The Temptation of Digit: Cynicism Under the Mask of Pragmatism

The relevance of the topic is determined by the escalating controversy around the “new normal”. The object of the research is the process of digitalization of education, the subject – EdTech as a driver of innovation. The authors have chosen a value-based approach in covering the problem, which, in their opinion, is more objective than technocratism in identifying the contrasts between the goals of education and the means of its digitalization. Distance learning can be considered both as a method of symptomatic therapy of professional burnout and as a prolongation of professional feralization, which always occurs “in isolation”, because it is conditioned by alienation and isolation. This kind of distance effectively motivates only the falsification of the learning process. Nevertheless, in the spirit of philistine pragmatics, young people are led to believe that professionalism is reduced to technology, that it is only necessary to master the cherished “know-how,” after which success is inevitable and unavoidable. Anything can be mastered by attending a couple or three master classes, haphazardly and almost reflexively. This ruins the transformative attitude to business, focusing on collecting and sorting information: everything is created, all that is left is to compile. The desire to please the tastes of the young aggravates the decaying effect of the adaptive paradigm of education, where the main markers are feasibility, accessibility and clarity. The authors argue that digitalization should be understood solely utilitarian, as a means of structuring information, but in no case should consumer utilitarianism be proclaimed as the goal of education and a way of life.

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