Distance learning is a digital option, opening its doors to our students under the current exceptional circumstances, to enable them to continue their academic year without interruption, but this option is not temporary and should not be linked in our minds to the idea of ​​“home segregation”, but quite the opposite, it is the opportunity for today's generation Out of the boundaries of the classroom, and receiving his education as a service that reaches him beyond the limits of time and space, and our success in taking advantage of this opportunity, confirms that it was not the result of the moment, but rather a product of pre-preparedness to achieve this qualitative shift in education, and the current conditions are nothing but accelerators for their occurrence, even if we look To the next stage after that T. The return of life to its nature, we will find that distance learning will impose itself as an educational option that can be combined with modular education (in the classroom) as a "hybrid" model.

The near future will witness a change in line with the nature of this generation who is passionate about technologies, and it is important to research and develop ideas and visions on how to prepare it to deal with the changes of this age. In the column “Education Industry” last week, I addressed a new concept, “Persona of the Future 4.0”, which Through him, I talked about an intellectual formulation regarding how to prepare our students for the future, a concept that means the basic set of features that students of the fourth industrial revolution generation must enjoy, which includes "digital persona", "professional persona" and "persona entrepreneurship", and it integrates Gradually together at every level of education To reach the personality of the future.

Looking at reality today, we find that the success of the transition to the distance learning stage is based on the students themselves, who successfully dealt with this change, each according to his technical expertise; those of which he received part of the educational institution and the majority learned in his daily life with curiosity, interest and research. So today we need what I call «Digital Persona» concerned with building and digital preparation for our students who represent the fourth generation of the industrial revolution, in the sense of enabling them to technology according to a system of digital skills developed in a thoughtful and targeted manner for each educational stage according to its needs and in line with international standards.

Building and enhancing this digital feature in our students will contribute to filling the gap in differences in digital capabilities between students, and through our awareness as educational institutions for ambitious national visions and developments in global skills and job challenges, our responsibility is great in achieving this digital preparation for students and reorienting their minds and skills according to a framework From global skills makes them digital students par excellence, in light of a promising future for those with skills and talents.

"Digital Persona" is a feature from which we must enable our human resources in the stage of preparation for the future, and support the investment of all forms of technology in education such as artificial intelligence, big data and smart applications, that will enable students to be creative and innovative through advanced technology, and most importantly, this digital feature, After graduation, ensure that the Professional Learner is able to invest his digital capabilities in continuous learning and support his professional development.

Abdullatif.alshamsi@gmail.com

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