Teacher vis-à-vis student: media priorities in education

The modern world requires us to be able to navigate information flows, analyze and critically evaluate the information coming from them, as well as to use media for collaboration and creativity. The field of pedagogy is no exception—it can no longer exist outside the media space. In the 21st century, the role of the teacher is no longer limited to the process of transmitting a certain set of knowledge to students. The purpose of this study is to determine the patterns of medical pedagogical interaction between personal worlds and schoolchildren in the digital age. The hypothesis is that by individually developing media priorities, educators contribute to the formation of a potentially safe information environment for their students, as there is a great deal of information on the Internet and other media sources that is widely recognized as inappropriate or harmful to children. Therefore, educators are called upon to teach students to recognize potential dangers and to protect themselves in the online space. The study employed a sociological method involving a series of focus groups. Participants included students from School No. 309 in the Central District of St. Petersburg, Boarding School No. 1 named after K. K. Grot, as well as teachers from School No. 27 named after I. A. Bunin in St. Petersburg and educational institutions in the Leningrad region – Vyborgsky, Vsevolozhsky, Kirovsky, and Gatchinsky districts. The results obtained were analyzed comparatively and showed that effective mastery of the media space by schoolchildren is impossible without purposeful pedagogical activities aimed at developing a skeptical attitude towards information. The central practical skill, formed with the support of teachers, becomes the algorithm of actions: "received information – do not trust blindly – analyze – verify authenticity." The practical implementation of this principle lies in the fact that students are encouraged to view consultation with a teacher as a standard and necessary step in analyzing the credibility of journalistic materials. In light of the results obtained, it seems appropriate to further develop methods that would enhance the role of the teacher as an expert consultant on information verification in the educational environment. Future media priorities in pedagogy should be directed towards developing a model of collaboration between educators and students in the context of the formation of a digital information society.