MODULE 2:

ICT Policies
and Issues:
Implications
to Teaching
and Learning
 Module Outcomes:

1. Discussed some ICT policies and explained their

implications to teaching and learning.
2. Explained some issues that relate to ICT
policies
3. Identified safety concerns on Internet including
digital safety rules
 INTRODUCTION
Globalization is a reality and ICT has become a
fundamental part of the process. A networked society is one
in which the entire planet is organized around
telecommunicated networks of computers. The powerful use
of network has broken boundaries, provided opportunities for
inclusion and collaboration. However, there will also be a
struggle for those who do not have access or those who are
excluded, marginalized and powerless. Thus a need to
establish policies in the use of ICT is imperative.
As the Department of Information, Communication and
Technology (DICT) says:
“The future has arrived. Now we have to ensure that we have
a place in it.”
LESSON 1:
Policies and Issues on
Internet and Implications
to Teaching and Learning
Lesson Outcomes
1.Named examples of
ICT Policies which
are applicable to
teaching and
learning
2.Discussed some
issues that relate to
the ICT policy
Excite
New technologies have become central to the lives of
every individual in this planet. Whether you are talking
on the phone, sending an electronic mail, going to the
bank, using the library, watching news on television,
going to the doctor, catching a flight, or seeing a movie,
you are using ICT. Almost everything that we do in the
modern world is influenced by the new technologies.

Would your life as a teacher be also influenced by the

new technologies?
Should we leave our lives to be controlled by technology
or should we control the utilization of technology in our
EXPLORE
One way of enhancing and regulating the use
of ICT is to formulate and implement policies to
guide appropriate decisions.

Definition of ICT Policy

The Oxford English Dictionary has defined
“policy” as a course of action, adopted and
pursued by a government, party, ruler, statesman.
It is any course of action adopted as expedient or
advantageous. Its operational definition of policy
is a plan of action to guide decisions and achieve
outcomes.
 Thus, ICT Policies are needed
to put a roadmap or course of
actions to be pursued and
adopted by various
governments, organizations,
entities involving ICT. These
include principles and guidelines
in the use of ICT which cover
three main areas:
telecommunications
(telephone), broadcasting (radio
and television) and Internet.
The New ICT Technologies
More recent technological innovations increased the
reach and speed of communications which can be
grouped into three categories:

1. Information Technology – includes the use of

computers, which has become indispensable in
modern societies to process data and save time and
effort. What are needed will be computer hardware
and peripherals, software and for the user, computer
literacy.
2. Telecommunication technologies
- include telephones (with fax) and the broadcasting of
radio and television often through satellites. Telephone
system, radio and TV broadcasting are needed in this
category.

3. Networking technologies
- The best known of networking technologies is
Internet, but has extended to mobile phone technology,
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) satellite
communications and other forms of communications are
still in their infancy. In addition to Internet, this category
also includes mobile telephone, cable, DSL, satellite and
other broadband connectivity.
The DICT Roadmap
In our country, the Department of Information
and Communication Technology (DICT) has
formulated a roadmap to guide all agencies in the
utilization, regulation and enhancement of ICT. Each
project has corresponding by policy statements and
guidelines.
The ICT for Education (ICT4E) is a program
under the DICT that supports all the efforts of
the education sector in incorporating the use
of ICT as well as in determining and gaining
access to the infrastructure (hardware,
software, telecommunications facilities and
others) which are necessary to use and deploy
learning technologies at all levels of education.
 Among the policy recommended programs that have
applications to education teaching-learning are:

1. ICT in Education Masterplan for all levels, including a National

Roadmap for Faculty Development in ICT in Education. A
National Framework Plan for ICTs in Basic Education was
developed.
2. Content and application development through the Open
Content in Education Initiative (OCEI) which converts DepEd
materials into interactive multi-media content, develop
applications used in schools, and conduct students and
teachers competitions to promote the development of
education-related web content.
3. PheDNET, is a “walled” garden that hosts educational
learning and teaching materials and applications for use by
Filipino students, their parents and teachers. All public high
schools will be part of this network with only DepEd-
approved multi-media applications, materials and mirrored
internet sites accessible from school’s PCs.

