Impact of IT on Higher education Through Continuing Education

Information Technology is emerging to be the technology of the 21 century. The paradigm shift from industrial society to information society had already become a reality! It is indeed a high time to think about integrating IT in all facets of education – may it be in secondary or higher education level, or be it in reskilling the employed ones. Reskilling is now a days seriously considered by many corporate firms the ultimate way to educate it’s employees as a continuing education scheme to make them stand against the stiff challenges offered by the rapid changes that happening in the IT based high tech industries. Organisations are left with little choice in integrating reskilling in to their development plan. The integration of IT in higher education will itself engender several broader innovations. IT based teaching and learning strategies will open possibilities for designing new curricula and new methods of assessment to meet our educational objectives. This will in addition provide schools with autonomy to use IT resources flexibility to meet the needs of their pupils; school designs will also evolve to maximize the potential for using IT to enhance learning and school administration. IT can be used to promote greater and more efficient communication within the school, amongst schools. It would enhance the effectiveness of educational administration. Ready access to online data and information will also support effective decision-making at all levels. This paper discusses various issues and the need to think about a task force to counter the so-called slowdown and the recession in IT industry. The importance of reskilling as a continuing education programme to make the people aware of the changing trends in IT was also discussed.