Digital Woman Power: Going Digital In A Post-Pandemic Age

Parenting, in an ever-changing digital age, is a bitter-sweet journey filled with many teachable moments. Navigating a child’s exposure to explicit content, cyber-bullying, FOMO, and disruptive landmines in the digital domain requires a robust response. The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a host of uncertainties, causing a seismic shift in the academic landscape of education across the entire globe. A swift response of unprecedented safety measures restricting in-person learning has forced academic institutions to adopt online learning platforms and communication platforms.

The Impact of Online Learning

The need for additional digital supervision in a structured setting in the pre-pandemic parental duties of allocating screen-time and implementing strict parental controls becomes relevant. The adverse impact of online learning has drastically increased student exposure to internet distractions that threaten student safety and academic performance. While many parents balked at the digital learning curve before them, others embraced this digital dilemma as a unique opportunity for strategic solutions to emerge.

The Message-only Application

Richard Lucero, a proud girl-dad and dedicated educator of over 25 years decided to meet this digital moment by creating the app TransparenSee. Seasoned by years of experience working on the administrative level, Richard recognised the unforeseen perils of educators having twenty-four access to students via digital apps, from private DMs to encrypted snap-chat accounts. Richard created TransparenSee to protect each stakeholder engaged in a student’s constellation of communication by mitigating undesirable interactions between students and teachers. He says, “do not say anything to a child that you will not say in front of their parents. The message-only app is designed for parents/guardians to monitor all online conversations between educators and students. TransparenSee facilitates a safe space for digital communication in the learning community and sets the parameters of positive discourse to become the guardrails to achieve successful communication.

Beyond the Wildest Dreams

The launch of TransparenSee landed Richard a unique position in the Ed-tech space that he never imagined on his horizon. As a child, he dreamt of being a college football coach. His days of coaching football took him to places beyond his wildest dreams. Navigating the playing field of the Ed-tech industry was never in his playbook. His decision to plunge into the pool of digital innovation was met with fleeting moments of fear and trepidation. Richard never let doubt or fear drown his dreams of delivering a vital service to help parents raising children in a digital age. Dedication, hard work, and the awareness of divine providence were the fruits of being the son of a brick-layer and a mother in the preaching ministry.

Women’s Bright Future in Digital Space

Richard remains motivated by his desire to make the world a fertile place for his daughter and women everywhere to be strong leaders. He says that “it is always important to look back and help women move forward.” He recognises that women have a bright future in the digital space and encourages them to see obstacles as opportunities to fuel their passions and purpose. “Don’t die with a desire un-pursued,” he says.

Pillars of Digital Transformation for Women

Despite the hardship of navigating the Coronavirus, Richard believes the pandemic reminded us that we need each other. He offers several pillars of thought to encourage women and parents to embrace their digital transformation:

• Listen to your voice,
• Eliminate fear,
• Be bold,
• Leverage past experiences and skillsets,
• Build your team,
• Network,
• Ask questions,
• Be authentic,
• Find your Niche,
• Surround yourself with talented people

Richard’s digital transformation is a celebrated triumph of the human condition to create unique digital solutions for human problems.  The pandemic forces business owners to transform digitally faster now.  Digital transformation is a journey, not a destination.  Don’t fear to transform digitally.  So, let us embrace digital technologies to make it part of our daily lifestyle, and develop new business models to future-proof our businesses.