Why is a digital mindset important? : Digital mindset is one of the key skills your students will need in the information age. How to promote it properly?
The needs of individuals, society and labor markets in the information age are evolving so rapidly that it is sometimes difficult to keep up. The digital mindset is precisely the key competence that allows students to adapt in a highly changing world.
In this article we will analyze in detail what the digital mentality is and why it should be an area of transversal interest for your institution in the professional training of students, regardless of what career they are studying.
Why is a digital mindset important?
What is the digital mindset?
The digital mentality, also called digital mindset , encompasses those skills, competencies or attitudes that allow us to properly use digital devices, networks and software to access information, communicate, manage, create and share content, learn and even undertake with a view to development. personal and/or community.
However, the digital mindset goes beyond the widespread use of technological tools that are already part of our daily lives, such as cell phones and the internet, but rather encompasses the willingness to learn new skills on the go and adapt to rapid change, even which has proven to be the only constant.
digital mindset it is also daring to explore, understand and interpret with a critical sense the changes that technology generates in us as individuals, communities and societies, and to participate actively and responsibly in the direction that these changes will take.
In other words, the digital mindset is understanding that change is inevitable and we need to be prepared, but also that we have an influence on the form and consequences that these changes will take, how they will impact our lives and how to direct them to the common good. rather than for merely individualistic purposes.
Digital mindset and global citizenship: two fundamental traits for success
When we talk about digital mentality, it is difficult not to enter into the conversation another of the most important features of personal and work adaptation in modernity: the mentality of global citizenship .
In addition to living in a highly technological world and increasing automation thanks to technologies such as artificial intelligence and data science, the new generations will also enter a more globalized labor and social context than ever.
Thanks to information and communication technologies, talent on one continent can have a profound impact on the economy of another region on the other side of the ocean, even if they have never been there in person, even if the hours don’t match and even if they don’t speak the same language.
New technologies and expanded connectivity have also made it possible for more and more people to work from anywhere in the world, giving rise to a globally distributed and growing population of “digital nomads ”.
However, beyond the job and market opportunities that globalization and technology promote, we must not lose sight of the fact that these are also responsible for giving us a broader and more holistic vision of the world that surrounds us.
When we expand our horizons, we also begin to ask ourselves deeper questions about the role we want to play as agents of change in the world, about the similarities that unite us with the rest of the people, beyond our differences; about the rights and quality of life that we all should have, about the factors that affect those rights and how we promote or amortize them with our actions.
Having a digital mentality is usually not enough if it does not go hand in hand with the development of a spirit of global citizenship, since one feeds off the other to train leaders capable of creating networks of development, economic growth and innovation at an international level.
Why is digital literacy so important and what does it imply?
The digital mindset is achieved through digital literacy , which in the case of many people is self-taught, although more and more educational institutions are aware of the need to promote it in a transversal and conscious manner throughout the curricular design.
It is often said that the new generations of digital natives are “born with a tablet under their arms”. Eventually, that idea became the mistaken notion that children no longer needed to be taught things like computers and information technology, as was the case in the transitional generations that experienced the birth of the personal computer and the democratization of the Internet.
However, the large number of digital illiterates that still exists and the proven fact that for the first time the new generations are less intelligent than the previous ones, show us that the simple fact of being born in the information age is not enough to have a digital mindset.
The paradox arises from the fact that technology is not only a tool to learn or to make our lives easier, it is many other things that, far from promoting development, hinder it: a distractor, a method of social alienation, a replicator of prejudices or biased information and Above all, a dependency generator.
When we lose the ability to orient ourselves in the world around us, if we do not have a mobile device in hand, that is not a digital mentality, it is quite the opposite, because technology, far from helping us to be more efficient, has convinced us to that we do not need to strengthen certain basic skills, with all the dangers that this implies.
When we take into account the risks of misusing or merely superficially using technology, it becomes clear that digital literacy goes far beyond purely digital skills and extends to the field of the humanities, critical thinking, the development of interpersonal and even survival skills in the face of unforeseen events.
Key skills to develop a digital mindset
As we have already seen, the skills that make up a genuine digital mindset not only serve to function in the digital environment and take advantage of its tools so that we are more productive at work, but rather form a kind of “Swiss army knife” that allows us to adapt to many situations.
1. Learning to learn
The willingness and openness to continuous learning is perhaps the most important feature of the digital mindset, because we are eager to integrate new knowledge, skills and tools into our knowledge, even if it means giving up those that are already becoming obsolete.
2. Research and information management
This goes far beyond looking for information on certain topics on the Internet, resorting to certain key terms: it means the ability to discern which information is reliable, if it has valid epistemological support, and how we can organize it in such a way that it not only repeats concepts, but also generate new knowledge.
3. Critical thinking
Critical thinking helps us see “beyond the obvious,” that is, place what our senses experience or our literal understanding of language into a larger context, so we can understand potential causes, intentions, opportunities, and risks.
4. Orientation to human development
This competence has to do with knowing how to achieve fullness, health and well-being for oneself, and the more our reality is permeated by virtuality, the more important it will be within the competences of the integral digital mindset .
The orientation to human development is what allows us to ask ourselves a vital question: is the way in which I am using digital tools consistent with my life plan and with the well-being that I wish to achieve?
5. Knowledge of computer security
Unfortunately, today, when our digital security is breached, we can be left in a very vulnerable position and see all our spheres of life affected and even our reputation. Knowing what the risks of virtuality are and how to protect ourselves from them is a very important part of a good digital mindset.
6. Collaborative work
Teamwork is and always has been a skill of high social and labor value. In the digital field, it goes a step further in terms of complexity thanks to remote work, asynchrony, interculturality and the fact that productivity expectations, both individually and as a team, have risen significantly.
7. Strategic vision and leadership
If the ability to learn to learn is the beginning of the digital mindset, the leadership vision is the “icing on the cake”. Along with interpersonal skills , strategic digital vision is what allows us to put everything we’ve learned at the service of increasingly ambitious goals, as well as convince others to join our effort.
At Pearson Higher Education , we know that the development and strengthening of the digital mindset is one of the priorities of your school and your students. For this reason, we continue working so that higher education institutions in Latin America have access to more and better tools for technological competitiveness .
We invite you to discover all our solutions specially designed for the challenges of the new era!