9c1 - Digital Leadership - Socially responsible Global Leadership in a Digital World

Long before service-learning became a requirement for the undergraduate programs in 2010, Dr. Grace Ngai and Dr. Stephen Chan have been running service-learning projects driven by information technology, first in Hong Kong from the early 2000s, then in Mainland China starting from 2006, and in Cambodia starting from 2010.  In 2011, they proposed one of the first service-learning subjects at PolyU - COMP2S01 “Technology beyond borders”.   It was designed to accept any student from any discipline, and aimed at carrying out information technology-related projects across national, language, ethnic, culture, …, boundaries.  We were, and remain, confident through successful implementation, that we can train any intelligent and motivated student in the needed technology - graphical programming, multimedia, robotics, basic electricity, solar panels, ebook writing, … - to carry out meaningful and impactful solutions for some social need.  

Subsequently, the team realised that an entry-level service-learning subject such as COMP2S01 cannot handle projects that require stronger professional expertise.  Hence there is a need to develop a discipline-specific version of the subject, COMP3911 “Service-Learning in the Information Age” - in order to tackle more technologically challenging projects.  This is designed for students who major in computer science or related disciplines.  They are then capable of carrying out projects that require more advanced skills such as rigorous programming, game design, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and other advanced skills.  These students can then tackle projects such as developing database systems, interactive web sites, special purpose computer games, etc.

Later on, the team recognize the desirability to further advance service-learning through  explicitly incorporating leadership education into the subject.  The result is COMP3S02, “Socially Responsible Global Leadership in a Digital World”.  As the name indicates, the subject integrates service-learning, leadership and globalisation in one subject.  As the three major elements complement each other, we are able to squeeze a significant amount content into a 3-credit course as much of the material serve multiple purposes.  

Hence we currently have a rich set of courses with different focus: (1) an entry-level subject on cross-cultural, information technology-driven SL, open to all, (2) a discipline-specific, more advanced subject on information technology-driven SL, and (3) a subject on Socially Responsible Leadership (SRL) through SL.  Using this repertoire of courses, we are able  to develop collaboration with other departments within PolyU, teaching jointly with other universities across the globe, experiment with innovative pedagogy such as online teaching of SL, online execution of SL, and more.  We have also brought in Dr. Peter Ng and Dr. Shuheng Lin to our teaching team. We are growing in so many ways.

The following sections will discuss some of the major undertakings.