
Informatics and Education is a double-blind peer-reviewed scholarly journal dedicated to the application of information technologies in education and methodological approaches to teaching informatics as a school subject.
The Journal aims to present the results of fundamental and applied research in the field of informatics education, thereby stimulating scholarly discussions around topics associated with the role of information technologies in the modernization of the education system both in Russia and globally, use of effective techniques in teaching informatics at various school levels and encouragement of teacher development.
The Journal has been published since 1986. ISSN 0234–0453
The Journal’s founders are the RF Ministry of Education, Russian Academy of Education and "Education and Informatics", LLC.
The Journal publishes original research papers and review articles in Russian and English.
Our Editorial Board comprises a panel of 10 renowned experts representing leading Russian and foreign scientific centres. Among the Editorial board members are 5 Academicians and 4 Corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Education and the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as 6 foreign specialists from Bulgaria, Israel, Italy, Lithuania and the USA.
Since 2011, the Informatics and Education journal has been regularly included in the RF Ministry of Science and Higher Education Catalogue of peer-reviewed academic journals for the publication of principal scientific findings of doctoral and candidate dissertations (Higher Attestation Committee List).
The journal is included in the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) based on the Web of Science.
The Informatics and Education journal is registered by the RF Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Media under the registration number PI No. 77-7065.
Circulation – 2000 copies; frequency – 10 issues per year
The journal is distributed throughout the Russian Federation and CIS countries.
Current issue
GENERAL ISSUES
The article examines the 40-year history of the school’ digital renewal of the Russian education, which began with the introduction of the compulsory course “Fundamentals of Informatics and Computer Technology” in 1985. Computerization, early and mature informatization, and the digital transformation of schools are discussed as separate stages of this process. It is assumed that the experience of solving problems that arose in the early stages of digital renewal is useful for developing responses to the challenges that the modern stage of digital transformation of education brings with it. The transition to a personalized and effective organization of education, ensuring the evidence-based effectiveness of the training of each student, is considered as the main content of the current stage. It is noted that the proliferation of intellectual tools that has begun (individualized presentation of educational material, authentic assessment of achieved educational results, including high-level skills) helps to solve many organizational and pedagogical problems of personalizing learning. The lessons of the past stages of digital renewal are given, which should be taken into account in the work on the digital transformation of the school starting today. It is shown that educational organizations are moving at their own pace along the path of digital renewal, and many of them are in the early stages of this process. The latter must be taken into account when planning and organizing pedagogical research and implementing the digitalization of the general education system (equipping with digital technology, improving access to the Internet, developing and implementing digital services). The role of artificial intelligence and intelligent tools that change the perception of machine information processing and promise to intensify the processes of digital transformation of education and influence the labor market in the coming years is discussed.
INFO CONTEST
Today, changes are taking place in all spheres of human activity, which cannot but have an impact on the training of specialists who are ready to work in the modern world and at the same time respond quickly to the challenges of the 21st century. Therefore, it becomes important not only to improve knowledge, skills and abilities in the professional field, but also to form a wide range of personal skills and qualities that will be useful not only in the professional environment, but also in everyday life. This means that the process of training specialists must be flexibly transformed considering new realities and requirements of society, especially about the training of specialists in the field of education.
Today pedagogical universities in Russia produce highly qualified specialists who are ready to work in the modern education system. But despite this, university teachers continue to improve the training process by combining tradition and innovation, as well as by continuously searching for conceptually new means of organizing work.
One of these tools may be a strategic session, borrowed from economic practice, but adapted to the education sphere. The use of a strategic session as a means of organizing students’ activities within the framework of teaching methodological disciplines allows students to actively participate in the analysis of various processes, independently develop and make new and informed decisions in certain situations, and this, in turn, contributes not only to deep mastery of the material, but also to the development of the ability to effectively manage time, communicative, organizational and digital skills, leadership and strong-willed qualities, etc.
The article provides a step-by-step scheme for planning a strategic session scenario, and provides detailed methodological recommendations for implementing each step with an emphasis on its key aspects. An example of developing a scenario for a strategic session “Digital breakthrough in education” is considered. The results of testing this strategic session are presented. They showed that the ability to independently identify problematic issues and develop innovative approaches to solving them by “immersing” in solving actual practical problems contributes to improving the level of knowledge, developing the skills and abilities of future teachers necessary for their further professional activities.
INFORMATIZATION OF EDUCATION
Revolutionary discoveries of recent years in the field of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the growing availability of educational intelligent systems have raised many questions related to the applicability of AI technologies in education. The research presented in the article is part of a scientific project aimed at creating a model for integrating AI technologies into language development programs for preschool children.
