The information and communication technologies in education: prospects and limitations

Abstract

The article outlines and analyzes the risks, opportunities and prospects for using the information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. The paper examines the results and features of the use of ICTs in education: mass character, continuity, and transboundary character; a significant increase in e-learning resources, the growth of Internet platforms and the EdTech market. The article describes limitations that hinder the use of ICTs in education, presents the main trends, and suggests ideas to develop ICTs in current conditions, internationalize education and promote Russian educational programs abroad. Overcoming the pandemic will not only reduce the relevance of discussion about the prospects for using ICT in educational process to implement the internationalization tasks. On the contrary, this discussion is based on the analysis of distance learning as inevitable and turns into a philosophical discourse on how the very future of education is seen, as well as the place and role of ICT in implementing global sustainable development goals. The use of ICT not only changes the form and organization of the educational process significantly, but also provides ample opportunities for the internalization of education, attracting foreign students to study at Russian universities. These opportunities contribute to achieving a number of political and economic development objectives. There are differences between organizing the educational process for Russian students studying directly in the building of a higher educational institution full-time or in hybrid format and teaching foreign students using ICT in a fully remote format. The work used interviews with teachers and the results of sociological surveys among students of the Department of Production and Cultural Policy of the RANEPA.