Sun Chuhang and Luo Liang: Promoting the Construction of Digital Ideological and Political Education to Enhance Online Education Capabilities
During the fifth collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Adhere to reform and innovation, advance the integrated development of ideological and political education in primary, secondary, and tertiary schools, and enhance the targeted nature and appeal of ideological and political (思政, sizheng) courses. Improve the capacity for online education, and perform solid work in school ideological and political work and ideological work in the Internet era." With the rapid development of modern digital technology, cyberspace has become the "primary environment" for the study and life of the vast number of young students. Fully leveraging the role of digital technologies—represented by big data and artificial intelligence—in ideological and political work, vigorously promoting the construction of digital sizheng, and empowering the innovation of ideological and political education through digitalization are essential components and measures for advancing the digital transformation of education and accelerating the construction of a system for ideological and political work.
Digital sizheng represents a paradigmatic shift and comprehensive response of ideological and political education to the major historical context of digitalization. It is not a simple supplement to traditional sizheng, nor a mere improvement in methodology; rather, it is a transformation and upgrade of the internal operation of modern ideological and political education to adapt to the digital spatio-temporal environment. The research object of digital sizheng is the phenomena and laws of ideological and political education in a digital society. It is the theoretical interpretation, academic expression, and practical innovation regarding the guidance and regulation of thought and behavior in a digital society. It promotes the construction of a new ecosystem and systemic innovation in sizheng education across dimensions such as values, goals, content, and methods, thereby enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of ideological and political work.
The shaping of values relies on subjects and objects and is also constrained by the historical stage in which the subject actively transforms the object. Digital society breaks through the limitations of time and space, reconstructs the boundaries between the virtual and the real, and creates new human-machine relationships. The individual and social values of digital sizheng manifest these characteristics of the era, achieving the development and transformation of traditional sizheng. At the level of individual value, it changes traditional "indoctrination-style" education and constructs a new type of subject-object interaction. It utilizes interactive and participatory digital means to mobilize the internal spiritual drive of individuals, tapping into personality potential through human-machine interaction to assist in self-development and perfection. At the level of social value, it adapts to the actual needs of the technological revolution and industrial transformation. It uses digital means to strengthen education in the mainstream ideology, leading the shaping of mainstream values in digital space, and consolidating a network consensus that serves the overall interests of economic and social development, fully stimulating the innovative and creative vitality of "digital citizens." Simultaneously, it strengthens the dissemination of political discourse in digital space, shapes political beliefs and identity, revitalizes cultural resources, expands cultural space, and produces a range of digital cultural products aligned with mainstream values. This serves to prevent and suppress online attacks and infiltration, building a "firewall" for the security of mainstream ideology in the digital era.
The setting of goals reflects the starting point and final destination of ideological and political education, manifesting its fundamental aspirations and demands while reflecting social development goals. The widespread application of emerging technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality has constructed a unique digital space. While the conditions for nurturing people in ideological and political education have undergone immense changes, its fundamental goal remains to improve people's ability to understand and transform the world, transforming the subjective world while transforming the objective world. Its specific goals combine the new characteristics of digital education to form new objectives and orientations. First, guiding values to transcend technological alienation. Digital sizheng aims to promote the free and comprehensive development of people in both the digital and real worlds, avoiding technological dependence and digital addiction. Second, using spiritual guidance to break down communication barriers in the digital age. It exerts the value-function of "enlightening wisdom and nourishing the heart" [1], resolving the cognitive dilemmas arising from a lack of real spatio-temporal perception in digital society. This prevents individuals from becoming "hollow people" [2] whose inner worlds are deprived and detached by "information cocoons," aiding in the construction of the learners' ideological space and spiritual world while avoiding the "crisis of faith" characterized by spiritual emptiness and emotional deserts. Third, using moral norms to reduce digital risks. It promotes the construction of moral concepts, criteria, and norms adapted to the digital era, overcoming digital social risks brought about by "black box" technology, data breaches, and algorithmic discrimination. It guides learners to form good behavioral traits, legal awareness, and moral responsibility, resolving the "trust" crisis in communicative processes and facilitating the construction of a harmonious society.
