The author's approach to the technology of “meaning essay” is proposed as a method of initiating the meaning formation of students; the author's interpretation of the term "meaning essay" is given. The authors emphasize the importance of methods and technologies for meaning formation as effective meaning techniques used in the conditions of transformation of education during the transition to the official distance learning. Among the typical disadvantages of “distance education” are discussed the following ones: changes in the form of interaction between teacher and student, decrease of the emotional contact and loss of the emotional connection, transition from the "real" communication - to "virtual" communication via the Internet communications. An "essay" technology is considered from the position of meaning formation. Also the possibilities of a meaning essay as a meaning technique for lessons of the social and humanitarian subjects are shown. A theoretical comparative analysis of the "essays" and "compositions" is carried out. The following mechanisms of initiating the formation of students' meanings are shown: through involvement into the dialogue, actualization of personal meanings and empathy, the comprehension of socialized meanings through awareness and understanding of attitudes, contradictions, values and emotional codes. The article presents the analysis of the value orientations according to the method of M. Rokeach and the content analysis of the semantic sphere of the schoolchildren of two age groups: 12-13 and 16-17 years old. The empirical work carried out allows to form possible themes of the "meaning essays" in relation to social studies lessons for the students of the secondary schools 12-13 years old (the seventh grade).

A theoretical review of research and publications on digitalization of the educational space, including digital didactics, is presented. The authors consider the theoretical aspects of the definition of “digital didactics” in the light of recent domestic and foreign studies. The novelty of this study lies in the characterization of the main trends in the problem of digital didactics, highlighting several problems that modern Russian teachers face in the process of digital learning. The authors draw attention to the need to consider the basics of digital didactics in the context of meaning formation. More than 55 publications of domestic and foreign researchers were studied. The issues of defining the concept of digital didactics are considered, the General characteristics of digital didactics at the present stage, the most important problems and prospects for its study are given. This article will allow researchers working in the field of digital didactics to get acquainted with the most well-known concepts of digital learning today.

The authors consider a meaning essay as a semantic technique, not only as convenient for any learning format (distance, full-time, mixed), but also as effective, capable of initiating the formation of students' meaning and launching a mechanism for comprehending the subject content at a deep, internal level. The formulation of an essay during the lesson at any of its stages, as well as as homework, is, according to the authors, a kind of «meaning task.» Delivered by the teacher or formulated by the students themselves at any level of learning, it is capable of activating the semantic sphere, launching the mechanism of «interest», comprehension. The authors conducted an empirical study using interdisciplinary methods of pedagogy and psychology: S. Jurard's self-disclosure questionnaire (modified version), psycholinguistic analysis of essays, content analysis of essay texts, statistical analysis - Student's t-test. technologies for the development of the semantic sphere of adolescents. The sample consisted of adolescents 12-15 years old (girls and boys) of secondary schools in Rostov-on-Don and the Moscow region. The novelty of this research lies in the use of the method of psycholinguistic analysis of meaning essays to assess the semantic sphere of adolescents.