10th National Conference on Information Technology Education (NCITE 2012)

NCITE 2012 Opening Remarks

Delivered by Dr. Randy S. Gamboa, PSITE President, during the NCITE 2012 October 19, 2012 in Laoag City

Honorable Aimee Marcos, Northwestern University President Dr. Ma. Liza S. Nicolas, to our keynote speaker who will be properly introduced later, Conference Chair Jonathan Caballero, my fellow national board members, paper presenters, invited speakers, our dear IT educators and students from different schools and universities, our ever supportive sponsors, guests, ladies and gentlemen, Naimbag a bigat , magandang umaga sa inyong lahat, good morning to all.

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest appreciation to Governor Aimee Marcos for giving us the opportunity to hold our conference in this beautiful place of Laoag City.  Coming from Mindanao, it is not that easy to come over for the convention.  But when we were scouting for next NCITE venue this year and met Governor Marcos, we were convinced to hold our convention here.  And true enough, we made a right decision.  Thank you, Governor.

This academic year is a milestone year for PSITE, this is our sapphire anniversary, 10 years of NCITE, and this February, we will celebrate our 15 years of existence as an organization. It’s PSITE’s  crystal  anniversary.  It is a time to look back on our past and see what the future awaits us.

I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Ms. Fe Ferriols, the first President of the PSITE pioneering group.  The group had a common dream for quality IT education in the country. And this dream is becoming a reality through the active support, cooperation, collaboration and partnership of PSITE officers and members. I’d like to acknowledge also, doc jimmy caro’s effort in organizing the first NCITE in Lyceum of the Philippines University 10 years ago.

For those who have been attending PSITE conventions, and those who were officers and members of the Board of PSITE, if you will recall, when I was elected as President in 2009, I coined our thrust as PReParE. Prepare is P-Re-Par-E.  P stands for Professionalism.  Re for Research. Par stands for Partnership.  And E is the very purpose of our organization, which is Education. So PreParE means Professionalism , Research, Partnership and Education. 

In 2010, together with the Board and officers, our agenda was Peer-to-Peer.  It is like a small brother – big brother concept. Like the PReParE agenda, the second PEER is a mnemonic.  It stands for Partnership, Education, Extension and Research.  The Peer-to-PEER agenda addresses our triad function of Research, Curriculum and, Extension and Linkages. 

With these thrusts and agenda, we were able to develop partnership programs, conduct seminars/workshops and conventions, manualize ITE undergraduate thesis and project framework, participate in technical panels and discussions relating to IT education, revived our website and conducted several research paper presentations. The last 2 years we focused on organizational development (OD). OD is a process of improving our organization and a systematic process of change.  According to Killion and Harrison, organizational development requires a planned approach to change based on meeting the needs of both the people and the organization.  With the OD meetings and workshops, we took a look at our mandate, came up with our vision mission, values and goals. 

NCITE 2012 provides a venue to present innovative ideas, approaches, developments and results of research projects in the areas of information technology and technology-based education. This conference promotes the exchange of information between researchers, administrators, faculty members and IT practitioners.

The theme for this year’s NCITE is Outcomes-based Education in Information Technology Education.  We are very pleased that the Director of the Executive Office of Programs and Standards of the Commission on Higher Education in the person of Dr. Sinforoso Birung is here to share his thoughts about it.  The rest of the morning and afternoon are dedicated to mostly research and poster presentations.  In the past years, we received few submissions of research papers.  We had to drumbeat the promotion to all chapters to encourage the members and students to read, develop and write research materials.  The successful Bill Gates said “I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.”  Who knows one of us here will be the next Bill Gates.

This year, we received tons of papers that we had to screen those for presentation.  The careful screening was done by our able technical committee of the PSITE National Board headed by PC chair Doc Allan Sioson.  The best paper will be awarded tomorrow.

Further, after the plenary talk tomorrow, we will have a public hearing and consultation with the officials of CHED.  I hope that you will all participate in this meeting.

As you may see in the program, the conference offers you a whole lot of knowledge and new insights.  I am encouraging everybody to grab the opportunity to put all these in your personal databank, learn from it and maybe apply it. However, one of the more important things to do also is to mingle and network with the participants.  Sometimes, you learn more in casual conversations than staying in the faculty rooms.  What you learn new knowledge, techniques or technologies, you impart then to your students and colleagues.  As Bill Gates put it “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.” 

We are here to learn and also enjoy the northern gateway of the Philippines, the sparkling gem of Ilocandia, Laoag City is known as the country's sunshine city. Experience the beauty of Ilocos Norte. Taste the famous Tupig, Bagnet and Pinakbet Pizza and get the tan that you have always wanted in its white sand beaches. As they say, forget the risk, live for today, and be spell-bound in Ilocos Norte.

Let me take this opportunity to thank Sir Jonathan Caballero and Sir Gerald Calamaan, for successfully organizing the conference.  To the management and staff of Northwestern University, thank you for your hospitality and for providing this venue.  To the officers and members of PSITE, I appreciate your support and active participation.  Bill Gates said that “Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved.  I am confident of the commitment of the people behind PSITE and I am rightly convinced that we will become a truly great organization and we can turn our dreams into reality.

I wish you a fruitful and successful convention to all.  Good morning.

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