Media technologies and virtual practices in creative approaches to educational training of a social worker

Abstract

The educational system has undergone significant transformations in recent decades, the main catalyst of which is the development of the information sphere of society. Both individual elements and the structural, substantive content are modified and updated. Among the vectors that determine the dynamics and direction of this process is the growing socio-cultural role of modern media, which are based on digital technologies as a globalization platform and the main type of communication. The change of the information code - digitalization of the media sphere, creation of new media platforms of social interaction initiates the need to build an educational system that meets the demands of today. Among the many factors that are currently relevant in educational approaches are media technologies. Their role in the training of specialists in various fields is growing symptomatically, as it is associated with the functions of “new media”, which for the subject of activity become transgressive guidelines for constructing reality. Educational and further professional activity of a social worker needs to be reconsidered in the context of innovative strategies, first of all formation of media technologies in social work. Their formation is based on modern principles of new media: interactivity of communication and gamification of virtual practices. In social work at different levels of activity of the representatives of this sphere, media competencies are in demand, which include mastery of instrumental methods of implementing game, virtual, art practices as a motivational resource, technology of initiating social activity, cultural-adaptive and creative orientation of social assistance clients. This issue includes the specifics of the profession of social worker through the prism of the possibilities of filling his case with a creative resource - the tools of media technology in social work. The article outlines both the potential of gamification and virtualization of media practices in the educational and further professional activities of a social worker, and points out the possible dangers of implementing these technologies for certain categories of people in need. The article is a research exploration in the formation of a professional strategy of a social worker based on the involvement of the latest media practices as an expansion of media tools, the implementation of a creative approach to helping the client of social services.