It’s the year 2011.

A great change has swept the highlands.

In this farming community up in the mountains of the Cordilleras, the men and womenfolk head for home after fruitful toil in their fields. The strawberries and rice crops yield is 34 percent higher, thanks to the proper implementation of the Green method, a scientific approach to farming in the highlands which factors in soil nutrient content, crop variety, temperature, humidity and heat while using an environmentally safe pest control practices, using only the naturally occurring and non-invasive/non-chemical approach developed in UP Los Banos.

After a dinner of freshly-picked vegetables and fish, a queue of people is seen heading to the Community Center where a computer laboratory of low-cost PCs is housed.

Honesto Dakila (not his real name), who stopped formal schooling after sixth grade, sits in front of the computer and inserts a flash drive on one of the USB ports and flips the on button. In less than a minute, he, along with 17 others in the Community Center (which connects to the city via a router), are busy clicking and typing away. Mr. Dakila is watching a flash video on basic algebra, which he has not finished he night before. His neighbors’ children, Mary Anne, 13 years and Stephen, 17, are also watching the video at the same time, while taking down some notes. Meanwhile, four housewives are chuckling with their headsets and microphones as they are busy with a language certification course on French. Others are busy chatting, emailing, and surfing the web for the latest developments around the world. Chito, the clan genius, is oblivious to those around him as his hero was getting a pummeling in an online game. This is not a good time to ask him which site will give you step-by-step information on how to remove a blemish on your face. You’ll only hear “Search it!”

Another typical night.

During the day it is a bit different. An adult volunteer supervises around 24 children in different grade levels as part of the school curriculum. Music, Science, Math and Language are just a few of the subjects credits they take.

In a few homes, high school students are busy uploading a video of tribal wedding and dubbing it in English as part of a UNESCO Heritage project. A brave student is updating an entry on a recent incident involving an international production outfit’s attempt to exploit and make money of their school original project entitled “A Mountainous Love Story” - of the life and loves of their great tribal chief. She claims that the Creative Commons - Non-Commercial (CC-NC) license with which they released their work prohibits the “for profit” use of their work and was filing a case with the courts. The 139 comments on her blog and counting indicate a good following and support. Just across her house, a new wife was following a recipe for a special dish she was preparing for her husband who was due to arrive any minute. It’s a good thing that the video can be played back over and over. A grandmother was teary-eyed as she touches the screen where her daughter is showing their 7-day old baby to her granddaughter from Belgium for the very first time. “She looks like her Lolo, may he rest in peace.”

What was a dying town some 5 years ago is now alive and vibrant, its culture intact despite embracing technology as a part of their everyday life. Its people learn when they want, where they want and how they want it. In turn, they are also educating the whole world about their culture and traditions - and connecting with other communities like them. They have embraced learning as an integral part of their community. That enabled the great change. This wave is rippling throughout the nation. Reaching out across the globe.
A young man quickly minimizes a Java game window as his mother hollers from the kitchen “Alam ko ang ginagawa mo. Di ba dapat yung report sa Science and Technology and ginagawa mo? ” (”I know what you are doing. Aren’t you supposed to be doing your investigative report in Science.”). She sits down and resumes discussing her son’s topic: eLearning in the Philippines. No webcam, a site tracker, or even Big Brother and any artificial intelligence can compare to the processing and unlimited power of that application called mother’s intuition.

Well, some things should never change.

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Prologue or Epilogue (only time will tell):

The technology needed for this story is actually available now.

The OLPC and other low-cost PCs such Via PC1’s initiative cuts the current cost.

A Linksys WRT54 -G router was made to connect via point-to-point Wi-fi 382 km away. I think other technologies will make wireless connection cheaper and more efficient. But this setup is a good solution once the kinks are ironed out. Wi Max is making great strides as we speak.
And then you still have the ever reliable Filipina Mothers. All technology pales compared to them. They have stood the test of time and will outlast any upgrade or innovation. It’s a great feeling that they’ll still be there in the future.