Public Organizations in the Development of Informatization of Education: A Case Study from Russia

The paper addresses the identified gap existing in the contemporary scholarship by providing a case study of a public organization’s involvement in addressing pressing issues in the field of informatization of education. First of all, on the basis of the literature review conducted by us, we identify a total of three key areas of informatization of education: (1) intensive development of digital information technology in education; (2) scientific understanding and forecasting of informatization of education; (3) introduction of achievements made in science and technology into the practice of the educational process. Within the case, we briefly outline the key steps in the development of informatization of education in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. Then we gradually review the key activities conducted by the Academy of Informatization of Education in different regions, additionally focusing on its leading regional branch. A detailed review allows us to develop a clear understanding of the main direction of informatization of education in Russia, as well as the role played by a public organization in these processes. Also, we emphasize the role of entrepreneurial activities of public organizations to sustain themselves, as well as the need to apply for grant support. Within the three key directions of informatization of education outlined above on the basis of the literature review conducted by us, we also review social projects conducted by public organizations in Russia, particularly those which received financial support from the largest Russian Presidential Grants Fund. Such an analysis allows us (a) to trace federal priorities in providing financial support for public organizations working in the field of informatization of education, as well as (b) to analyze a regional dispersion of the projects supported, including their variety and scope. The research conducted clearly shows that public organizations mainly cover only two key directions, but they almost completely ignore the third demanding direction – “scientific understanding and forecasting of processes in informatization of education.”


Introduction
Nowadays, scientific and technical progress is associated with the active introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) tools in all spheres of human activity. One of the key areas for ICT dissemination is informatization of education, and this question is also widely covered in the scholarly literature. On the basis of the literature review conducted by us, we distinguish a total of three interrelated directions of informatization of education (Wallace, 2009;Callum & Jeffrey, 2013;Arkorful & Abaidoo, 2015;Bhattacharjee & Deb, 2016;Sampson et al., 2016;Vega-Hernández, Patino-Alonso, & Galindo-Villardón, 2018;Harerimana & Mtshali, 2019;Asongu, Orim, & Nting, 2019;Scherer & Siddiq, 2019;Robert, 2019): (1) intensive development of digital information technology in education; (2) scientific understanding and forecasting of informatization of education; (3) introduction of achievements made in science and technology into the practice of the educational process.
These three directions are addressed in various government plans and programs aimed at introducing and accelerating the "digital education" agenda (OECD, 2015a;OECD, 2015b;Williamson, 2016;Conrads et al., 2017). Also, educational organizations themselves are often perceived as the main accelerators of innovative development, including in the processes of informatization and digitalization (Shengquan & Li, 2006;Zaslavsky, 2016;Aiqun, 2018). However, the role of public organizations in informatization of education is almost neglected in the scholarly literature. Public organizations are superficially mentioned from time to time in the published research (Collis & Jung, 2002;Chanyagorn & Kungwannarongkun, 2011;Iniesta-Bonillo, Sánchez-Fernández, & Schlesinger, 2013;Vergel de Dios, 2016), but there is no comprehensive overview of the role played by them in informatization of education. However, social science scholars clearly indicate the greatest role of non-governmental organizations in social change and innovative development (Doh & Teegen, 2003;Ngo & O'Cass, 2013;Islam, 2014;Harfitt, 2016).
Thus, this research is aimed at addressing the gap existing in the literature on informatization of education and presents a case study of a public organization from Russia. In particular, we focus on the Academy of Informatization of Education, which is the leading and oldest interregional organization in the considered field in the whole post-Soviet space. While "unpacking" our case, we briefly outline the key steps in the development of informatization of education in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. Then we gradually review the key activities conducted by the Academy of Informatization of Education in different regions, additionally focusing on its leading regional branch, the Chuvash Regional Department of the Academy of Informatization of Education (Cheboksary, Russia). Such a detailed review allows one to develop a clear understanding of the main direction of informatization of education in Russia, as well as the role played by a public organization in these processes.
More than that, the authors emphasize the role of entrepreneurial activities of public organizations to sustain themselves, as well as the need to apply for grant support. Within the three key directions of informatization of education outlined above on the basis of the literature review conducted by us, we also review social projects conducted by public organizations in Russia, particularly those which received financial support from the largest Russian Presidential Grants Fund. Such an analysis allows us (a) to trace federal priorities in providing financial support for public organizations working in the field of informatization of education, as well as (b) to analyze a regional dispersion of the projects supported, including their variety and scope.
Consequently, the presented analysis contributes to the scholarship by providing a case study of a public organization's contribution to the development of informatization of education in Russia and thus addressing the existing gap in the literature on this topic. The results of our research can be also used by other public organizations working in Russia and abroad, especially when applying for grant support and drafting their development strategies.

