Educators have made “sweeping generalizations” about students’ abilities in terms of their use of technology. It’s amazing to me that in the 21^st century, there are still those who assume that students pick up on using Microsoft Office 365, Google Suite, or Adobe platforms on their own. It’s important to develop not only technological skills, but also work-based skills (effective communication, networking, critical thinking, etc.) to get students better prepared for the real world.

Curiosity for leadership development is divided into three phases: learning, doing, and teaching. I think that’s something that should be universal, no matter what field you’re in. The hardest phase to start, for me, would be the learning phase because without proper motivation to be curious and learn something new, you’ll never get your feet off the ground. Also, the ideas of a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset are obvious when you apply it to real world situations. For example, an employee who is so set in his or her ways has simply become complacent in his or her working environment (“I’ve always done it this way and it’s always worked for me, so why reinvent the wheel?”). Someone with a growth mindset definitely has better potential to emerge as leaders through challenging themselves to try something new (“I’ve never used Microsoft Teams but I’d love to get the chance to learn how it works while we work on this project.”) (Bower & Konwerski, 2017, p. 91).