Virtualization of Educational Environment in a Modern Tertiary School

Abstract

The article is concentrated on the study of urgent problems of digitalization of education. The authors, based on the study of actual changes in the educational environment of a higher education institution in the face of digitalization, attempted to apply systematic approach to the review of technology and information ethics in the virtual educational environment, while usually these factors are considered separately. The authors believe that the virtual environment is a holistic system, which requires ethical review, evaluation, etc. within the framework of information ethics. Results: 1. Global educational trends were named: promoting a culture of innovation; expansion of cooperation between educational, scientific and business organizations; digital university model development; development of cooperative pedagogy; continuity of education; creation of individual educational trajectories. 2. Risks of virtualization of educational environment in a higher education institution identified: student identification problems, insufficiency of motivation in contactless education, infringement of communication privacy, asymmetry in information distribution, digital discrimination. 3. The authors pay special attention to the study of the educational environment individualization process, which includes three stages: management of educational content, management of educational process and emergence of personal educational environments. The authors conclude that in the complex space of virtual education, an effective means of ensuring information security is the formation of information literacy that provides for the possession of certain information skills and suggests such information behavior that would counteract the real and potential dangers of digitalization. The results of the paper can be used in further studies of ethical issues of dissemination of digital communication technologies in education, in the development of proposals and recommendations to managers in the education system to be used in practice. Keywords: Digital ethics Á Personalization of educational environment Á Individual educational trajectory Á Humanization of education Á Discriminatory risks in education JEL code: J240 Á I230 Á I260 Á O360