PERCEPTION OF SCHOOL LEARNING DIGITALIZATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES: RESEARCH OUTCOMES OF ONLINE FOCUS GROUPS WITH TEACHERS AND PARENTS OF SCHOOLCHILDREN

Pandemic of COVID-19 speeded up the digitalization of school education which led to radical changes in educational, social, and communicative practices. To reveal trends in educational practices, related risks, and negative impacts of these transformations, in October 2020, the authors of this study conducted a series of online focus groups with schoolteachers and parents of students from different regions residing in large, medium-size, and small cities. The discussion was focused on the character and the scope of digitalization in school education, on the new role of teacher and parent, and on the digital communication practices. The focus group data were processed by categorizing the statements of participants, identifying the central trend and the general spectrum of opinions and practices. As a result, the authors identified three levels of the semantic-associative space for the digitalization perception — basic, intermediate, and advanced. Key challenges of the current transformations are the discrepancy between normative views of teachers and parents on their roles and a unified approach to introducing digital technologies for different educational grades. The vulnerable side of school digitalization is also the attitude of the main participants towards it;teachers and parents perceive school digitalization as fragmented, inconsistent process, lacking clearly defined purposes. Based on these data, the authors confirmed hypotheses about the reasons of negative views on school digitalization — the prevalence of top-down model in introducing digital instruments and procedures, the concentration of decision-making on top-management level, low involvement of parents and teachers in defining the agenda, timing, and specific means of digital transformations. As a result, undifferentiated approaches to digital learning at different levels are ineffective, and often inapplicable. Risks and drawbacks could be mitigated by more consistent and gradual approach to the transformations, use of customized rather than unified model of digitalization for each educational grade, taking into account the experience and needs of main actors. © 2022 Russian Public Opinion Research Center, VCIOM. All rights reserved.

Digitalization of the educational environment: Risk assessment of distance education by Russian and vietnamese students

The digitalization of higher education is a long-term trend that gained a new impetus for further development because of the forced transition to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the article is to analyze the impact of digital transformation on the educational process in universities and to describe the risks through the students' eyes. The analysis is based on the results of a survey conducted by the authors in 2020 among students of two universities - Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and the Institute of the Trade Union Movement of the General Confederation of Labor of Vietnam (IPLV). The article describes the methodology of the online survey. The attitude towards distance learning is interpreted as a three-level attitude with emotional, cognitive and behavioral aspects. It is suggested that students' readiness to switch to distance learning is determined by a set of macro and micro factors. Among the macro factors are the national specifics of the educational system, traditions in the field of higher education, infrastructure, the national educational policy, and the mobilization potential of the population. Among the micro factors are the cognitive and other psychological characteristics of the students, the socio-psychological openness to innovation. According to the survey results, there is certain similarity in the way Russian and Vietnamese students assess their experience of distance learning. At the same time, significant differences in the perception of the outcome of the digital transformation of education have been revealed. For MGIMO students, major risks are associated with dehumanization, the severing of social ties, and the possible loss of student status. For Vietnamese students the most significant risks are mainly associated with the fears of the decreasing quality of education. It is therefore concluded that distance learning is both the field of opportunities and possible source of individual and institutional risks. © 2021 Moscow Polytechnic University. All rights reserved.