doi.org/10.52340/eab.2024.16.04.04

The digitalization of education has brought about a significant change in the educational process in general, both at the global and local levels. It has significantly enhanced the flexibility of teaching and the accessibility of knowledge worldwide. However, it has also revealed a number of new social and technological problems. Nevertheless, the digitalization of education is a necessary and inevitable process at the modern stage.
The process of digitalization in general is the representation and processing of data necessary for the implementation of processes and procedures in any field of human activity in digital format, using artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, automation, etc.
The process of digitization in the field of education is characterized by completely different features. It requires both virtual classrooms and LMS (Learning Management System) platforms, etc., which are necessary for the management and constant control of the learning process.
The process of digitization in the field of education would go through three stages. The first covers 1980-2000, the second - 2000-2010, the third - the period from 2010 to the present. In the third stage, the learning process is completely changing both in Georgia and worldwide.
Despite the implementation of certain reforms in the field of education, the level of digitalization in Georgia significantly lags behind the level of digitalization in the European Union countries, which is determined by a number of social and technological factors.
Quality, education and global opportunity indices are used to assess and compare the level of development of the education sector worldwide.
The ranking of the top 20 countries in the world according to the three indices mentioned above, as of 2024, is as follows: Great Britain, USA, Australia, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Japan, Israel, Finland, Taiwan, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Norway, Belgium, United Arab Emirates, which is probably due to the digitization of education to some extent.
As of 2024, the ranking of the top ten universities in the world looks like this: Massachusetts Institute of Technology - 1, Imperial College London - 2, University of Oxford - 3, Harvard University - 4, University of Cambridge - 5, Stanford University - 6, ETH Zurich - 7, National University of Singapore - 8, University College London - 9, California Institute of Technology - 10.
The digitalization of education has many positive and negative aspects. Its positive aspects include: increasing access to education, expanding opportunities for individual learning, increasing interactivity and engagement, accelerating the constant updating and dissemination of educational materials, expanding the scope of knowledge sharing and global communications, facilitating data analysis and assessment of learning progress, cost-effectiveness of education, reducing the workload of teachers, etc. The negative aspects include: unequal access to technologies, lack of digital literacy, socio-economic differences and deepening inequality in society, difficulty in protecting data security and privacy, lack of social interaction, increasing workload and stress for teachers, complexity of hybrid forms of teaching, risk of receiving quality education, etc.
In order to overcome the existing shortcomings of the digitalization process in the education sector and its further effective development, it is necessary to take certain measures:
• The Ministry of Science and Education of Georgia should create courses on the digitalization of education;
• Issues related to the digitalization of education should be included in the program of teacher qualification improvement courses in Georgia;
• During hybrid education, the educational institution should be obliged to increase the amount of teacher compensation in proportion to the increase in the workload of the teacher;
• In parallel with the development of the digitalization process in the education sector, it is necessary to keep it within certain limits so that the shortcomings of digitalization do not outweigh its positive sides;
• In order to prevent damage to the health of students and teachers and deterioration in the quality of education, it is necessary to develop scientifically substantiated time norms for the use of digitalization tools;
• It is necessary to determine the forms of teaching (lecture, seminar, practical training, laboratory work, etc.) and specialties for which it is permissible to implement the educational process partially online;
• In order to protect the health of students and teachers, ensure the protection of personal information, improve data protection systems, create solid security mechanisms, etc., the country's leadership and educational institutions need to take appropriate measures and make investments;
• Finally, the above recommendations must be regulated at the state legislative level.
Based on the above, despite the colossal results achieved to date, in the process of digitizing the education sector, there are still a number of problems that require their thorough study and solution in the future.

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Keywords: Digitalization of education, level and gap of education in Georgia and the world, positive aspects and shortcomings of digitalization of education.
JEL Codes: I20, I21, I28