On 31 October 2025, I delivered my inaugural lecture Digital agency in onderwijs en samenleving: op naar kritisch en bewust technologiegebruik (Digital Agency in Education and Society: Towards Critical and Conscious Technology Use) at Leiden University. In this blog, I want to share the core message of that talk: digital agency is essential for how we learn, teach, and live today.

Digital agency is more than knowing how digital tools work. It is about being able to understand technology critically, make conscious judgments, and act with purpose. It’s the difference between being guided by technology and taking the lead with technology.

What does Digital Agency mean
When I talk about digital agency, I refer to the ability to choose, reflect, and act deliberately in digital environments. It is a shift from knowing, to understanding, to acting. Digital literacy and media literacy are important, but they do not go far enough. They focus on skills and critical use. Digital agency adds something deeper: ownership, autonomy, values, responsibility. This is what we need today, in a world where algorithms shape what we see, how we learn, and how we interact.

How students develop Digital Agency
When I look at students, I define digital student agency as their ability to shape their own learning process in digital environments. It is visible when they make intentional choices, adjusting settings, consulting multiple sources, or using technology to support rather than distract their learning. But this agency extends far beyond the formal learning environment: it also encompasses how students navigate, interpret, and interact with the broader digital world that surrounds their daily lives. It includes the choices they make on social platforms, the way they respond to algorithms, and how they align their digital behaviors with their own values and wellbeing.

But this doesn’t happen automatically. Students need:
• Self-regulation and digital balance,
• Awareness of how algorithms influence their online life,
• Equal access to technology and supportive school environments.

Too often, students know what technology does, but do not yet act on that knowledge. True agency only emerges when they take initiative and align their digital behavior with their values.

Why teachers also need Digital Agency
Teachers play a central role in shaping digital agency of students. In my inaugural lecture, I presented a model with three interconnected dimensions:

1. Professional Digital Competence (PDC): what teachers know and can do.
2. Digital Teacher Agency: how teachers act, make autonomous decisions, and innovate.
3. Pedagogical–didactic reasoning with technology: how teachers reflect on when and why technology supports learning.

This means that effective educational technology is not about the tool itself, but about the teacher’s choices and values. A teacher keeps the human perspective visible where systems can standardize or oversimplify. Technology becomes meaningful only when teachers connect it to pedagogy, ethics, and learners’ needs.

Keeping human agency at the center
My core statement is simple: technology must never replace human judgement. Digital agency is what empowers students and teachers to stay in control, ethically, reflectively, and responsibly, within an increasingly digital world. This is not an optional skill. It is a foundation for learning, professional growth, and citizenship.

Want to know more? Explore the text of the inaugural lecture through a GPT
To extend the conversation beyond the ceremony, I created a GPT that allows anyone to explore the themes of my inaugural lecture interactively. The title of the GPT is in Dutch, but questions can be asked in any language.

You can try it here: https://edu.nl/kg7e3.

(or scan the QR code below)

Examples of questions:
• What is the core message of this inaugural lecture?
• Can you give an example of digital agency?
• Why is digital agency important?

Please note: a (free) ChatGPT account is required for access.

Reference
Saab, N. (2025). Digital agency in onderwijs en samenleving: op naar kritisch en bewust technologiegebruik. https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/4270715