Behavior of adolescents in the digital educational environment: Definition of concepts and formulation of the problem

Abstract

The relevance of the problem of adolescent behavior in the digital educational environment is conditioned by acceleration of education digitalization processes, which participate in the formation of a new type of behavior, i.e. digital behavior, that is defined as a system of actions associated with the use of the digital environment. The purpose of the present work is to investigate the current state of this problem and outline the prospects for its further study on the basis of the analysis and generalization of Russian and foreign sources. We employ the methods of theoretical analysis, systematization of the results of relevant psychological and pedagogical studies and the retrospective analysis of key concepts. We also present the general conceptual system of the research area under study and the genesis and semantics of the terms: information behavior, digital behavior, educational environment, digital educational environment (DEE). The study has revealed the process of transformation of views on the educational environment and the difference between the digital environment and the pre-digital one. The problem area of DEE study has been indicated: positive and negative effects of DEE implementation, psychological reasons for rejecting innovations, psychological safety of the educational environment and design of the effective DEE. We have also investigated the problem of full scale use of digital educational platforms and services in Russian schools to improve the quality of the learning process, including distance learning. We have considered the sources and methods of researching digital behavior, i.e. digital psychometrics based on the analysis of “digital footpri nts”. Unlike most works that study deviant behavior of adolescents, our work focuses on normative, pro-social behavior. We have taken into consideration such problems as behavior of schoolchildren on different digital educational platforms, digital multitasking, interaction of adolescents with electronic text content, stages of subjectivity formation in the digital educational space, which are relevant for the study.