For a few years now there has been a dominant narrative that the digital native generation will drive significant changes to the way we work on account of their inbuilt familiarity with the latest digital tools.  It’s a narrative that has always rung hollow, not least because few of the tools and platforms used by young people in their personal lives are used in the workplace.

It’s a notion that is supported by new research from the University of Toledo, which shows that while digital natives have been raised with and on technology, they’re not actually as digitally savvy as many would have us believe.

“The elements of a digital workplace and technological literacy are more relevant now than ever,” the researchers say. “Technology was critical for business success before the coronavirus pandemic, but it has continued to grow exponentially over the last year.”

Technological prowess

Millennials, who were born between 1981 and 1996, and Gen Z, who were born after 1997, have grown up around digital technology, and especially the internet and mobile, so are highly proficient at things like social networking or using mobile apps.

While those technologies are undoubtedly a factor in the workplace, seemingly humdrum tools, such as email and office technologies continue to dominate many workplaces and many professional interactions, and that’s excluding more pressing skills such as data literacy.

“While students are quite adept at using their cell phones and basic software, they may not be computer fluent,” the researchers explain.

Preparing for work

The researchers suggest three distinct approaches to better prepare students for the workplace:

• Understand the business software used in the workplace and use this in the classroom
• Ensure educators are the conveners, not conveyors, of learning in a digitally focused classroom
• Utilize design thinking in the classroom

“Regardless of academic discipline, the corporate world is increasingly relying on a suite of tools to enable virtual collaboration and creation in the globalized economy,” the researchers say. “The functions of employees today center around five technological needs as a part of the digital workplace: web conferencing, communication, virtual collaboration, productivity and project management.”

Making a start

The Covid-19 pandemic has inadvertently helped in this process by introducing many young people to tools, such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack, and Webex to engage with their lessons, but the researchers believe more could be done, especially to encourage students to utilize learning material on platforms such as YouTube and Coursera.

“Educators can utilize the popularity of video-sharing platforms to Generation Z and millennials to unearth knowledge from YouTube, video courses like Lynda.com and educational content found on social media to create a learning experience with students at the center, and later in the semester, have students create a deliverable to be uploaded to one of these tools,” they say.

Design thinking is important because a growing number of jobs are looking to encourage innovation and critical thinking.  Employers want people to be problem solvers because roles are fast-paced and rapidly changing, so people need the ability to think on the go.

“Integrating design thinking into the classroom allows students to become the ‘problem solver’ of business challenges as they move through the process of listening to pain points, flaring on ideas, building solutions and testing them with people,” the researchers conclude.