Modern digital educational tools and digital competence: analysis of cases and trends

Abstract

The introduction of digital tools takes place in all spheres of life, including the education. The author of this paper attempted to structure and characterize the existing digital educational tools in terms of functions and capabilities for users, characteristics of user interactions in tools. In the literary review in first part of this work, the current state of digitalization of various spheres of life was investigated, and the relation of society to perspective universal automation and digitalization of all on the basis of the published scientific works were studied. The paper highlights three types of digital environments: modular digital educational environments, LMS and LCMS, as well as remote online education, presented on the platforms MOOC. The analysis of interaction of teachers and pupils within the specified digital environments was carried out, opportunities of each environment were defined, and shortcomings of each of them were performed in this study. In conclusion, the article formulates the forecast of the possibilities of further research in the direction of this article. In addition, the paper contains the conclusion about the necessity for the transfer of digital technologies in the educational process and the important role of the teacher in the process of obtaining knowledge by students even in case of using digital automated environments. The purpose of the study was to structure and consolidate the data about the available digital learning tools and digital educational environments, to perform the role of the teacher in the use of each tool, and to highlight the ability of students and teachers in the framework of specific tools. Recourses and methods. In this paper, we conducted a review and analysis of existing publications, open data and information about the used and available digital educational tools. Information about each of the educational environments and platforms was structured and presented in the form of tables, as well as reflected through the scheme of interaction of the teacher with the student in the digital environment. The results of the conducted research show that despite the existence of a large number of digital resources, programs and opportunities for partial automation of the educational process we need the teacher for the effective completion of the learning process. In the case of open online courses, the absence of a mentor, tutor or some person acting as a teacher affects the number of successfully completing online courses. Furthermore, the introduction of digital tools is often hampered by teachers’ lack of skills to make full use of the tools in a particular digital environment. In conclusion, the article suggests the need for a closer transfer of knowledge and technology in the educational process, with the parallel formation of the concept of “digital competence” and the identification of the criterion of its evaluation in future and practicing teachers.