What do you want to find?
Modern educators have many opportunities for solving professional tasks. The achievements of classical pedagogy, advanced methods and technologies are at their disposal. The Library of Digital Educational Content created by the Academy of the Ministry of Education of Russia is among the popular projects that hundreds of thousands of specialists from all over Russia turn to.
Maxim Kostenko, Acting Rector of the Academy, talks about how this resource works, its goals and possibilities.
Maxim Alexandrovich, the Library of Digital Educational Content is one of the most demanded resources among teachers and students. What is the reason behind its popularity?
The Library of Digital Educational Content is truly unique for the national education system and a truly modern tool that includes ready-made lessons in all subjects and topics of the school curriculum. It is a reliable and completely free state resource that is being created within the federal project “Digital Educational Environment” to help teachers in their responsible daily work.
Why do teachers call the Library their assistant?
It is no secret that routine or formal procedures, such as developing work programs, selecting materials for lessons, compiling and checking homework assignments, tests and so on are an indispensable part of a teacher’s activity. This work, although done almost daily, is often not even included in the norms of working time. Modern technologies make it possible to “take away” these tasks from the teacher, freeing up time for their direct duties – teaching and upbringing the younger generation.
What materials are available in the Library?
In the Library everyone can find electronic educational materials developed for each of the lessons of the school program by professional teams of experts of the pedagogical community, simply put, by reputable teachers, whose students show high results at Olympiads and the state exams. These materials are diverse both in terms of content and educational tasks they allow to solve. In total, the system offers more than 50 different types of content, for instance infographics, virtual laboratory works, interactive articles, audio and video clips, simulators in the format of the Unified State Exam and Basic State Exam, and many others. The materials simplify preparation and make the lesson truly up-to-date and interactive, and thus more understandable to every student. The content is based on historical materials from the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library, digital collections of the Polytechnic Museum, and materials from the Big Russian Encyclopedia.
Another important point that determines the possibility of using information resources in the school is their verification. Is the Library’s content subject to expert review?
The content undergoes technical and content expertise according to more than 30 criteria, including compliance with the updated Federal State Educational Standards, federal educational programs, absence of information contradicting the Constitution, legislation and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, supporting and (or) justifying extremism and terrorism, denying traditional family values, promoting non-traditional sexual relations and forming disrespect for parents and (or) other members of the school community.
This, perhaps, is one of the main advantages of our service and an important difference from any analogs. We are absolutely confident in the quality and reliability of the materials presented. Also, the Library of Digital Educational Content is included in the federal list of electronic educational resources approved for use in the implementation of school programs. Thus, every teacher can use the Library’s materials in strict compliance with current legislation.
In your opinion, what is the role of the Library in the organization of the learning process?
It is a modern tool, a teacher’s assistant giving all the possibilities of modern technologies. It is based on the principles of classical Russian pedagogy, which has been repeatedly tested and proved to be one of the best. The Library’s lessons are based on a block-modular structure, and for each of the types of learning activities there are certain didactic materials. The teacher can design a lesson using the materials presented in the Library, taking into account the specifics of each class and independently determining which elements to use.
How does it work in practice?
For example, a teacher can update the knowledge automatically, with the help of an interactive article or a crossword puzzle, or give children the opportunity to work with original historical documents, and use their own professional developments at other stages. It will be more convenient for a beginning teacher or a substitute teacher to use the whole lesson scenario, especially since each of its elements is accompanied by methodological recommendations that will help to do it correctly. It is important that the Library is based on a universal thematic classifier. This means that lessons are not tied to any line of textbooks and can be used regardless of the program implemented by the educational organization.
In addition to teaching, the Library also helps to solve today’s urgent tasks of education and formation of traditional values among schoolchildren. The content of most lessons already includes materials aimed at the formation of certain personal qualities and attitudes to the world around us. Materials from expert partner organizations allow for the development of functional and financial literacy, patriotism and social skills.
Does the Library cover the full curriculum in all subjects?
Content creation is a step-by-step process until the end of 2024, but now the Library already covers more than 65% of the whole school curriculum. The Library is constantly being replenished and if yesterday you did not find any materials in it, they may have already become available today.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the Library is one of the flagship projects for the formation of a unified educational space in our country. At the federal level, significant work has already been done to ensure the unity of the content of school education: federal educational programs for all levels have been updated and adopted. All this, together with the technological opportunities offered by the digital educational environment, helps to ensure equal access to quality education for every child, regardless of the capabilities or location of their educational organization, because ensuring this access is one of the state’s main priorities.