Dialogue and Communication in a Digital Education Environment

Abstract

The article analyzes the transformation of modern education. The authors distinguish between the concepts of “communication”, “contacts”, and “dialogue”, which define the core of education, and argue that meaning is born in dialogue only. In online education, comprehension of the material goes by the wayside, and the meaning itself is replaced by information. A reasonable question arises: does a modern person need a dialogue that is used to build meaningful relationships between people, or communicative competences are sufficient to ensure professional communication? The pandemic that conditioned the transition to distance education has sharpened the differences between communication and dialogue, sign and semantic communication, and revealed the importance of classroom (and especially out-of-classroom) conversation between the teacher and the student for the transfer of knowledge and cultural heritage. The development of digital technologies and the emergence of a networked society have had a direct and indirect impact on the transformation of education. In the context of the pandemic, new interactive educational programs have been accelerated. The accumulated experience makes it possible to adequately assess the positive and negative effects of distance learning. A human being is a product of technologies that shape human personal qualities. The article analyzes and evaluates changes that (as a result of the introduction of digital technology) occur in the minds, and more broadly — in the both students and teachers mentality. The article provides a comparative analysis of alternative concepts of education. According to one of them, digital education turns the student into an automaton, acting according to a predetermined algorithm. According to other point of view, new technologies raise the efficiency and productivity of educational institutions. The authors propose a philosophical and anthropological approach, which implies that the continuous digitalization contains moral, social and human risks. As a result of this analysis, recommendations for their minimization are formulated.