The digital economy of education: Anticipation or consumer business project?

Olga M. Smirno­va
Gubkin Russ­ian State Uni­ver­si­ty of Oil and Gas (Nation­al Research Uni­ver­si­ty)

The dig­i­tal econ­o­my of edu­ca­tion: Antic­i­pa­tion or con­sumer busi­ness project?

Abstract. The paper deals with the ques­tion of how high­er edu­ca­tion will devel­op in the dig­i­tal econ­o­my. How do mod­ern mar­ket mech­a­nisms and the risks of choos­ing a mod­el of edu­ca­tion relate to each oth­er in con­text of glob­al dig­i­tal­iza­tion? The author rais­es the ques­tion of dig­i­tal tech­no-opti­mism, tech­no-pes­simism, and tech­no-real­ism in high­er edu­ca­tion. The pri­or­i­ty area of risk for dig­i­tal busi­ness is rec­og­nized as being in the field of edu­ca­tion, that is, where future spe­cial­ists are trained for dig­i­tal busi­ness careers. The most impor­tant prob­lem of the dig­i­tal econ­o­my of edu­ca­tion is accept­ing the objec­tiv­i­ty of risk. The risks of an uncon­trolled impact of cyber sys­tem and dig­i­tal plat­forms on the per­son are increas­ing. The growth of risks result­ing from the evolv­ing high-tech intel­lec­tu­al plat­forms is accom­pa­nied by the sub­se­quent refusal to study human­i­tar­i­an prob­lems. The polit­i­cal choice of the edu­ca­tion econ­o­my mod­el leads to sharp dif­fer­ences in the way high­er edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions are financed. Today dig­i­tal opti­miza­tion of the edu­ca­tion econ­o­my is at the point of bifur­ca­tion.

Key­words:dig­i­tal eco­nom­ics of edu­ca­tion, phi­los­o­phy of edu­ca­tion, tech­no-opti­mism, tech­no-pes­simism, tech­no-real­ism, risk objec­tiv­i­ty, trans­dis­ci­pli­nar­i­ty

DOI: 10.5840/dspl20192449

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