I promulgated this topic during an online discussion session with some colleagues comparing thoughts, projections and opinions of some renown personalities on trends in education as it regards the rapid advancement and spread of digitization in virtually every facet of human existence and how it will drastically change our way of life in the near future; as can already be observed.
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| CREDITS: Key scenes of our future: technology vs humanity? Futurist Gerd Leonhard |
The pace of the advancing change and spread in digitization (or should it rather be digitalization? – we shall find out) compared to the development of the human mind pari passu advancing the course of humanization (our social, education and economic interaction needs) is one that should be of concern to the human race, especially of the underdeveloped and developing world.
In a bid to do justice to this topic I fell upon a gamut of materials, however, I’m gonna try to keep it simple so we can all flow along.
First things first – let’s dig a bit and get conversant with our keywords:
Digitization vs Digitalization
Digitization and digitalization are two conceptual terms that are closely associated and often used interchangeably in a broad range of literature. There is analytical value in explicitly making a clear distinction between these two terms (Scott Brennen and Daniel Kreiss). Source
It is, for this reason, I shall try to make a clear distinction between these two, often misused, conceptual terms; also, so we have a clear perspective on what this post intends to achieve and address. So let’s get to it.
DIGITIZATION
For starters, digitization is a straightforward term. It is creating a digital (bits – 1s and 0s) version of analog/physical things such as paper documents (like school result sheets), microfilm images, photographs, health records, identity cards, sounds and more. So, it’s simply converting and/or representing something non-digital into a digital format which then can be used by a computing system for numerous possible reasons.
Digitization can also be seen in its strictest form as the extraction of data from its physical carriers in order to automate business processes and workflows.
Therefore, when businesses and organizations, in an attempt to go paperless, produce digital (data) copies of all their work functions thereby creating a seamless workflow, we say digitization has set in. So with digitization automation sets in and the bulwark of this automation process is technology.
Worthy of note, however, is the fact that digitization does not imply the utter destruction or replacement of the original documents (though, after being digitized, some may get destroyed sometimes depending on, for instance, legal requirements) even though some actually disappear sometimes (like, if we capture the sound and images in the form of video of your presentation at an event, the digital format continues to exist while your voice and physical presentation during that presentation are gone forever). Also, the transformation (of physical data components) is not that much what digitization is about in the strictest sense (for instance, if you take a picture of your child you have a digitally born representation of your child but he/she is not digitized; you might, however, have an analog picture which you scan so it is digitized).
So, in a nutshell, in digitization it is the information you’re digitizing, not the processes (after all “The digitization of a process is impossible.” - i-scoop.eu) – that’s where digitalization comes in.
DIGITALIZATION
According to i-scoop.eu “Digitalization means turning interactions, communications, business functions and business models into (more) digital ones which often boils down to a mix of digital and physical as in omnichannel customer service, integrated marketing or smart manufacturing with a mix of autonomous, semi-autonomous and manual operations.”
This implies that in contrast to digitization – which is the literal conversion of analog data into digital form i.e. the action of digitizing data – digitalization is the adoption or increase in use of digital or computer technology by an organization, industry, country, etc. (Scott Brennen and Daniel Kreiss) source. This can be looked at from a different perspectives – whether it is social (daily interactions), economic (business) or political (government) – but still boils down to the same principle.
It is what the new (information) age is about. The way/extent to which our social, economic, religious and political life has been greatly restructured around digital communication and media devices. So that over the years interactions have moved away from analog technologies (snail mail, telephone calls) to digital ones (email, chat, social media). Every aspect of our lives; official and unofficial communication has been digitalized.
With respect to business processes “Digitalization,” according to Gartner “is the process of employing digital technologies and information to transform business operations.” This entails the actual automation of business processes and work functions that is birthed by the transformation/conversion of analog (non-computerized) data into digital (computerized) data. “Digitalization … increases process efficiency and improves data transparency, and of course, it should help boost your top line,” explained Georg Tacke, CEO, and Annette Ehrhardt, Global Head of Communications & Marketing Senior Director, Simon-Kucher & Partners . “If you operate an online platform, then your company may already be 80 percent digitalized, and you can gain more efficiency or create more customer value by going the remaining 20 percent of the way.”
Note: In the example above, implementing the technology behind such an online platform (such as a school having a website and putting up information about the school) isn’t the digitalization step per se – it’s shifting the business processes to such a platform (i.e. when the said school takes up certain or every aspect of the running of the school – such as admissions, lectures, exams, staff functions, etc. – online via that website).
At the heart of this digitalization process is a great change (revolution, if you like). Imagine classroom teachers giving up the traditional marker and whiteboard for interactive (electronic) whiteboards or to put it more drastically, having classroom teachers replaced with highly intelligent robots; same with the waiter in the restaurant or the help at home. This will mean a massive job change (or loss) – a fact that is more real now than ever.
