The document defines ICT as Information and Communications Technology, which refers broadly to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. ICT includes the internet, wireless networks, computers, middleware, storage, audiovisual systems, and necessary software to create, store, transmit and manipulate information. The term was first used in 1997 in a UK government report and was promoted in new education standards to refer to converging audiovisual, telephone, and computer networks into a single cabling system. There are significant economic incentives for organizations to integrate different network systems using a single infrastructure and management system under the banner of ICT. The document then provides a brief history of ICT implementation initiatives in the Philippine education system from the 1950s to the present