Abstract:

The article discusses new risks and new challenges in education, and also gives some recommendations on the restructuring of the training technique.

The authors analyze how modern prefigurative society influences the formation of the life values in young people, which is totally different from the previous generation life values.

Next, the authors explore the problems associated with the abundance of information in modern life, and highlight the 15 risks and challenges of today's education, which are the result of both changes in the mentality of students and an excess of information. Analyzing these challenges, the authors come to conclusion that the current generation of students requires new forms of academic work.

The article suggests some methods for solving the modern educational challenges when teaching Russian as a foreign language: digest - method, project - method, use of social networks and instant messengers like WhatsApp.

According to the authors, the advantages of the digest- method are that this method allows the student to get a lot of information in a very quick and economical way. The use of digests helps to fill gaps in lingua-cultural knowledge of students and enhance their communicative competence. Statistical data obtained as a result of questioning 90 students before using the digest and after confirm the provisions stated in the article.

The use of the project- method (Project Based Learning) has also proven itself in the training system. The authors talk about their work experience, when students are happy to prepare projects related to their future professional field, which involve searching the Internet for information on the topic, selecting, organizing and minimizing the material, and then creating Power Point presentations based on it. Such work makes students more creative, it teaches them “to grab” the most important information, as well as to structure, systematize and minimize the selected material, training logical and teamwork skills.

Social networks (Facebook, VKontakte, etc.) and WhatsApp can also be used in the modern educational process, especially in the absence or lack of interactive facilities. The rapid exchange of small pieces of information (including video, audio and infographics) in a WhatsApp group or on a social network is, on the one hand, the best format for a modern students who are used to multitasking and unable to perceive large informational content, and on the other hand, corresponds to the habits of young people to prefer visual information. In the article authors give some examples how they use this way in the frame of teaching Russian as a foreign language.

Keywords:

Education, prefigurative society, digest-method, project-method, social networks.