And in terms of governance, there can be nothing more business-in-nature than governance as the effective management and utilization of resources, both capital and human, is at the centre of governance as with business. It, therefore, implies that digitalization to governance will mean the process of moving to digital governance such that parastatals and agencies of government are easily and seamlessly accessed for effective governance. This will promote public confidence in the government, government probity and transparency, open up more communication channels for better interaction and knowledge sharing between government and the people, bring the people close to the government, better and even distribution of development and developmental projects, among others.
There is yet another concept (we shall look at for the purpose of completeness and necessarily so) that looks beyond the gains of digitization and digitalization to taking actionable decision/steps towards the actual implementation of digitalization – it is digital transformation.
Digital transformation entails all the plugged (computer/technology-enabled/centred/driven activities such as CAM/CAD/CAL – Computer Aided Manufacturing/Design/Learning) and unplugged (customer-driven cross-cutting organizational changes like training (recruiting) of (new) workers to be better suited to take on the new roles that will ensue by this distortion) actions and activities carried out or performed to effectively exploit (the gains of digitization and digitalization) and implement digitization to turn around the entire business life cycle (including the workforce, processes and tools) for maximum yield.
“An organization” according to forbes.com “might undertake a series of digitalization projects, ranging from automating processes to retraining workers to use computers. Digital transformation, in contrast, is not something that enterprises can implement as (mere – mine) projects” - because of its all-encompassing nature, I believe.
Digital transformation, therefore, is the process of devising new business applications that integrate all the digitized data and digitalized processes for a more robust customer-centric business ecosystem. Consider the example of irokotv (the Netflix or Africa) and movie renting/selling shops and the four walls of the traditional classroom and online training/educational sites. Once our home movies (actually, films in general) and courses and instructional aids were digitized, the path was paved for a completely new business model: movie streaming and (real-time) online learning (CAL).
Summarizing you can say that digital transformation requires digitalization ‘en route’ to digital business (capabilities) and requires digitization, since the glue and a core business asset of digital transformation (and of digitalization) is obviously (digital) data, leading to information, knowledge, intelligence, action and business model changes. i-scoop.eu
THE EDUCATIONISTS
Educationists are educators with a pinch of artistry and a dash of ministry as they seek to educate mind, body, & soul…their own & those around them. Source
According to the dictionary.com “an educationist is a specialist in the theory and methods of education.” They form a significant (however socially neglected) part of the human community – which shall be discussed briefly shortly.
Educationists cut across various disciplines and spheres of humanity, leading various researches globally, therefore the success or failure of maintaining a balance between digitalization and humanization lies greatly at their door.
The educationists, who are educators (though not all educators are educationists), are a vital ingredient in this discourse because they (shall) set the stage for, what is called, the digital ethics that will dictate the rate at which human and technology interactions get along without getting lopsided (tilting more in favour of technology) such that human beings are now dictated to by technology on how to adapt to digitalization rather than human beings setting the pace for their spread and how they ultimately affect and change our way of life (since this is imminent).
HUMANIZATION
The huge attractions (revolving majorly around speed, lower cost, accessibility and automation) of digital transformation brought about by the disruptive progression of digitization and digitalization highlighted above notwithstanding, truth is, there are tradeoffs, with merits and demerits, between digitalization and humanization (we shall focus on this some more in a later part of this post).
So what actually is humanization? According to Merriam Webster dictionary humanization means “to represent as human: attribute human qualities to, to adapt to human nature or use.” To put more succinctly and for the purpose of this discourse, humanization entails the activities necessary to recognize and appreciate the attributes of humanity (ie humans, the human community and all the conditions and qualities necessary for being human/humane). Some of these attributes, which shall form the basis of our discussion in the second part of this discourse, include: social (human-to-human) functions/interactions in the leisure and business domains, education, emotions – kindness, empathy, etc.
Humanization just like every other real-life concept has its attendant challenges. These challenges which act as adversaries to the tenets and moral norms of humanization could be from within the human community – in which case they are exhibited as social conflict emanating from a feeling of intense hatred and alienation which often result in violent aggression between the parties involved. This happens, mostly, when in the words of Michelle Maiese, “people begin to de-legitimize those whom they sense are a great threat to their wellbeing and values”; or from an alien community like the digital world (digitalization) – for almost the same reasons.
Therefore, Humanization can also refer to those strategies designed to counteract this destructive conflict dynamic. Source
This brings to bear the need for a convergence between digitalization and humanization, bringing to focus the essence of this discourse. There needs to be a common ground of agreement where humanity will not feel threatened by digitalization, despite its fast pace of spread and inherent cons to the human community, and rather stay aware of the fact that he is the master and not the slave.
It’s a wrap! See you guys in the concluding part.
