Methodical Principles and of Digital Education: from the Experience of Teaching Philosophical Disciplines

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of digital education. The features of various forms of teaching academic and university disciplines, including philosophical ones, based on information technologies that enable distance learning are considered. The article analyses the peculiarities of cooperation between teachers and students in the digital education system, where living, real individuals function as media personages. It is revealed that such personages exist on the basis of digital visual anthropology, rather than the anthropology of bodily presence, which is the basis of traditional academic education. The article examines the methodical principles of digital, distance education – mediation, representativeness, and reflexivity – which make it possible to teach academic disciplines effectively at a distance. It has been found that the application of these methodical principles involves compliance with specific laws of digital education – proper digital behavior, legitimation of digital presentation, permanent digital movement as well as digital feedback. Both the advantages and disadvantages of digital education, especially for teaching philosophical disciplines, such as the history of philosophy and philosophical anthropology, are identified. It is revealed how teaching philosophical disciplines can be effective if the principles and laws of digital education are observed, but taking into account the requirements of the anthropology of presence, remains a basic prerequisite for any variant of the modern educational process. It is argued that overcoming this anthropology requires a radical «dematerialization» of participants in online education, which is not yet an achievable goal.