Of late, there has been a paradigm shift from access to quality; from the broadcast to cassette; and from information to interaction in educational picture.

The Computer made a lot of difference to the teaching-learning strategies to be followed in the open and Distance learning systems. A very significant impact of technology on education is the advent of porous transnational borders due to electronification; globalization and commodification of education as marketable good/service in the WTO supported GATS era.

Many leading universities from the developed world have, on their own or as a part of consortia, not only transcended their national boundaries for offering education abroad (on-line or off-line) but are also vying with each other for market space. It is important to realize that such efforts should supplement the growth of local educational institutions, particularly in small nation states by raising standards of their offering and contextualisation of content rather than being dictated by economic considerations.

IGNOU has its presence in more then 35 countries, as of now. The Pan-African tele-education & tele-medicine initiative of Government of India, which shall connect all 53 African Union member states through a satellite, fibre optic and wireless networks, should be seen as an effort towards capacity building across cultures in the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutmbakam, the World is one family. The project is likely to be inaugurated by the end of 2006 and Ethiopia has been selected as the first country to benefit from the pilot phase. South Africa, Mauritius and Ghana have also been short listed for the pilot.

The network will connect five universities two in India and three in Africa to 53 learning centres for tele-education and 10 super-speciality hospitals three in India and seven in Africa to 53 remote hospitals for tele-medicine. The main objective of the tele-medicine network will be to share the knowledge of Indian medical professionals with their African counterparts through on-line training programmes for nurses, paramedical staff and other health workers. Five universities are being equipped with tele-education studios, including post-production facilities, data centres, and a portal comprising delivery system software.

Recently, COMESA has shown keen interest in accelerating these efforts.

Moreover, students enrolling in tele-education programmes shall get access to e-materials and satellite-mediated interactive support. These could be easily extended to Pan- Commonwealth nation states as well.

The point we wish to make is that ICTs are helping us to achieve a major goal of capacity building by integrating people, societies, cultures and nations, promoting international understanding through bilateral and multilateral strategic collaborations and partnerships between educational institutions and bridging the digital divide.

We are collaborating with University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa; Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE) and Mauritius College of the Air (MCA), Mauritius; Payame Noor University (PNU) Iran; National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Nigeria; Tanjania Open University (TOU), Tanzania; Kenyatta University (KU), Kenya; University of Fiji (UniFiji), Fiji; Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), UK; Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Pakistan; Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL), Sri Lanka; Bangladesh Open University (BOU), Bangladesh; Wawasan University College (WUC), Malaysia to mention a few.

Another dimension of the use of technology in Open Distance Learning for capacity building is the change in the face of distance education from poor cousin of mainstream classroom education to an independent system, endowed with tremendous capacity and capability to cater to the needs of education for all at reasonable cost.

That is, it has capability to address all the vectors of Nigvekar Pentagon (Daniel, 2004), provided some basic conditions are met. In India, having enrolled about three and a half million learners, the ODL system caters to every fourth student in higher education. In the period 2007-12, the nation targets to double its total enrolment in higher education in order to realize Mission 2020.

To meet the challenge, ODL system is being mandated to increase its share to about 40% and accommodate the flux arising out of universalization of elementary education. That is, we are going through a time of greater expectations and need to give impetus to open learning based knowledge revolution.

Though catering to large numbers brings associated challenges, education for more students from our system means greater contribution towards national development. The fact that every tenth student seeking higher education in the country is studying with IGNOU is a great motivating factor and source of satisfaction for us.

It is now well known that use of ICTs provides advantages of greater flexibility in the location of educational experience (home or workplace), wide choice of market-centric, inter-disciplinary courses/programmes, global curriculum, best practices and experiences, on-demand admission and examination and value addition in the education of the disadvantaged (physically, socially, economically geographically, gender inequality).

We can educate or train even visually impaired by using speech software and communication disabled by using visual software. We are developing MBA materials for the visually impaired in collaboration with National Blind Association, New Delhi and hearing impaired with All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore.

IGNOU offers 130 programmes spread over 1,100 courses using front-ended technology like video-conferencing and Internet. Special centres have been created (for jail inmates, minorities, females, physically challenged and rural poor) to harness technology for imparting, assessing and accrediting skills and competencies.

With 1.43 million cumulative learner population and an annual intake of more than four hundred twenty nine thousand, IGNOU caters to about 15% of total students enrolled in higher education in the country through a network of 64 Regional Centres (RCs), six Sub-Regional Centres (SRCs), 1400 Learner Centres (LCs) and Forty One Partner Institutions (PIs) in 35 countries.

The RCs, SRCs and majority of the SCs have been equipped with video or teleconferencing facilities. The University is in the process of providing broadband connectivity to all its LCs so as to bring the vast e-resources within the easy reach of its learners and facilitate faster interaction.

One of the most striking shifts introduced by the use of ICTs in education is the change in the role of teachers from being 'repertoire of knowledge' to 'facilitator for access to and comprehension of learning resources' as well as of institutions from 'ivory towers' in four walls to 'globally distributed' classrooms. In fact, campus based institutions are likely to fast become 'obsolete and unsuited' to present day requirements and pave way for virtual universities, which can provide rich-computer simulated learning environment where difficult to visualise phenomena can be demonstrated convincingly and the latest findings can be shared synchronously as well as asynchronously with value addition.

Other important characteristic of virtual universities shall include year round operations, inter-disciplinary market-driven courses on demand anywhere on the globe. Moreover, the student, as customer, shall be at the focus of all operations. The knowledge society shall create a new paradigm powered by capacity for innovations.

Though technology mediated learning has capacity to cater to vast numbers efficiently and in-expensively without any incongruence, it is important to appreciate that technology alone cannot ensure quality; in this 'gold rush', man behind the machine occupies a prominent place.

Therefore, to support advances in ICTs, impart instruction and transact curriculum meaningfully, it is absolutely necessary not only to possess a critical mass of highly motivated and trained human capital, but also to continuously upgrade their skills. Taking its lessons from the offer of Internet based programmes, such as Bachelors and Masters in Computer Applications,

IGNOU puts appropriately trained personnel in place before taking the lead and responsibility to train learners through its virtual campus initiative for national and international markets by putting on offer its Bachelors of Information Technology and Advanced Diploma in Information Technology programmes. Post-Graduate Diploma in Library Automation and Networking, Post Graduate Certificate in Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Certificate in Food Safety, Certificate in ICT Applications in Library among others are on offer on-line for capacity building.

However, institutional culture and societal practices also influence such programmes. There is a need to speed up the ventures in rural information centres to provide access to the beneficiaries.

By - Sadaket Malik