Academy of Informatization of Education
The beginning of the process of informatization in education can be attributed to the middle of the last century when there were even no personal computers yet. University students studied programming on the basis of large and medium-sized computers. At the same time, the first programming circles for schoolchildren appeared in the Soviet Union and abroad. A group of scientists under the leadership of Academician Andrei P. Ershov were at the origins of the School of Informatics in the Soviet Union (Monakov, 2012). In 1985, including the discipline "Informatics" into the list of compulsory school subjects established the foundation of informatization in education in the USSR and later in Russia. If we apply the terminology of synergy, then the year of 1985 can be called a bifurcation point.
Gradually, this chaos turned into a scientific concept set in the federal state educational standards of general education (primary, basic, and complete ones). Requirements for the results of vocational and inclusive education were strictly regulated in Russia (Zamyatin, 2012;Fedorov and Tretyakova, 2016).
But there were still a lot of people left behind, who were educated in the "pre-computer" era. To have a full and productive life in the information society, knowledge in the field of computer technology was necessary for them. To solve the problems of informatization of education, public associations came to aid Russian state educational institutions. One of them is the interregional public organization "Academy of Informatization of Education." Since the Academy of Informatization of Education is an interregional public organization, it has a number of branches in different regions of Russia. One of the leading branches is the Public Organization of Additional Professional Education "Chuvash Regional Department of the Academy of Informatization of Education" (hereinafter referred to as the Chuvash Organization). From the very first days (since 2005), activities of the Chuvash Organization have been focused on enhancing students' educational interests in the field of Informatics and ICT, as well as devoting a lot of effort for providing opportunities for professional growth of Informatics teachers. For instance, the Chuvash Organization regularly holds contests in Computer Science, programming tournaments, the International Scientific and Practical Conference "Internet technologies in education", and other events (Sofronova, 2015).
Since 2005, the Chuvash Organization has been holding the "Infoznayka" competition in Informatics.
The Ministry of Education and Youth Policy of Chuvashia has been supporting the "Infoznayka" competition since 2007. Also, the competition was included as one of the events in the Republican

target program "Development of a Unified Educational Information Environment in the Chuvash
Republic for 2011-2020", which was adopted by the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Chuvash Republic on September 25, 2008N 293 (Cabinet of Ministers, 2008. Since 2013, the competition has gained an international status. Such countries as Kazakhstan, Moldova, South Korea, Ukraine, Latvia, and others take part in the competition on a regular basis. Its main goal is to stimulate students' cognitive interest of students of general education institutions in the field of Informatics and ICT, as well as to find and support the most gifted and motivated children in the field of ICT. To get a larger audience and provide a remote form for participation in the competition, a special website was created, which can be accessed via the following link: <http://www.infoznaika.ru> (Belchusov, 2013).
It is very important for organizations to engage in social entrepreneurship so they can become more sustainable. In accordance with the license to carry out educational activities, the organization Another method that is important and effective in summarizing pedagogical experience is the "Methodical Piggy Bank." There is also a specially developed website available

One of the latest innovations in the activities of the organization is the educational video journal
"Infroznayka-Media" about research and methodological developments of Russian and foreign teachers in the field of distance learning, teaching Computer Science, and other subjects. The main goal of creating the video journal was to give an opportunity to visually tell in articles about new methods and pedagogical developments with the help of video inserts of the educational channel "Infroznayka-TV"; to ensure the wide distribution of the articles of scientists and our fellow teachers, other authors, using all modern digital communication channels (YouTube, social networks); to maintain constant feedback between readers and authors.

Grant Support for Informatization of Education
Financial support for social activities conducted by public associations is provided through funds. Since  (Table   1).

