A modern-day human accesses more than 9 applications everyday and uses over 30 applications on a monthly basis. An average employee switches between 35 different job-critical applications more than 1,100 times every day. Such statistics establish how digital technologies have infiltrated both personal and professional lives for all global citizens. In such a world, Digital Fluency is fast becoming the foundation for creating a skilled, resilient, and dynamic workforce of the future. The global pandemic was a harsh reality check for all enterprises, institutions, professional setups and even households jolting them into reacting and adapting to digital platforms.
Let us try to break-down the meaning and significance of Digital Fluency and how does it differ from Digital Literacy. Digital Literacy is the ability of employees to use a certain digital technology – it can be as simple as writing an email to a colleague, drafting presentations for customers, or reporting data back to the leadership using MS Excel. However, Digital Fluency refers to the ability to create new knowledge, innovate via critical thinking and solve complex challenges.
Digital Fluency is a highly complex multi-faceted discipline as all modern environments – be it work or home require people to actively combine their ‘human skills’ with their digital skills. The primitive definition of digital skills only includes the technical aspects, however, the ability of humans to function effectively in the digital worlds is heavily determined by their soft skills. These soft skills such as socioeconomic, cognitive, analytical, behavioral, communication, collaboration, etc. are often left out of discussions regarding Digital Fluency. Yet, the combination of all these is highly critical in helping humans apply the technical-know how to solve real world problems.
Digital Fluency is imperative across all dimensions of the digital world, be it classrooms, households or workplaces and a fundamental shift is required in human approach towards the skills involved. All occupations and activities are now flooded with digital technologies. Take for instance, the job of a mechanic which traditionally entails physically fixing a car. However, in today’s age the mechanic is also required to be hands-on with the modern software and applications built into the car. This clearly highlights the need for more structured training exercises and dedicated efforts from employers, employees, education institutes, policymakers, and all other global citizens in enhancing their ability to leverage such technologies. This is where the concept of Digital Enablement fits right in. Digital Enablement, as the name suggests, is focused on solidifying the belief of the end users in the benefits of technologies.
End users need to identify the right mix of the skills required to be successful in solving the problem at hand and this decision can be driven by first assessing the current capabilities and highlight the gaps. Then these gaps need to be actively covered by working towards ramping up capabilities. In this effort, the society as a whole needs to work collaboratively towards Digital Enablement and drive the agenda of Digital Fluency.
Skills required to thrive in the Digital World –
Fig 1. The digital skills needed in the 21st Century
