Young people today are growing up in an increasingly digital world, one in which it seems that almost any interaction might soon be automated, AI-powered, or at least carried out on a touchscreen device.
From ordering a new passport to paying for our shopping, rapidly-developing technology has already changed our lives and society more broadly, and there is no reason to expect that process to slow down any time soon.
The ‘real world’ is now heavily digitised, which means that school leavers need to have a range of IT skills by the time they are sent out in to it: in almost every instance they will be expected to be digitally literate to at least a basic level, and in many fields the demands will be considerably higher.
On the face of it, this doesn’t seem to present a huge problem, given the amount of technology now in place and in use in schools across Scotland. From being a novelty when I was at school, digital technology is now a given in education; some councils have even gone so far as to spend huge sums of money on VR headsets or issue devices to pupils on a one-to-one basis.
But these changes have not been uncontested. Some teachers have always been sceptical about the value of all this shiny new tech, no matter what the salespeople say about it. In recent months, The Herald has spoken to and reported on families concerned about the uniquity of digital devices in schools, with some calling for the right to opt out of the heavily digitised education. An NHS board even raised concerns about one council’s plans to issue them to all pupils from primary 4 onwards.
Not so long ago, there was considerable discussion of schools in Scotland operating a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model, allowing students to use their own smartphones and tablets (which some wrongly assumed would be completely universal) to participate in digitally-enhanced lessons throughout their education.
Instead, The Scottish Government now plans to introduce a new law banning phones from schools. The new Cabinet Secretary has talked about the apparent harms caused by excessive use of digital screens, although as The Herald discovered, the government apparently has no such concerns when devices are issued by schools.
And yet, turning away from technology isn’t an option, and some argue that Scotland actually needs to become a much more digitally-literate nation.
“In Scotland alone, the digital sector has grown 150%, employs 100,000 people and contributes £4.9 billion to the economy, yet 13,000 digital jobs remain unfilled simply because we don't have people with the right skills,” says Dr Katharine Jewitt, an expert who co-chairs the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab Digital and Education Skills E-Team.
What’s more, she says that this is not a “niche problem”, and that in reality “nearly every job, at every level of an organisation, now requires some degree of digital competence.”
There is, she adds, a “real tension at the heart of digital education” due to a range of wider factors.
“Employers want school leavers who can code, analyse data, and navigate digital tools fluently, yet parents, teachers and increasingly young people themselves are worried about the effects of screens, social media and AI on attention, mental health and even basic literacy. The mistake is treating these as opposing goals that need balancing. They're not. Digital competence and digital wellbeing are the same skill set, just applied differently."
Dr Jewitt argues that effective digital education in modern schools is not about “more screen time or less”; instead, she says that the focus should be on “teaching young people to be critical users of technology rather than passive consumers of it".
In practice, this means that digital skills and digital safety often become interlinked, adding: "that means understanding how an algorithm shapes what you see, knowing how to evaluate a source, being able to build something with a tool rather than just scroll through it, and, crucially, knowing when to put the device down. Schools that are getting this right aren't just teaching 'digital skills' as a bolt-on subject; they're embedding judgement, boundaries and creativity into how tech is used across the curriculum.”
Crucially, Dr Jewitt acknowledges that the fears about the impact of technology, especially with regards to young people, are valid, but insists that they should be addressed by opening up, not shutting down, access.
