Problems of digitalization in education as an object of humanitarian research of the early 21st century

Abstract

The article represents a humanities study of the digitalization of education as a cultural and historical phenomenon that radically transforms conceptions of knowledge, thinking, and the role of the teacher. The author analyzes the contradictions between technological progress and the preservation of the meaningful foundations of education, viewing digital transformation not as an instrumental modernization but as a symptom of the deep crisis of the educational system. The focus is placed on the loss of the subjective significance of learning, the fragmentation of knowledge, and the transformation of cognitive practices under the dominance of artificial intelligence and algorithmic platforms. The first part of the work explores the question of why one should learn in a digital world where information becomes instantly accessible. Through a reinterpretation of the pedagogical motto to teach everyone, to teach everything, to teach in such a way as to truly teach, the author demonstrates how digitalization shifts educational goals from humanistic to utilitarian and economic ones, forming a new pragmatic rationality. The second part analyzes the phenomenon of the architecture of boredom — a crisis of motivation associated with the inconsistency of traditional forms of learning with the logic of digital culture. According to the author, the school loses its meaning not because of technologies but because of the inertia of institutional design and the inability to adapt to a changed cognitive ecology. The third part examines the phenomenon of systemic inertia in education and the causes of resistance to innovation. The author shows that even in the context of widespread digitalization, forms of transmissive learning persist — those aimed at reproduction rather than the construction of knowledge. Concluding the analysis, the author formulates a humanities-based critique of digital education: digitalization, contrary to expectations, does not abolish the humanities foundations but makes them even more relevant. The education of the future, the study asserts, is possible only as a synthesis of the digital and the cultural — the integration of technological literacy and humanistic reflection, where meaning and thinking become the key resources of development.