Moving Students From Digital Citizenship To Digital Leadership

The concept of digital citizenship is extremely popular today.

16:00 19 July 2019

Educational institutions pay much attention to netiquette and cyber safety, teach young people to behave politely and cautiously, respect other web users, and avoid possible threats. Therefore, modern students know well how to adapt to the virtual world and become its harmonious part.

Apart from passive use, it is important for new generations to know how to take advantage of Internet resources in order to promote personal and business goals. That is why academics place an emphasis on digital leadership. If the informatization era, it is one of the main prerequisites for success in any industry.

Experts from Pro-Papers have defined 5 factors which are crucial for educating progressive, tech-savvy specialists able to develop great projects and change the world for the better.

1. Communication

Several decades ago, leaders could occupy a distant position and work in silos. But today, they should constantly interact with a staff to exchange information, give commands, and analyze results of the company’s operation. Technology provides countless opportunities to build a flexible network for corporate activities, establish links at all hierarchy levels from the top right to the bottom.

A communication strategy should be developed and constantly revised taking into account emerging innovations and the possibility of their application in an organization. Also, a supervisor should show that one cares for each employee, build strong interpersonal relationships, send powerful messages, and receive feedback.

It may be rather challenging to reach everyone if a person leads a company with 50+ staff. Technology is very helpful in this case because it helps to share information with an unlimited number of interlocutors by spending minimum time and effort. For example, some leaders create personal blogs, make Tweets, and post short videos. It is a great way to stay visible and vocal, inform colleagues about new products, organization’s achievements, and corporate events. Employees may comment on these messages and offer ideas for company development.

Therefore, professors should teach students to communicate in the web space, initiate online discussions, and add more teamwork activities to a curriculum.

2. Vision

Since the traditional educational system is rather bureaucratic, many students are able only to perform professors’ orders, write standard academic papers, and take tests. They seem to clones with the same skills and abilities. But modern market requires leaders to think outside the box, be creative, inquisitive, and have a unique vision which would inspire other people.

It is the great talent to draw bright pictures in interlocutors’ minds, make them believe in your dream, show that it is significant and useful to society, motivate a team to take risks, overcome obstacles, and achieve generous rewards. Steve Jobs is a great example of a digital visionary. Limited technical skills did not prevent him from embodying ambitious plans and revolutionizing the world of technology.

This means that schools and universities should encourage students’ initiative, create a platform for original authorial projects, and help each learner to reach one’s full potential.

3. Digital literacy

A leader should be an advanced computer user, know about the latest progressive technologies and gadgets which may be used to facilitate a labor routine. Older entrepreneurs used to accomplish their goals in traditional ways and not take advantage of digital marketing usually fall behind young and ambitious competitors. So-called digital immigrants should open their mind and embrace technology to keep up with the times.

It is always trickier to learn something new and rebuild an idea of a successful business if a person has well-established strategies. That is why educational institutions should create digital environment preparing young people for adult life in the fluid and dynamic modern world, help them to hone technical, social, and entrepreneurial skills, acquaint them with tools and methods shaping the personality of a great digital leader.

4. Lifelong learning

Education does not stop when a person graduates from a university. It is worth instilling the love for learning in young specialists, develop the habit of tracking tech advancements and constantly improving qualifications. Students should be taught to approach all innovations with curiosity and enthusiasm rather than distrust and prejudice.

5. Strategy

Since leaders manage significant resources and undertake increased responsibility, each their step should be logical and reasonable. If an entrepreneur already has a vision, the next step is developing an optimal route which should lead a company to the goals set, determining how much time and resources this journey would take. Without critical thinking and a detailed action plan, a leader is just a dreamer.

Tech development should always be a part of a corporate strategy. When innovative transformations start affecting business’s operation, structure, working models and approaches, it is appropriate to say about digital leader’s maturity and compatibility of one’s enterprise on the market.