The Foundation for IT Education & Development (FIT-ED), Department of Education, UP Open University, and Coalition for Better Education co-organized the First National ICTs in Basic Education Congress held on December 6-7, 2004 at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel. More than 800 school teachers and administrators, curriculum planners, faculty of teacher education institutions, and nongovernment workers participated in the Congress.

The main objective of the Congress was to enable individuals and organizations to share best practices in integrating various information and communication technologies—such as radio, television, graphic calculators, computers and the Internet—into the elementary and high school curriculum.

The Faculty of Education, led by Dean Nemah N. Hermosa, represented UPOU in the Congress Organizing Committee. Prof. Patricia B. Arinto was co-chair of the Program Committee, as well as one of the plenary speakers. Dean Hermosa conducted two demonstration sessions on technology applications in the language arts classroom, Dr. Lolit Suplido gave a demonstration of concept mapping software and of educational freeware for science classrooms, and Prof. Sheila Bonito gave a demonstration of educational freeware for various subject areas.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was the Congress keynote speaker.