Holding the 2019 Moscow Programming Contest
Non-profit partnership "Fiztekh-Soyuz for the support and development of MIPT", Moscow Region 2,976,532.00

Special Multimedia Interactive Educational Project "The Main
Law of the Country: 25 years of the Constitution of Russia" Regional Organization "The Youth Organization 'Prospect Mira'", Moscow 21,546,314.0 0

School for Teachers in Robotics
Organization of Additional Education -Private Educational Institution "Center of additional education SNEYL" 1,220,746.40

Computer Literacy for People with Limited Mobility
Abzelilovskaya District Organization of the Bashkir Republican Organization of the All-Russian Public Organization "All-Russian Society of Disabled People", Republic of Bashkortostan 563,051.90

Digital Education of Teachers
Private Educational Institution of Additional Professional Education "Scientific and Educational Center for Social and Economic Technologies", Tyumen Region 318,879.20

Web-Developers for People with Disabilities
Regional Public Organization of the Disabled People in the Republic of Tatarstan "Integration", the Republic of Tatarstan 859,680.00

Network Competence "The Power of Argument"
Autonomous Non-Profit Organization of Additional Professional Education "Open Education", Moscow First of all, we would like to note that a group of projects in the field of informatization of education accounted for 7.7% of all projects in the direction "Support for Projects in the Field of Science, Education, and Enlightenment," which is a pretty large percent taking into account all other demanding challenges in this sphere.
Second, we note a good representation of the supported projects in the regions of Russia. Let's review the key components supported by the Presidential Grants Fund in the field of informatization of education in 2018. The full percentage ration is presented in Figure 1, but we would like to note the largest components: (1) 6 projects on innovative learning technologies (19.35%); (2) 6 projects on general education (19.35%); (3) 5 projects on entrepreneurial activity and management (16.13%); (4) 5 projects on adult education (16.13%); and (5) 4 projects on inclusive education (12.9%).

Figure 1. Key directions of social projects in the field of informatization of education supported by the Presidential Grants Fund
A number of projects appear to us very important and quite unique. Such projects as "Virtual Reality in Education", "Workshop on Drones", "Building the Future with Lego", and others can be considered as those projects that we conventionally attribute to the intensive development of digital information technologies in education. Among many projects in the field of "Implementing Science and Technology Achievements in the Practice of the Educational Process", we would like to highlight the most topical projects, namely the following: "Video Making for Yourself" (for pensioners), "Developing Creative and Artistic Video Classes for Children of Preschool and Primary School Age, As Well As Children With Disabilities", the special multimedia interactive educational project "The Main Law of the Country: 25 years of the Constitution of Russia," the program on counteracting cyberbullying and hate speech in the Internet "Agra.net", and the regional center for digital competencies in minors "Kodika." Consequently, of the above areas of informatization of education, the Presidential Grants Fund mostly supports the following two areas: (1) intensive development of digital information technology in education; (2) implementation of science and technology achievements in the practice of the educational process. The direction "scientific understanding and forecasting of processes in informatization of education" is not represented in the projects. Although, as considered above, the scientific potential of public associations is quite high in this issue.

Conclusion
Summing up, we note that public organizations have great potential in terms of solving social problems, particularly in the development of informatization of education, and make a feasible contribution to all areas of informatization of education that we have identified earlier. One of the Higher education -9.74% Pre-primary education -3.2% Internet ethics and information security -3.2% most vivid examples of a public organization's involvement in solving educational problems in Russia is the Academy of Informatization of Education based in Moscow. It conducts a number of diverse activities, which have both a policy impact, real implication on the ground, and attract the best scholars, thinkers, and activists to facilitate innovation and change in the field of informatization of education in Russia. More than that, our analysis of the leading public organization's projects in the field of informatization of education clearly shows that there is a large enough percentage of them being supported among all others, they have a vivid diversity and aim to address the whole range of challenges. However, it is also clear that public organizations mainly cover only two key directions (intensive development of digital information technology in education and implementation of science and technology achievements in the practice of the educational process), but they almost completely ignore the third demanding direction -"scientific understanding and forecasting of processes in informatization of education." Thus, it is highly recommended to devote more attention to this direction in order to have more efficient results of public organization's involvement aimed at addressing pressing challenges of informatization of education in Russia.