Features of the use of digital technologies in organizing the symbolic activity for students of a technical university

Introduction. Digital technologies are rapidly spreading in the education system. Sign-symbolic activity that includes substitution, coding-decoding, schematization, modeling, plays a leading role in the mathematical education of an engineer. The purpose of the study is to reveal the methodological features of the use of digital technologies in organizing the symbolic activity for students of a technical university in the process of mathematical training. Materials and methods. A survey was conducted among 813 people to identify the advantages and disadvantages of using digital technologies in lectures on mathematics. Among the respondents, there were 734 students studying under bachelor's and specialist's degree programs, 18 students studying under master's degree programs, and 61 students studying under postgraduate degree programs The study involved 505 men and 308 women, with 47% of respondents being first-year students, 37% being second- and third-year students, 7% being fourth- and fifth-year students, 2% being master's students, and 8% being postgraduate students. KEYWORDS Study results. The respondents prefer a mixed format of a lecture on mathematics when slides are supplemented by notes on the board. This was indicated by 79% of respondents. However, this format causes discomfort for some students, as it is difficult to switch from the board to the screen and back. The methodological features of organizing a lecture in a mixed format and the substantive content of the slides were identified: more than 50% of respondents indicated that the information presented should be compact and clear; as for the elements required for presentation, respondents would like to see definitions and statements of theorems (74%), graphic materials (70%), proofs of theorems (41%), and examples of problem solving (37%). The negative aspects of the lecture-presentation include: a large amount of text material presented (48%); difficulty in writing down material and understanding it at the same time (29%); discrepancy between the speed of the lecturer's speech and the speed of writing down notes (26%), excessive animation of objects that interferes with perception (24%); difficulties in understanding the details of the solution to the problem on the slide (21%). Conclusion. The lecture-presentation is an important element of teaching mathematics in the university. The presence of structural and logical schemes and graphic illustrations on the slides realizes the worldview potential of sign systems in the mathematical training for engineers, and the combination of various types of sign-symbolic activity indicates the unity of the verbal content and the figurative perception in teaching mathematics. It is important to comply with the methodological requirements for the design and content of the slides