NOT only is the Internet reshaping the old rules of business, it is also changing the parameters of the academe.

Linking Filipino students and teachers in different schools in and around the Asean is Pilipinas SchoolNet, a soon-to-be built network of Philippine schools that will use information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve learning interaction.

This is in response to the local academe's aim for digital literacy, global knowledge and global attitude for its students and teachers to cope with the global economy.

In its pilot stage, the Pilipinas SchoolNet will take place in selected public science high schools and centers of excellence. The Foundation for IT Education and Development (FIT-ED) and Ayala Foundation signed July 13 a memorandum of understanding to build a network of high-tech schools in Filipino classrooms. FIT-ED and Ayala Foundation will provide information infrastructure support and IT for Education training to secondary schools throughout the archipelago.

The Pilipinas SchoolNet will also emphasize technology-enabled school-to-school collaboration in a national, regional and global level. When fully operational, this network will be linked with the Asean SchoolNet, Pilipinas SchoolNet's regional version. The global version of the two is the World Links for Development Program (WorLD) that connects thousands of students and teachers in secondary schools. WorLD network links secondary schools in developing countries with counterparts in industrialized countries and elsewhere for collaborative research, teaching and learning programs using ICT.

For a five-year time frame, WorLD aims to link schools in 35 developing countries via the Internet and e-mail, with partner schools in industrialized countries for collaborative learning (www.worldbank.org/worldlinks).

"It's our belief that the new global economy that we're talking about requires a new global education," said WorLD Links for Development manager Sam Carlson who was present during the July 13 MOU signing.

FIT-ED chair Roberto Romulo, who also chairs the e-Asean task force, said that this is the next step toward integrating all 10 Asean member countries into the Asean SchoolNet. The Asean SchoolNet is already in the process of linking classrooms of Asean member countries. The Asean SchoolNet recently held its teacher training workshop in Singapore last June.

"It's not just a question of teaching how to operate computers but making sure that they are connected to each other so that students from the Asean community can interact to each other. There will be a sense of the Asean community," he said.

Other details such as the IT infrastructure and how much it would cost to build a network of schools are not available yet.

Before FIT-ED and Ayala Foundation decided to partner on the Pilipinas SchoolNet project, the two foundations were already active in bringing technology to the education sector.

Public school teachers and social workers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development were trained in the use of computers for classroom instruction via FIT-ED. Called the IT educator training program, it has trained about 100 participants from the public school districts of Muntinlupa, Quezon City, Makati. The Marillac Hills Institute for Girls, the National Training for Boys were also included in the training. This will expand to five public high schools in Davao City next semester.