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Мониторинг экономики образования
Professional communities, the state and the public as a whole acknowledge the advantages of adopting the information and communication technologies (ICT) in the educational process, the use of Internet as a source of diverse knowledge and as a means of communication between teachers, students and their parents. The computer literacy and Internet literacy are considered to be one of the main criteria when assessing not only the educational level but also the level of the social and economic development of a country as a whole. The adoption and effective use of the novel information services, educational systems and technologies, electronic educational resources of the new generation are defined as one of the final outcomes of implementing the measures specified in the Federal Goal-oriented Education Development Programme for the period of 2011-2015 (hereinafter referred to as the Programme). Basing on the data of Monitoring of education markets and organizations and the federal statistical surveys authors analyze the ICT usage in the professional education system, the level of e-skills f students and teachers, the digital inequality of educational institutions by education levels and by the regions of the Russian Federation. This allows to specify the problems of adopting novel technologies in education. The information bulletin presents the methodological approaches applied in studying the ICT usage in the professional education and its data base. An economic and statistical analysis of the main indicators is also given. The system of indicators that was designed for the purpose of conducting a detailed survey covers the most important directions of research: availability and quality of ICT equipment, Internet access, software; the ICT usingby teachers and students; distant educational technologies; using of a website for presenting information on the educational and financial activities of an institution. In accordance with the priority direction of the state policy in the field of professional education, that is its quality increasing, the most important outcomes of the ICT usage by educational institutions must be: – training of citizens to be prepared for life and work in the contemporary information society by developing the necessary e-skills; – increasing the quality of training based upon the ICT usage; – increasing the accessibility of modern education including distance learning for various population groups and providing equal educational opportunities. These results can be achieved first owing to a well-developed ICT infrastructure, the adoption of novel ICT based means and forms of instruction in the educational process, a high level of e-skills of students and teachers. In order to assess the course of the implementation of state policy measures in this sphere the main directions of the statistical survey of the ICT application in the professional education were specified as follows: – availability educational institutions with modern ICT equipment, Internet access, and software; – the ICT using by students and teachers; – implementing novel educational methods and forms that are designed based upon the ICT; – assessing the barriers to the ICT usage. The results of the analysis show that the ICT have occupied a strong position in the educational and administrative activities of professional education institutions. Yet the task of development of the ICT infrastructure is still topical (as the availability of modern ICT in institutions is significantly lower than that in the countries with a well-developed ICT infrastructure, as the gap of availability of PCs and Internet access for students is still considerably by the regions of the Russian Federation and types of educational institutions. The assessments of the level of the ICT accessibility and quality given by the institutions’ management also confirm that it is yet early to say that the formation of the ICT infrastructure in the professional education system have been completed. It is necessary to realize that implementing the ICT is not a one-time campaign. The need to improve the technical infrastructure is stipulated not only by the level of its current condition but also by the ICT as such due to their dynamic development and the emergence of novel forms and possibilities of their usage.
