Abstract:

The article discusses the features of the formation of digital competence of the modern generation of students in educational and professional activities. Modern students are the product of informatization and digitalization of modern society and they contain a certain gene or imprint of information technologies that have a great influence on the thinking and behavior of adolescents, both in everyday life and in professional activity.

To date, a lot of works on the features of the digital generation have been published, but they generally consider the peculiarities of thinking and the higher mental functions of children and schoolchildren and do not address the problems of teaching and educating students. Of course, students also have features. At the same time, some of them are especially significant, as they are associated not only with the age characteristics of this phalanx of youth, but also with the characteristics of the leading type of activity - educational and professional.
To identify the features of the formation of digital competence of modern students associated with the use of digital technologies in the implementation of the main types of educational and professional activities, a survey of first-fourth year students of all areas of full-time study in the Cheboksary Electromechanical College was conducted. Thus, 347 respondents were interviewed.

The data obtained showed that students easily use digital technologies, both in everyday life and in educational and professional activities. They are not confused by the remoteness from the traditional carrier of educational information - the teacher and the textbook. They are used to virtual communication and do not experience discomfort in communicating with artificial intelligence.

Teachers note that a new generation of students is becoming increasingly multitasking.
But it should also be noted that some researchers observe the formation of mental distortions in children and adolescents with excessive and uncontrolled use of digital technologies, deformation of their value-motivational base, deterioration of communication skills and basic communication needs, exposure to threats of online communication, Internet manipulation and a number of others.

Of course, individual pedagogical actions and activities will not have a systemic effect on the personality of a future specialist. It is necessary to correctly combine traditions and innovations, take into account the specific conditions of a particular educational institution, and much more.

It is hard to say what kind of specialists today's students will become; they have a different life story, different habits, different lifestyle. One thing is clear - the safe, critical, confident use of digital technologies in various spheres of life and professions is today the most important competence of the digital age, which requires the same formation as knowledge, skills, motivation, responsibility.

Keywords:

Digital competence, educational and professional activities, digital generation.