Individual professionalization in information society: challenges and prospects

The individual must acquire not only knowledge and skills but also master the cultural heritage of society as elements of one's worldview. Thus, vocational education has the following objectives:

1. Ensuring conditions for mastering professional activities. Vocational training has two main functions: a) it is a means of self-realization in the profession; b) it is a means of ensuring the stability of professional career in market economy.

2. Training of active members of society for creative participation in production and responsibility for the results of the work, environment, etc.

3. Teaching methods of continuous self-education to stay competitive in the labor market and realize all individual abilities.

The system of professional education today must solve a two-fold problem: first, to fulfill the social order -- to train specialists needed to meet the social needs in labor and professional resources; second, to focus on the professional, moral and spiritual development of the person [21. P. 168]. Harmonization of these two tasks and their successful solution by every vocational institution is a social condition for the development of professionalism. Another prerequisite for the transformation of educational process into a professionalization factor is implementation of the person-centered approach to learning, strengthening interests of students in obtaining professional knowledge and skills, in moral and humanistic development. Despite the widespread introduction of computer technologies into the educational process, in the university professionalization a special role belongs to the teacher.

FEATURES OF PRIMARY PROFESSIONALIZATION IN INFORMATION SOCIETY: COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION

Under computerization of social-cultural reality in information society, informatization of all forms of professionalization and the wide introduction of computer technologies became features of educational processes. Contemporary social reality is based on information and knowledge and requires a person with the skills to learn new knowledge and creatively use it to solve complex problems. Competently organized educational process with the innovative technologies allows to form necessary skills and abilities contributing to the development of such important professional qualities as intuition, flexibility, creativity, and analytical thinking. Therefore, the use of computer and information technologies should become a priority tasks of the educational policy of our society and the state. A fundamentally new quality has been acquired by education with the spread of computer networks, which has radically changed the way information is received -- today it is the Internet with the access to global information resources (electronic libraries, databases, etc.).

In the network, other common means of communication are available to the user including e-mail, mailing lists, newsgroups, and chats. Special programs for real-time communication have been developed, which allows to send texts, sounds, images and any files. These programs allow to organize the work of remote users with the program on the local computer. To provide effective information exchange in telecommunication networks, there are automated search tools that collect data from the global computer network and provide users with quick engines to search the World Wide Web, multimedia files and software.

Computer technologies in education allow to solve important didactic tasks. First, it is the organization of the educational process, acceleration and intensification of learning, ensuring its flexibility and individual approach. In addition, computer technologies can significantly improve the productivity of self-training, ensure the development of their personal research activities and increase their independence in learning. Network tools provide wide access to educational and scientific information, consulting assistance, model research activities and virtual training sessions (seminars, lectures) in the real time mode. Powerful technologies allow to store and exchange study materials in electronic publications both distributed in computer networks and recorded on electronic media. The technologies allow to adapt existing courses to individual needs, provide opportunities for self-learning and self-examination. Unlike traditional books, electronic publications allow to submit material in a graphic form [7].

Introduction of computer technologies determined a qualitatively new educational environment as a basis for the development and modernization of the educational system. At every stage of cognitive activity, scientific research and in all branches of knowledge computer technologies became both tools and objects of the study. Thus, innovations in computer technologies lead to revolutionary developments in education by the rapid accumulation of intellectual potential, which guarantees the sustainable social development. The computer revolution significantly changes the traditional methods of learning gradually displacing the teacher from the educational process. The computer introduces fundamentally new moral and educational-methodological rules making some routine functions of the teacher unnecessary (especially verbal methods of teaching). This changes the very meaning of the term `pedagogical impact' by reducing its external part (the teacher's impact) and strengthening the role of the individual activities (selfeducation, independent search for the most acceptable computer solutions, self-control, etc.) [21. P. 112].

However, it is completely wrong to consider the current transition of education to the electronic digital methods in purely romantic colors. The global nature of computerization has led to many social and moral problems that affect education and lead to new negative collisions. Computerization affects economic and psychological orientation of the man in the world, forms a completely new ethical situation in the society, changes the behavior of people and not only for the better. Transformation of computer technologies into an integral part of education determined some new moral problems. The global introduction of computer technologies into education and especially the desire to replace traditional educational technologies create many problems and lead to the serious impoverishment of education, which can turn the most complicated creative process of personal development into a primitive accumulation of disparate data.

Among negative consequences of the use of computer technologies in all forms of education one can name its negative impact on the health of both teachers and students. Many hours of work with computers, printers, e-mails, etc. is dangerous for health. Those who often deal with computer processing of information have the so-called `information fatigue syndrome' -- lose the ability to adequately perceive information and make right decisions on its basis. However, the most dangerous consequence of computerization of education can be the reduction of live communication of the participants in the educational process for such communication is essential for speech abilities and independent creative thinking development. Without dialogues of the teacher with the student and between students it is impossible to develop abilities to correctly and accurately formulate one's thoughts in the professional terms. `Dialogue with a computer' is a surrogate for live human communication that cannot replace it. By minimizing the live direct contact of the teacher and students, replacing their communication in the traditional forms of teaching, such as lectures, seminars, and consultations, by various `advanced' educational technologies (computer programs, audio and video courses, etc.) we risk to lose the chance to develop creative thinking as based on dialogue [20. P. 386].

