Digital school: Searching for Explanatory Models. Part 2

Abstract

Introduction. The purpose of the article is to consider the consequences of the virtual shift or virtual inversion, which has led to blurring the structure of the act of development proposed within the framework of cultural-historical psychology. In this regard, the problem is the need to develop an alternative to this phenomenon of inversion, and returning a person (both a school student and an adult mediator) their basic roles as subjects of development. Materials and Methods. The conceptual ideas of cultural-historical psychology including the idea of mediation, objective action, the semantic field, the role of an adult as a mediator in an act of development, were used as a methodological background of the research. Results. The article is the second part of the author’s previous publication. The paper considers the concept derived from L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology, which is proposed to be adopted as a basic one in order to build an explanatory model used by the author to describe and comprehend the phenomenon of transformation of the human development process in the new reality of the digital environment. The article introduces the basic principles and provisions, the explanatory model is built on, concerning the role of symbolic-instrumental mediation in human development, the role of an adult as a mediator, the structure of the act of thinking and the act of development, the basic mechanism of mastering a person's behavior, which permeates the formation of higher mental functions. The author compares this explanatory model and the behavioral model used in most modern research investigations that examine the impact of digital technologies on schoolchildren and students. The language of the model of cultural-historical psychology is used to clarify the reality of the current virtual shift (virtual inversion), according to which the main provisions that play the role of supports in the cultural-historical model are subjected to radical revision and transformation, due to which the process of human cultural development is called into question. In this regard, the author proposes to use the resource and project potential of cultural-historical psychology in order to develop new models on its basis, build a new research and project agenda that returns the main ideas of cultural-historical psychology within the framework of a new mixed hybrid reality, where digital technologies are becoming the tools of personal development. Conclusions. In conclusion, the work offers a cultural task for the further development of cultural-historical psychology. It is proposed to restore the adult-student relationship, restore the idea and the role of the semantic field for teaching a subject action, restore children's communities within the new social-digital hybrid reality, where digital technologies do not act as means enslaving students, but as smart mediators-assistants.