Computers: A Brief Timeline

The computer was born not for entertainment or email but out of a need to solve a serious number-crunching crisis. By 1880, the U.S. population had grown so large that it took more than seven years to tabulate the U.S. Census results. The government sought a faster way to get the job done, giving rise to punch-card based computers that took up entire rooms.

Today, we carry more computing power on our smartphones than was available in these early models. The following brief history of computing is a timeline of how computers evolved from their humble beginnings to the machines of today that surf the Internet, play games and stream multimedia in addition to crunching numbers.

1953: Grace Hopper develops the first computer language, which eventually becomes known as COBOL. Thomas Johnson Watson Jr., son of IBM CEO Thomas Johnson Watson Sr., conceives the IBM 701 EDPM to help the United Nations keep tabs on Korea during the war.

1954: The FORTRAN programming language, an acronym for FORmula TRANslation, is developed by a team of programmers at IBM led by John Backus,according to the University of Michigan.1958: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce unveil the integrated circuit, known as the computer chip. Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his work.

1964: Douglas Engelbart shows a prototype of the modern computer, with amouse and a graphical user interface (GUI). This marks the evolution of the computer from a specialized machine for scientists and mathematicians to technology that is more accessible to the general public.

1969: A group of developers at Bell Labs produce UNIX, an operating system that addressed compatibility issues. Written in the C programming language, UNIX was portable across multiple platforms and became the operating system of choice among main frames at large companies and government entities. Due to the slow nature of the system, it never quite gained traction among home PC users.

1970: The newly formed Intel unveils the Intel 1103, the first Dynamic Access Memory (DRAM) chip.1971: Alan Shugart leads a team of IBM engineers who invent the "floppy disk,"allowing data to be shared among computers.

1973: Robert Metcalfe, a member of the research staff for Xerox, develops Ethernet for connecting multiple computers and other hardware

1974-1977: A number of personal computers hit the market, including Scelbi &Mark-8 Altair, IBM 5100, Radio Shack's TRS-80 — affectionately known as the "Trash80" — and the Commodore PET.

1975: The January issue of Popular Electronics magazine features the Altair 8080,described as the "world's first minicomputer kit to rival commercial models." Two" computer geeks," Paul Allen and Bill Gates, offer to write software for the Altair, using the new BASIC language. On April 4, after the success of this first endeavor, the two childhood friends form their own software company, Microsoft.

1976: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple Computers on April fool’s Day and roll out the Apple I, the first computer with a single-circuit board, according to Stanford University. The TRS-80, introduced in 1977, was one of the first machines whose documentation was intended for non-geeks (Image credit: Radio shack)

1977: Jobs and Wozniak incorporate Apple and show the Apple II at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It offers color graphics and incorporates an audio cassette drive for storage.

1978: Accountants rejoice at the introduction of VisiCalc, the first computerized spreadsheet program.

1979: Word processing becomes a reality as Micro Pro International releases WordStar. "The defining change was to add margins and word wrap," said creator Rob Barnaby in email to Mike Petrie in 2000. "Additional changes included getting rid of command mode and adding a print function. I was the technical brains — I figured out how to do it, and did it, and documented it. "The first IBM personal computer, introduced on Aug. 12, 1981, used the MS-DOS operating system.

1981 : The first IBM personal computer, code-named "Acorn," is introduced. It uses Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system. It has an Intel chip, two floppy disks and an optional color monitor. Sears & Roebuck and Computer land sell the machines, marking the first time a computer is available through outside distributors. It also popularizes the term PC.

1983 : Apple's Lisa is the first personal computer with a GUI. It also features a drop-down menu and icons. It flops but eventually evolves into the Macintosh. The Gavilan SC is the first portable computer with the familiar flip form factor and the first to be marketed as a "laptop."

1985 : Microsoft announces Windows, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. This was the company's response to Apple's GUI. Commodore unveils the Amiga 1000, which features advanced audio and video capabilities.