The authors of the article use empirical data to explore and justify the potential of two generative AI services (Fusion Brain and Suno AI) as tools for developing language skills of preschool children learning a foreign (English) language. The authors used a comprehensive method of pedagogical experiment, the main objectives of which were, firstly, to test the affordances of generative AI services for vocabulary development, and secondly, to identify the characteristics of AI services that can promote or hinder the creation of a productive and safe language development environment for children aged 4–6. The data obtained during the empirical study allowed the authors to formulate important principles for integrating AI technologies into preschool language education. These principles can be recommended to educators and teachers involved in the speech development of preschool children. Due to the innovative nature of the developed and described scenarios for the usage of generative AI technologies, the results of the study can be used for the development of teachers’ competencies in Russia and abroad.
In the context of formation of the target model of digital educational environment (DEE) approved by the order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the automated information system (AIS) “Network City. Education” functions in the Republic of Mordovia. It unites educational organizations and educational authorities of all municipal districts of the Republic of Mordovia. This AIS uses information systems and resources designed to store, search, and process information in order to improve the efficiency of the educational system and develop technologies for analyzing big data arrays. At the same time, this system does not have functions for analyzing the data stored in it, so it seems reasonable to develop an additional module that analyzes the most important indicators of educational activity — academic performance and attendance.
The authors have developed a software module that allows online data import from AIS “Network City. Education”, conducting its statistical analysis, and uploading the results into reports of various formats. ABC and XYZ analysis methods were chosen as tools for data processing and analysis. Modern software development technologies and database management systems were used to create the module.
The practical significance of the program module includes the possibility of allocating groups of students by the above-mentioned indicators in order to classify students according to the degree of their involvement in the educational process and assessing the dynamics of academic performance and attendance within the selected classification by individual students, classes, schools as well as academic disciplines, which will improve the effectiveness of educational process management. In this regard, the target audience of the presented module is the administrative and teaching staff of educational institutions, heads of territorial educational authorities.
The originality and innovation of the developed software module lies in the implementation of ABC- and XYZ-analysis methods typical mainly for the economic sphere in order to analyze educational activities, the possibility of use of the module on the Internet without installing specialized software, and comprehensibility for users who do not have professional competencies in the field of information technology and statistical data analysis.
The research presented in the article focuses on analyzing of the prospects for integrating big data into the process of developing national educational standards in Russia. The growing volume of educational data and progress in analytical technologies create new opportunities for modernizing approaches to the development and adaptation of educational standards. The aim of the research is to identify key directions and mechanisms for using big data to increase the effectiveness and relevance of educational standards. The research employs methods of statistical analysis, comparative institutional analysis, as well as expert interviews with representatives from the education sector and data specialists. The empirical basis consists of educational data arrays collected from 2018 to 2023. The research results demonstrate the significant potential of big data for adapting standards to labor market demands, personalizing educational trajectories, and improving the quality of the educational process. In particular, data analysis allows for a 25 % increase in the speed of standards development and a 20 % improvement in their compliance with international requirements. The practical significance of the research is related to the development of recommendations for implementing big data analytics in the processes of modernizing educational standards.
The article presents a study of the potential of fiction in developing intercultural communication skills in students, and examines the possibilities of using neural networks to create text corpora used in teaching Russian as a foreign language. The relevance of the topic is due to the growing need for effective methods of developing intercultural competence in the context of globalization and digitalization of education. The aim of the research is to evaluate the effectiveness of using literary texts and neural network technologies for developing students’ ability to successfully engage in intercultural interaction. The study employs methods of content analysis, pedagogical experiment, and statistical data processing. The empirical basis consists of survey and test results from 120 students studying Russian as a foreign language. The main findings indicate a significant positive impact of reading fiction on the development of intercultural skills (28 % increase, p < 0,01) and the promising potential of using neural networks to generate educational text corpora (32 % increase in vocabulary diversity, p < 0,05). The results contribute to the methodology of teaching foreign languages and open new possibilities for the digitalization of educational resources. Further research may focus on studying the effectiveness of various literary genres and machine learning algorithms for achieving educational goals.
The article explores the application of computer and digital technologies in assessing students’ speech and communication skills in the Russian as a Foreign Language (RFL) exam, particularly in the “Speaking” subtest. The study analyzes existing approaches to automated speech assessment, identifying their advantages and limitations. Based on empirical research conducted on a sample of 120 students in 2022–2023, the effectiveness of using computer algorithms for analyzing prosodic, lexical, and grammatical characteristics of examinees’ speech is demonstrated. The application of machine learning methods allowed achieving a high correlation (r = 0,87; p < 0,01) between expert assessments and automated analysis results. Particular attention is paid to the creation of a three-factor model that takes into account speech fluency, lexical-grammatical and phonetic-prosodic characteristics. This model demonstrates high prediction accuracy (R2 = 0.79) and has successfully undergone cross-validation on an independent sample. The data obtained indicate the promising potential of integrating computer technologies into the system of speech skills assessment while maintaining the key role of expert evaluation. The research results are significant for improving RFL teaching methods and developing tools for objective assessment of communicative competence.
ISSN 2658-7769 (Online)