4. Established Community eLearning Centers called eSkwela

for out-of-school youth (OSY) providing them with ICT-
enhanced alternative education opportunities.
5. eQuality Program for tertiary
education through partnerships
with state universities and colleges
(SUCs) to improve quality of IT
education and the use of ICT in
education in the country,
particularly outside of Metro
Manila.
6. Digital Media Arts Program which builds
digital media skills for government using
Open Source technologies. Particular
beneficiary agencies include the Philippine
Information Agency and the other
government media organizations, the
Cultural Center of the Philippines, National
Commission for Culture and Arts and other
government art agencies, State Universities
and Colleges and local government units.
7. ICT skills strategic plan which develops an inter-
agency approach to identifying strategic and policy
and program recommendations to address ICT
skills demand-supply type.

All the seven programs were guided by the

roadmap that embeds policy statements that
relate to education specifically in the
enhancement of human development for teaching
and learning.
 Some Issues on ICT and Internet Policy
and Regulations

Global Issues
Access and Civil Liberties are two sets of issues
in ICT Policy which are crucial to the modern
society. The other concern is civil liberties which
refer to human rights and freedom. These include
freedom of expression, the right to privacy, the
right to communicate and intellectual property
rights.
Access to the Use of Internet and ICT. Access means the
possibility for everyone to use the internet and other media. In
richer countries, basic access to internet is almost available to
all with faster broadband connections. There are still countries
where access to internet is still a challenge.

Infringement to Civil Liberties or Human Rights. What are

specific internet issues on internet policy that have relationship
to civil liberties or human rights? Lets study the examples that
follow.
Issue No. 1: Freedom of Expression and Censorship
Under international human rights conventions, all
people are guaranteed the rights for free expression.
However, with the shift from communicating through
letter, newspapers and public meetings to electronic
communications and on-line networking, a need to
look into how these new means modifies the
understanding of freedom of expression and
censorship.
 The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that everyone has
the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, likewise the right to
freedom of opinion and expression. However there are practices that violate
these provisions in the use of internet.

Some examples are the following:

1. Individual rights are given up in order to have access to electronic
networks. Microsoft Network’s (MSN’s contracts provide protection of
individuals like “upload, or otherwise make available files that contain
images, photographs or other materials protected by intellectual
property laws, including but not limiting to copyright or trademark
laws, unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all
necessary consents to do the same.” However Microsoft reserves the
rights, in its sole discretion, to terminate access to any or all MSN sites
or services.
2. Censorship restricts the transmission of
information by blocking it or filtering the
information. Blocking is preventing access to
whole areas of internet based upon the
“blacklist” of certain Internet address, location
or email addresses while filtering is shifting the
packets of data or messages as they move across
computer networks and eliminating those
considered “undesirable” materials. The
selection of sites that are blocked or filtered has
been considered as an issue.
WARNING!!!!
“When you are surfing the
web, you may think you are
anonymous, but there are
various ways that
information about you or
your activities can be
collected without your
consent”
 3. Defamation actions may be used to silence
critics. This action deters the freedom of
expression.

Issue No. 2: Privacy and Security

Privacy policies are an issue. Most commercial
sites have a privacy policy. When someone uses a
site and clicks “I agree” button, it is as if you have
turned over private information to any authority
that may access it.
There are several types of privacy as shown by the
following examples:
1. For most, privacy means “personal privacy” the right of
individuals not to have their home, private life or
personal life interfered with.