1985:  The first dot-com domain name is registered on March 15, years before the World Wide Web would mark the formal beginning of Internet history. The Symbolics Computer Company, a small Massachusetts computer manufacturer, registersSymbolics.com. More than two years later, only 100 dot-coms had been registered.

1986:  Compaq brings the Deskpro 386 to market. Its 32-bit architecture provides as speed comparable to mainframes.

1990 : Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN, the high-energy physics laboratory in Geneva, develops Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), giving rise to the World Wide Web.

1996 : Sergey Brin and Larry Page develop the Google search engine at Stanford University.

1997 : Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple, which was struggling at the time, ending Apple's court case against Microsoft in which it alleged that Microsoft copied the "look and feel" of its operating system.

1999 : The term Wi-Fi becomes part of the computing language and users begin connecting to the Internet without wires.

2003:  The first 64-bit processor, AMD's Athlon 64, becomes available to the consumer market.

2004 : Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 challenges Microsoft's Internet Explorer, the dominant Web browser. Facebook, a social networking site, launches.

2005 : YouTube, a video sharing service, is founded. Google acquires Android, a Linux-based mobile phone operating system.

2006 : Apple introduces the MacBook Pro, its first Intel-based, dual-core mobile computer, as well as an Intel-based iMac. Nintendo's Wii game console hits the market.

2007 : The iPhone brings many computer functions to the smartphone.

2009:  Microsoft launches Windows 7, which offers the ability to pin applications to the taskbar and advances in touch and handwriting recognition, among other features. AD Download to read ad-free.    

2010 : Apple unveils the iPad, changing the way consumers view media and jumpstarting the dormant tablet computer segment.

2011 : Google releases the Chrome book, a laptop that runs the Google Chrome OS.

2012 : Facebook gains 1 billion users on October 4.

2015:  Apple releases the Apple Watch. Microsoft releases Windows 10.

2016 : The first reprogrammable quantum computer was created. "Until now, there hasn't been any quantum-computing platform that had the capability to program new algorithms into their system. They're usually each tailored to attack a particular algorithm," said study lead author Shantanu Debnath, a quantum physicist and optical engineer at the University of Maryland, College Park.

2017:  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing anew "Molecular Informatics" program that uses molecules as computers. "Chemistry offers a rich set of properties that we may be able to harness for rapid, scalable information storage and processing," Anne Fischer, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office, said in a statement. "Millions of molecules exist, and each molecule has a unique three-dimensional atomic structure as well as variables such as shape, size, or even color. This richness provides a vast design space for exploring novel and multi-value ways to encode and process data beyond the 0s and 1st of current logic- based, digital architectures." [Computers of the Future May Be Minuscule Molecular Machines]

Announcement of Special Program (Ict)

The Digital Rise Program, spearheaded by Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del Pascua through the directives of Secretary Briones, is an educational framework that anchors to the infrastructure, software, and capacity building of learners and teachers in technology.

According to the report presented by ICTS Director Abram Y.C Abanil, the Digital Rise Program has three major components. First of these components is the Digital Literacy, where the K to 12 curriculum is updated to include productivity tools like Word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations for Grade 4 to Grade 6.

Grade 7 learners will have basic programming skills subject while Grades 8 to 10 will have multimedia concepts as a subject focusing on video editing and graphics design. Lastly, vocational skills like computer servicing, technical drafting, and broadband installation are assigned to Senior High School students.

Through its second component, the ICT Assisted Teaching, DepEd aims to provide teachers with equipment, software content, and skills for their daily classroom teaching. The program also envisions providing laptops, smart TVs, and lapel speakers to each teacher and classroom.

Lastly, the ICT Assisted Learning for learners component of the program aims to grant access and adaptability through DepEd Learning Management System (DLMS) and synchronous blended learning.

In addition, the Department provided laptops and tablets to learners and teachers and the continuation of the Public Education Network through the DepEd Computerization Program.

The Department also partnered with Microsoft and Google to continuously provide software to its stakeholders. The DepEd Commons, Learning Resources Portal, and the DLMS are some of the platforms where learners and teachers can access DepEd contents like the self-learning modules, DepEd TV, and DepEd Radio episodes.