Attitude to information in educational activities as a sociocultural problem: historical aspects and modern features

The educational process largely depends on cultural factors, one of which is students’ attitude to information. In recent decades, tremendous changes have taken place in the conditions for the implementation of information interaction, which is associated with the development of Internet communication and the emergence of wireless communication technologies. The World Wide Web was filled with diverse content, which eventually led to its oversaturation with information products. Under these conditions, there is a fundamental change in the attitude of society to information, which also affects the conditions for the educational process. The aim of the study is to determine the qualitative characteristics of the currently observed change in the culture of students’ attitude to information, and the impact of this trend on the educational process. The authors rely on the materials of modern studies of culturologists, philosophers and theorists of education. In the course of the study, structural-functional and system-historical approaches were applied. The change in the value factors of cognitive activity from ideas that are an attribute of the heritage of Soviet educational models to trends that determine the culture of the attitude of modern students to the process of obtaining knowledge is considered. The authors note that if earlier one of the most important results of educational activity was the accumulation of knowledge, then access to information and the ability to carry out its effective search are now important. The quality of educational materials presented on the Internet is characterized. A number of signs of a change in the information culture of modern students have been identified: (1) the focus on knowledge possession among students has given way to an orientation toward a quick search and operation of information from Internet sources; (2) the qualitative characteristics of independent work of students and their underestimation of the available lecture materials deteriorated; (3) there is no desire among young people to memorize the information found; (4) there is a widespread misconception among students about the availability of any knowledge and the possibility of easily acquiring it online. The authors prove that a change in attitude to information entails a systemic impact on the institution of education, associated with a decrease in the prestige of the teaching profession, a drop in the effectiveness of self-training of students, and an underestimation of lecture material.