Thus, like any technical achievement, computer technologies have negative consequences including those in the field of professionalization. In the cognitive-mental aspect, it is the formation of non-linear, associative, mosaic thinking, an overabundance of information, weakening of creative thinking. In the humanitarian aspect, information technologies mechanize and standardize educational activities, impersonate learning, weaken the humanitarian aspects of education in general and produce a `partial' personality.

SECONDARY PROFESSIONALIZATION UNDER INFORMATIZATION OF PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Graduation from the vocational school is the final step of primary professionalization and the starting point for entering the world of professional relations. Secondary professionalization is based on the professional activities of the individual, continuous self-development, accumulation of professional experience, and adoption of professional ethics standards. The transformation of a specialist into a professional demands the professional work, which is possible only if during primary professionalization the person not only received appropriate professional training, but also developed a humanistic worldview, an active and creative personality. The psychological factor of professionalism is one's orientation to perfection and creativity, and the social factor is adoption of a wide range of norms, values and orientations, both professional and universal.

The specificity of secondary professionalization consists in that, first, it is not formalized and not limited by time or organizational framework (the only formal aspects of secondary professionalization are various forms of training, certification, etc.); second, the main form of secondary professionalization is professional selfeducation, and its key social agent is the subject of professional activities, while other agents are labor collectives of business organizations. Professional activities of subjects take place mainly in business organizations, which also perform the function of socialization with information, educational and professional components. Labor collectives usually do not teach a profession though such an option is possible if the vocational education does not provide necessary professional skills. The role of labor collectives in the professional development is significant for they create a professional environment that determines the professional morals of all members of the collective. The moral and psychological climate in the organization significantly affects one's creative activity and aspirations for the professional growth. However, the organization of professional work in information society undergoes significant changes, such as transformations of the traditional concept `work' as including direct interpersonal communication with colleagues. Today a specialist communicates with a computer terminal at home, does not appreciate the direct communication with colleagues, thus, does not feel pride in the final product and loses skills of team work [18].

Despite some influence of the professional environment on the individual professional development, at this stage professionalization implies mainly self-education and self-improvement. The success of professional self-education depends mainly on one's striving for excellence, desire to reach the professional heights, general humanistic orientation, and ability to develop a broad and profound vision of professional and social problems. Thus, the formation of the professional in the course of secondary professionalization depends not only on professional knowledge and skills, but also on spiritual, moral and ideological foundations laid by primary professionalization.

A special role is played by the spiritual and moral foundations and the broad social and humanitarian views in the professional realization in information society. `Digital revolution' forms a new class of specialists with high global mobility. Until recently, the Russian state employment policy guaranteed every citizen a lifetime occupation; today the situation has changed dramatically and made unemployment and the need to change profession quite widespread. The labor market puts one in the situation when he is forced to begin his professional development anew, i.e. not due to one's psychological capabilities or desires but under the restrictions imposed of the labor market [8. P. 12]. However, a radical change of profession in adulthood does not mean impossibility to master it provided that there are ideological and moral grounds for the professional development. Successful reprofessionalization is facilitated by the appropriate state policy, development of professional counseling and employment services, i.e. infrastructure for providing educational services for the unemployed or those wishing to get a new profession.

Computer technologies in education created unprecedented opportunities for secondary professionalization and reprofessionalization. Learning in the distant form that previously faced numerous problems due to the lack of communication of the teacher with the student, poor control of the learning process, etc. has received a new impetus to develop as a distant education available to everyone with computer skills. Distant learning was made possible by the Internet and computer technologies, it consists of exchange of educational information with the help of electronic and computer devices, thus, significantly expanding opportunities for the high-quality vocational education [21. P. 143]. Computer technologies provide students with information via electronic educational resources; ensure interactive interaction of students and teachers, for example, during on-line discussions, round tables and seminars; provide a quick assessment of one's achievements and skills during training. For the integral part of distant learning is self-learning with the help of computer technologies, a student can study using not only prints, but also videotapes, electronic textbooks having access to electronic libraries and databases containing a huge amount of diverse information.

Professionalization has a diverse and multilevel impact on the social-cultural dynamics. Professional self-realization demands active labor activity, in which the choice of profession and `life in the profession' acquires special significance in determining individual interests, orientations and lifestyle. Professionalization in the Russian society leads to the growth of the impact of professionalism as an important criterion of social stratification, a factor of social mobility and social-cultural dynamics. Today, in information society, computerization affects individual professionalization at all stages. Globalization of informatization changed not only the content of our knowledge, but also the ways in which we obtained, reproduced and transfer it. Professionals that were trained by the old school and old type of universities differ by their psychological characteristics from those that play computer games at the kindergarten, go to computer classes at school, work at the computerized workplace and communicate with friends via satellites. New information technologies change the style of thinking, ways of communication, assessments of others and self-concept. Computer technologies provide us with unprecedented opportunities for educational growth and professional development, which largely depends on the person himself. However, accepting the need and usefulness of computer technologies in education, we must harmoniously combine them with traditional educational practices. Russian educational system retains its high positions today only due to the reasonable combination of innovations with traditions preserving the humanistic, ethical, and moral components of learning. This very combination if the key to successful modernization of the system of individual professionalization in information society.

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