This is an introductory text to a collection of papers from the ICSF 2020: The International

Career guidance quests that involve solving intellectual and search problems in a game are associated with one’s future career, being one of modern means of recruiting school leavers to vocational and higher educational institutions. Such specific computer tools of virtual and augmented reality as pupils’ mobile Internet gadgets can enhance visual character and interactivity of quest problems. The article deals with applying augmented reality in the web environment to solving these tasks. The authors propose a prototype of a career guidance quest system using WebAR technology.

The article substantiates the need to develop and implement a distance course “Cloud technologies in the educational process in quarantine”. It is noted that the purpose of the course was to acquaint teachers of general secondary education institutions, college teachers, vocational and higher education institutions with the basic possibilities of using cloud technologies to ensure the educational process in distance learning. The list of topics with which the students get acquainted is given: basic concepts, models of cloud services, architecture and proposals from leading cloud services companies; cloud services in the work of the teacher, the peculiarities of working with mail; cloud storage as an alternative to replacing conventional drives; opportunities to create documents with the provision of sharing rights to multiple users; opportunities to create Internet surveys using cloud technologies; opportunities to create presentations using cloud technologies; cloud-based means of creating smart maps; means of creating sites; cloud-based learning management systems (for example, Google Classroom). The peculiarities of the proposed distance course and the difficulties that the students had in performing certain tasks are identified and described. The statistical results of the course are given.

One of the main aspects of studying databases in higher education institutions by future IT specialists is database design and software product development. This, in turn, is the most important problem of the developer’s interaction with the customer. To facilitate the process of database design, ER-diagrams are used, which are based on the concepts of “Entity” and “Relationship”. An ER diagram allows you to present a database in the form of visual graphical objects that define a specific subject area. The article considers the available cloud services for the construction of ER-diagrams for learning databases of future IT specialists and their selection the method expert evaluation. For this purpose, the criteria and indicators for the selection of cloud services for the construction of ER-diagrams of databases by future information technology specialists have been determined. As a result, it was found that the cloud services Dbdesigner.net and Lucidchart are the most convenient to learn. It is determined that for a teacher of a higher education institution the use of cloud services is an opportunity to use licensed software in education without additional costs.

Augmented reality has a great impact on the student in the presentation of educational material: objects of augmented reality affect the development of facial expressions, attention, stimulate thinking, and increase the level of understanding of information. Its implementation in various spheres has indisputable advantages: realism, clarity, application in many industries, information completeness and interactivity. That is why the study presents the possibilities of using augmented reality in the study of mathematics, anatomy, physics, chemistry, architecture, as well as in other fields. The comparison of domestic and foreign proposals for augmented reality is presented. The use of augmented reality in various fields (technology, entertainment, science and medicine, education, games, etc.) should be well thought out and pedagogically appropriate. That is why in the future it is planned to conduct research on the feasibility of using augmented reality and to develop elements of augmented reality accordingly.