Essence, Structure and Classification of Educational Technologies

The article provides a retrospective analysis of the classification of foreign and domestic educational technologies in theory and practice until the beginning of the 21-st century. As a result, the authors have come to the conclusion that until now a holistic idea of educational technologies and their components has not been formed, answers to the questions have not been found: "Is there a lot of educational technologies or is their number limited?", "What is the structure, content and distinctive features of educational technologies? "," What are the mechanisms for the implementation of educational technologies? "," By what criteria and features is it necessary to classify educational technologies? " and etc. With the help of a comparative analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature, various interpretations of the concept of "educational technology", having carried out a reflection of foreign, domestic and own pedagogical experience, the article substantiates the essence, structure and content of the concept of "educational technology", which is presented as a projected ordered system of actions, the implementation of which leads to the achievement of teaching objectives. Based on a system analysis, a distinction has been made between the concepts of "teaching methods" and "educational technology"; the system-forming components of the structure of "educational technology" have been revealed; its bases and signs have been considered and determined; similarities and differences in educational technologies have been found; the author's classification of educational technologies has been developed.