Advanced Technologies Transforming Modern Education: Review of the Conference EdCrunch Tomsk 2020

The author reviews the international conference EdCrunch Tomsk 2020 on advanced learning technologies. The key idea of the conference is to identify and discuss technologies that are transforming the landscape of modern education, as well as the conditions that ensure their effectiveness when solving urgent problems of modern society at the stage of transition to an individualized, student-centered, distributed, accessible education. The review presents ideas and conclusions formulated at the conference which regard the change of the educational paradigm in the digital era. The sections of the conference focus on pedagogical design and digital pedagogy; continuing education and heutagogy; experimental educational design; futures literacy. There are considered development strategies of such advanced learning technologies as virtual and augmented reality, open educational resources, platform solutions, and adaptive technologies. Within the new opportunities for education management, based on the materials of the conference, the challenges and opportunities of higher education are discussed in the context of the pandemic and after it, as well as new technological solutions for education management and barriers to their implementation, new digital capabilities of libraries. Peculiar attention is paid to digital economy personnel training and to the sphere of artificial intelligence. The cross-cutting topics of the conference are as follows: the growth of demand for collaborations and networks in the field of education and science; lacking «soft» skills and opportunities for their formation among students within the framework of traditional education; insufficient legislation for advanced technologies application; the fundamental lack of common solutions and the need for institutions to be flexible and focused when «switching» to digital education.