2. Privacy of communication refers to the protection from

interference with communication over the phone or
internet. Respect for privacy of communications is an
essential prerequisite for the maintenance of human
relationship via technological communications media.
3. Information privacy is related to the use of
computers and communications system which
are able to hold and process information about
large numbers of people at a high speed. It is
important to ensure that information will only
be used for purposes for which it was gathered
and will not be disclosed to others without
consent of the individuals.
Issue No. 3: Surveillance and Data Retention
The use of electronic communications has
enhanced the development of indirect
surveillance. In the indirect surveillance, there is
no direct contact between the agent and the
subject of surveillance is dataveillance.
Dataveillance is the use of personal information to
monitor a person’s activities while data retention
is the storage and use of information from
communication systems.
There is very little that can be
done to prevent surveillance.
What can be done is to change
the methods of working to make
surveillance difficult. This is
called “counter surveillance” or
“information security” if it refers
to computers and electronic
communication.
Issue No. 4: E-pollutants from E-waste
Large amount of e-waste is generated
by ICT. These are in particular, terminal
equipments used for computing (PCs,
laptops), broadcasting (television and
radiosets), telephony (fixed and mobile
phones), and peripherals (fax machines,
printers and scanners).
The accumulated e-waste is due to
rapid turnover of equipment due
to rapid improvement of software.
While material waste can be
destroyed by crushing, toxic
material brought about by the
different equipment requires
utmost management.
The quantities of e-waste are
increasing in both developed and
developing countries. A very dismal
state is that there is a significant
amount of electronic waste that has
been shipped from industrial countries
to developing countries, using less
environmentally-responsible
procedure.
Remedies include standardization
and regulatory measures to increase
the life cycle of equipment before
they become obsolete. Efficient
extraction of toxic components and
requiring the recycling by both
consumers and equipment vendors
are selling must be required.
If not controlled then, e-
waste will tremendously
affect climate change,
damage human lives, and
overload the capacity of
the earth in carrying solid
waste.
Implications to Teaching and Learning

How do the policy guidelines, projects and

issues relate to the teaching and learning?

There are great implications of this lesson

to both the teachers who are teaching and
the learners who are learning. A few of
theses are as follows:
For the Teachers and Teaching
1.Guide the teachers on what they
should teach that relate to ICT, and
how to teach it. Since ICT
development comes so rapid and fast,
teachers might overwhelmed by its
rapid speed. Temperance in its use is a
caution that should be looked at.
2. Technology should never
replace any human teacher.
The tools are support
instructional materials for
the teachers which are
available for use. The teacher
should learn how to
appropriately use them. The
human touch of the teacher
is still a vital component in
3.There are rules and regulations
that govern the use of
technology. Caution should be
observed to protect individual
privacy. As teachers, you must be
aware that the use of technology
may jeopardize your privacy and
security.
4. All the issues and many more
shall be part of the teaching
content as each teacher will be
encouraged to use technology in
teaching.
For the Learners and Learning

The learners of the 21st Century are even more

advanced than some of the teachers. However,
learners still need guidance on how to use, regulate
technology use. As there are positive and negative
effects of technology use, learners should know the
difference. Learners should not only know the benefits
of technology use, but they should also know how they
can be protected from the hazards that technology
brings to their lives.
 Learners should take advantage of the potential of
learning support they can derive such as the
development of higher order thinking skills, the
development of learning communities through
collaboration, the enhancement of skills to manage the
vast resources as 21st century learners and many more.
Both the teachers and learners should be mindful of
the e-waste that are being thrown away to the land and
to the atmosphere. Thus, safety in the use of technology
shall be presented in the next lesson.
 REFLECTION:
In this lesson, we have to be more aware of
some issues and the implications of technology
that might be applicable for using technology that
might be applicable for using technology. After
this topic was discussed and explained, we
realized that technology is very important as part
of our lives. It is very important to understand
every policies and issues regarding to technology.
 APPLICATION:
In this generation, we are closely using
technology in everyday we do. As a 21st century
learners, technology is very common to us as a
part of our lives. So as a future educator, I/we will
apply what I/we have learned in this lesson. I/we
will use it as a guide for my/our learners for using
technology for their learning. ICT policy is
important to know for the learners to be aware as
a technology literate.
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!!