Anna Lybnina

The inclusion of game elements in the cognitive activity of students is an actual direction of the current educational system modernization. Quest as a game form and a tool of learning is one of the options for gamification of the digital educational environment. The authors study the problem of identifying the characteristics of the educational web quest implementation as a focused activity that provides all participants with the necessary knowledge and resources to solve didactic and career-oriented tasks of the digital environment in a gaming form. The purpose of research is to reveal the characteristics of an educational web quest designing based on modern digital technologies for the formation of demanded soft skills. The methodology is based on the analysis and systematization of significant scientific works on didactics, gamification of learning, and the use of digital educational technologies. The effectiveness of the approach described was confirmed by a pedagogical experiment, during which the result of students' cognitive activity was evaluated according to a set of criteria that correspond to the competences of modern professions and the priorities of the project “Digital School”. As a result, we describe the ideas of a methodological approach that reflects the necessary changes in the support of students' cognitive activity with the resources of such mobile game applications as quest. The article presents the levels of differentiation of education depending on the individual and age characteristics of participants and of digital tools chosen. It is concluded that the use of «web quest» as an effective educational technology for the formation of competences demanded by the digital environment has certain characteristic features when we include modern software tools and technologies in educational process. The obtained results can be used for organizing of cognitive research activities of students; in the practice of the school of mentoring for the planning and implementation of game forms with the emphasis on skills and abilities, necessary for socialization of the individual in a digital society and obtaining skills that are demanded by employers; for designing and creating a personal-oriented educational environment with elements of gamification using digital technologies.