Information needs of students in the information and educational environment, as a method of solving educational and cognitive tasks of lifelong education

The authors accomplished the study of the information needs of students, one of the components of the educational and cognitive tasks of the lifelong education system. The authors reviewed the theoretical and methodological foundations of the information needs of students; the main directions of information competence of future specialists were analyzed. The purpose of the study is to define the role of the information needs of future specialists as a method of solving educational and cognitive tasks of students, the essence of which is continuity and independence in the educational process. To achieve the goal of the study, the following tasks were considered: the need for training students, mastering skills and technologies for working with information; assessment of effectiveness in developing practical skills for the information needs of students, characterized by the information explosion and crisis of the 21st century and problems in the information training of students and society as a whole. The study is based on the publications focused on the information needs of future specialists as an important part of the vocational and educational skills. A complex of pedagogical research methods, both theoretical and practical, was used. As a result of the study, the authors noted the expected results of vocational and educational skills of students in the course “Educational Practice”, where digital educational learning technologies were developing as a method of solving educational and cognitive problems in the context of continuous education. The scientific value of the study lies in the conclusions based on the analysis (experimental control) that enable to assess the level of formation of the information needs of specialists-to-be (students' research work). The results of the study can serve as the basis for solving educational and cognitive problems of lifelong education, since today not a single serious economic, social, or technical problem can be successfully solved without processing significant amounts of information.