(Delivered by Dr.
Randy S. Gamboa, PSITE President, during the Cyber Summit 2012 held at St. Paul
University Learning Resource Center, Tuguegarao City)
Thank you
very much for that kind introduction.
Sr.
Remy Angelia Junio, SPC-University President, Dr. Evelyn Pascua,-Regional Director -Commission
on Higher Education, Sr. Cherryve Dagairag, SPC, Dean, School of Information
Technology and Engineering, Dr. Jaime D.L. CARO, Director, UPITCC
Other
distinguished speakers, our dear Fellow IT educators and IT Students, sponsors,
friends, ladies and gentlemen, Good morning.
I
am honored to be given this opportunity to address you this morning on the
opening session of the Cyber Summit 2012. The theme which is “Enriching Young
Minds Through the 21st Century Railways of ITE Innovations” is very appropriate
and it reflects the eagerness of the new generation, the young minds to get
updated and to advance information technology and engineering innovations to a
greater extent. A lot of questions may
be in our mind. How are we going to do this?
Who is our target market? Will we
do it for service? or profit or just satisfy ourselves? What should we be working on? How do we move forward?
The
late Steve Jobs, Apple’s legendary co-founder and CEO, once said “That’s been
one of my mantras – focus and simplicity.
Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your
thinking clean to make it simple. But
it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
When
I learned about these words, the first thing that came to my mind was a
question? Is Steve Jobs a yogi, or someone who practices yoga or follows the
yoga philosophy with a high level of commitment? I haven’t gone to the point of knowing the
answer to that. Maybe you can do it for
me.
But
whether he is a yogi or not, there is one thing for sure … he moved
mountains. He touched our lives to some
extent without many people knowing it until he passed away.
In
our era when people are flooded with information, simplicity is principally
important. Take for example the social
media. While social media gives every
opportunity to reach a large audience easily, it doesn’t necessarily mean that
they should overload their viewers with status updates. It is better to post interesting and
significant content than getting caught up with posting a certain number of
times per day or week. Social media marketing
should be kept simple.
In
innovation, there can be two different ways to approach it. It can be that you focus on a specific target
market by doing simple market research, know what the consumers want and then
manufacture and do innovations. Or it
could be that you do what you want and then see if it gets into the market.
Steve
Jobs was asked what market research went into iPAd. He responded, “None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they
want … we figure out what we want. And I
think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether
a lot of other people are going to want it too”.
For
Apple, their team of highly skilled designers and innovators is the target
market for Apple’s products. If they
create a product that they themselves would use, then there’s a good chance
that the rest of the consumers will like it too. Eventually, their focus on innovating to
satisfy what they want creates a new market.
Well, sometimes it is useful to be your own target market. This means that you put yourself in the shoes
of the consumers you are trying to reach and think about how you would use the
product or service that you or your company is designing and
manufacturing. Consumers might not be
passionate about what you are designing, manufacturing and selling if you yourself
are not passionate about it.
What
caught my attention about that response of Jobs was when he mentioned about
having the right discipline. When he mentioned that, he meant having the right
knowledge, the right attitude and the right skills.
As
manufacturing and computerized processes become increasingly complex and
sophisticated, well-trained professionals are in demand. Designers and innovators are sought
after. This is an exciting challenge in
IT education. How to produce graduates
who will be equipped with the technical knowledge and social communication and
critical thinking skills that are essential to succeed in today’s fast-paced
workplace.
The
21st century poses big challenges to IT innovators. Among these are having the
right discipline to work in all areas of production from research and design,
to manufacturing, sales, customer service application, computer networking,
programming, and digital media design. In
coping with these challenges come opportunities for growth and eventual
success. But Jobs said that sometimes
when you innovate, you make mistakes. It
is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving other innovations. I can also say that it is best to interrelate
and intermingle with people of the same field to broaden your perspective and
knowledge.
We,
at PSITE, provide a venue for networking and sharing of ideas, primarily for IT
educators. PSITE is the nation’s largest
professional IT organization. From time
to time, we hold education technology conventions and conferences. It is an organization with great diversity
that supports members and affiliates with information and networking
opportunities as they face the challenge of innovation and transforming
education.
In
the recent years, PSITE’s thrust is geared towards Professionalism, Research, Partnership,
Education and Extension. This year, we
focused on organizational development of PSITE.
For 2011, PSITE organized the annual national convention last February
16-19 at the Meralco Management and Leadership Development Center Foundation in
Antipolo City, the National Conference of IT Education last October 27-29 at
the Palawan State University in Puerto Princesa and co-organized other regional
conferences, meetings and forums.
These
activities provided a venue for presentation of research papers and active
interaction of practitioners, educators, administrators and even contractors,
service providers and consultants in the profession. New ideas and innovations are being
conceptualized and presented in these events.
This
year’s national convention will be on February 23-25 at the Family Country
Hotel and Convention Center in Lagao, General Santos City. The theme is “Strengthening Information Technology
Education Through Organizational Development”.
You are most welcome to attend and participate in the convention.
Attending
conferences like the PSITE conventions and conferences and also this Cyber
Summit 2012 provides an opportunity to widen our knowledge on information
technology and engineering, and likewise encourages networking and exchange of
ideas with the hope of contributing to give the members and participants the
right discipline and inspiring innovators.
As Steve Jobs said “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
I
wish you all a fruitful summit ahead. Knowing
the organizers, I am confident that this gathering will be a great
success. Be focused. Keep things simple. Have the right
discipline. And you can move mountains. Good morning.
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