Digitalization promotes changes in modes of production and adjustments in industrial structure while exerting a profound influence on people's ideas and concepts. To adapt to the in-depth development of digital society, the traditional sizheng content system—including ideological, political, and moral education—will gradually be digitalized through the construction of knowledge graphs. Aimed at the "digital native" youth, we must be adept at correctly using network resources and digital means, combining online education with classroom education to turn sizheng courses into classes that students truly love and benefit from throughout their lives. First, it is necessary to strengthen the cultivation of digital thinking. Digital thinking refers to people conforming to the digital wave, shaping digital logic, establishing correct values and methodologies, possessing data sensitivity, and being skilled at discovering, utilizing, producing, and securing data. Digital sizheng "transforms according to the matter, advances with the times, and innovates according to the trend" [3], constantly strengthening the cultivation of digital thinking so that learners are adept at using data to analyze and solve problems. Second, it is necessary to strengthen digital ethics education. In the digital world, ethical relationships constructed on the premise of natural persons in the physical world need to be re-examined. Digital ethics must prevent disorder and deviation dominated by technological logic. It should be redefined based on the dual biological and digital attributes of human beings, the behavioral laws of virtual-real isomorphism, and the constraints of algorithmic decision-making, thereby constructing a digital ethics system where value rationality, instrumental rationality, and digital rationality converge. Digital sizheng strengthens the mining of educational data, digital dynamic tracking, and algorithmic analysis, guiding learners to follow digital ethical norms, deeply root their identification with the Party, sublimate their feelings for home and country, abide by morality and law, and safeguard national security and ethnic dignity, actively creating positive energy in digital space. Third, it is necessary to promote the enhancement of digital skills. Digital skills refer to the set of qualities and abilities for digital acquisition, production, use, evaluation, interaction, sharing, and innovation in learning, work, and life. Digital sizheng must attend to digital skills, incorporating foundational knowledge of digital technologies such as big data, the metaverse, and virtual reality into the classroom. Through theoretical interpretation and practical experience, it guides learners to properly utilize digital resources, tools, and platforms to actively carry out exploration and innovation.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Wherever the people are, that is where the focus of promotional and ideological work must be. Since cyberspace has become a new space for people's production and life, it should also become a new space for our Party to build consensus." Today's young students are the "network generation" (网络新生代). Naturally, ideological and political work must advance into the online platforms where students gather, driving the digital transformation of the sizheng work system from traditional to modern, allowing the Party's innovative theories to fully occupy the online educational space. Currently, in addition to making full use of traditional sizheng content, forms, and methods, the construction of digital sizheng requires particular focus on the following tasks. First, advancing the innovation of the methodological system. Digital technology brings a transition in knowledge paradigms from induction and deduction to data analysis, from intellectual rationality to computational rationality, and from human cognition to machine cognition. The digital sizheng methodological system is also in a state of constant innovation. It must both uphold traditional methods like heart-to-heart talks, typical case studies, and the selection of role models, while also expanding the tools of sizheng work. Relying on AI and big data, it realizes the unification of qualitative and quantitative methods and the fusion of computational and sizheng thinking. Leveraging holographic projection, virtual reality, and augmented reality, it upgrades "one-dimensional, lecture-style teaching" into a "multi-dimensional educational narrative of sound, light, and electricity," moving from flat to three-dimensional and from static to dynamic to achieve immersive, scenario-driven education. Second, strengthening data governance. This involves building a sizheng big data center and a central "cockpit" for integrated data regulation, extending data interfaces to different scenarios of campus life to collect data on learners' ideological dynamics from daily ideological work, sizheng courses, and "curriculum sizheng" [4]. Standardized data management processes should be established to aggregate, analyze, judge, and dynamically allocate complex educational data resources. Third, strengthening algorithmic governance. Algorithms should be embedded throughout the entire cycle from student enrollment to graduation, integrated into scenarios such as sizheng teaching, volunteer service, social practice, employment and entrepreneurship guidance, and mental health education. We must reasonably regulate algorithmic gradients and dimensions, optimizing the entire process of algorithmic operation—including dynamic identification, categorical labeling, personalized pushing, and information tracing—focusing on the deep integration and free conversion between real and virtual spaces to achieve the organic combination of technology and emotion. Fourth, strengthening platform construction. We must create an integrated sizheng data monitoring and information service platform. For instance, at the level of daily sizheng, we should create multi-dimensional platforms for "Second Classroom" transcript management, comprehensive evaluation and awards, one-stop community educational services, intelligent mental health education systems, and volunteer service certification. These should permeate various interaction scenarios between teachers and students, strengthening the online systems for "Golden Sizheng Courses," "immersive" Grand Sizheng platforms [5], and platforms for excellent "curriculum sizheng" case databases.
On the New Journey in the New Era, to deeply study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches, perform good ideological and political work in the Internet era, and further advance the construction of digital sizheng, we must both strengthen the top-level design of digital sizheng—innovating concepts, content, forms, and methods—and improve the digital literacy of teachers. We must deepen theoretical and practical research into digital sizheng, establish a sustainable system of disciplinary theory and long-term working mechanisms, and vigorously promote innovation in ideological and political work to enhance its effectiveness.