Editorial Article published by EL ESPAÑOL

By Ainhoa Marcos, ODILO’S VP Education Spain 

The lack of digital literacy is undoubtedly one of the social problems that currently afflicts a significant percentage of the population, a clear example of which is the difficulty in accessing financial services or any type of digital procedure. This shows that, even though we live in a society with a high speed of technological democratization, the fact that these innovations appear increasingly incipiently has caused technology to become an educational object. We live in such a digital world that not having basic knowledge of Big Data, AI, programming, or computational thinking, and access to these technologies makes us susceptible to social and economic exclusion.

Approximately 35% of Spaniards lack these minimum digital skills, according to the National Observatory of Technology and Society (ONTSI) of Red.es, an entity of the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence. Many public initiatives are being developed to promote knowledge of these technologies to universalize their use. This is the case of the National Digital Skills Plan, which had a budget of 3,750 million euros between 2021 and 2023 under the framework of the Digital Agenda 2026. With the same objective, we find the national strategy ‘Digital Spain’, which aims to raise the digitalized population to 80% by 2030. We can also mention the CODI Program – Digital Competences for Children-, which seeks to ensure digital inclusion from childhood by designing methodologies, content, and teaching materials. This aims to provide basic digital skills to children and adolescents at risk of digital exclusion.

In the regional framework, some communities have initiatives and plans for digital citizen training. In the Community of Madrid, the Regional Digital Training Plan seeks to take advantage of digitalization as an engine to achieve full employment in the region. To this end, it contemplates different actions such as the launch of’Madrid Aula Digital’, a training platform available to all the citizens of Madrid. It aims to contribute to citizens’ training and reduce the digital gap. This platform brings technological content to the public and encourages technological employment in the region. 

All these strategies demonstrate a need for citizen digital literacy that has led, as we were saying, to technological innovation being simultaneously an educational purpose and a tool for promoting learning. It is also an educational vehicle because education is already unthinkable without implementing smart devices. For example, digital screens facilitate access to innovative formats such as podcasts, e-books, and explanatory videos, which take learning beyond the limitations of the textbook while complementing the teacher’s explanation in the classroom. 

Along these lines, addressing the challenge of digital training responds to the two major challenges facing the sector, which have ended the traditional education paradigm. On the one hand, breaking with standardization, i.e., the content being the same for everyone. This is a point where technology allows content to be aligned with each person’s needs, motivations, and capabilities. On the other hand, abandoning the belief that training is a stage that begins at school and ends with postgraduate studies to move towards the so-called ‘lifelong learning’. This implies understanding learning as a constant in people’s lives. As highlighted by the challenge of the citizen digital divide, which affects all ages equally, we continue to need to learn at every stage of life. A continuous learning that allows us to grow at school, professionally, in the workplace and, consequently, as people.

To find an effective solution to this technological revolution, we must add the collaboration of the private sector to the digital training initiatives formulated by the Public Administration. This involves building a joint approach, such as the one proposed by the ‘SDG17 – Partnerships to achieve the goals’ of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. It also involves activating the cooperation of the entire educational community to advance citizen training in digital skills effectively. Only by joining the strength of all will we accelerate the digital empowerment goals.

In this sense, technology firms play an essential role as a catalyst for developing these innovations that are incorporated into the education sector as tools and whose operation becomes a new competence to be acquired. More specifically, edtech. They are expected to grow by 130% in market value by 2030, reaching 538,000 million euros, according to forecasts by GlobalData. Figures that highlight the impact and importance of edtech, which in recent times have seen the demand for their services grow, achieving a more digital, inclusive, accessible education, adapted to such a technological world.

In short, the digital divide faced by a large part of the population demonstrates the need to undertake specific citizen training plans. This ambition requires the collaboration of governments, educational agents, and, especially, edtech, with its technological innovation and high success in ensuring accessibility and inclusion. Public initiatives are a crucial first step, but broader alliances are needed. A need that, hand in hand with edtech, also solves the challenge of personalizing content and promoting continuous lifelong learning.