Technology-value symbiosis in digital values education: a conceptual framework for talent development

The digital and intelligent transformation of productive forces is changing the skills and ethical responsibilities expected of workers and creating new challenges for values education in Chinese higher education. Yet current practice often separates technology from values: instrumental uses of technology expand while value guidance is weakened. This study develops a conceptual framework based on the Marxist philosophy of technology. Its central contribution is the idea of technology-value symbiosis, presented as a double-helix framework. One helix traces technological development through data, algorithms, and immersive scenarios; the other traces value guidance through anchoring, goal alignment, and ethical constraint. Their interaction supports precise matching of educational supply and demand and embeds ethical regulation in value formation. These mechanisms work by reconstructing learner subjectivity to foster value identification, critical thinking, and digital competence, and to build longer-term capabilities. The framework also identifies four risks of imbalance: eroded subjectivity, diluted content and meaning, emotional superficiality, and value displacement. It responds with governance pathways addressing conceptual, methodological, ethical, and value-related concerns, six testable propositions, and an actor-based governance matrix. The main implication is that digital values education should be designed with technology and value guidance jointly, rather than treating technology as a neutral tool. The framework thus offers educators and policymakers a conceptual basis for pursuing digital innovation while safeguarding ethical and value-oriented education.