Educational innovations in the context of forced digitalization in society during the pandemic

The paper analyzes the current realities that force governments and societies to turn to digital technologies, responding to the crisis in the short term, eliminating the socio-economic consequences in the medium term, and rethinking the existing system and its tools in the long term. To overcome this difficult stage, most educational institutions are forced to use digital services and communication channels. Digital technologies allowed society to avoid complete stagnation during the COVID-19 crisis as well as prompted to accelerate the process of introducing artificial intelligence into all everyday realities. The implemented research methods allowed us to obtain results that indicate that at the moment we are at a turning point in the digital transformation of all spheres of life, including education, and the success that population is able to adapt and overcome technological gaps will determine the shape of future economies, education and society in general after the COVID era. More and more users, both newly joined and permanent, are expanding the scope of Internet services and resources use at times, pursuing more and more previously irrelevant tasks, thereby significantly increasing the time of their stay on the Internet. While some believe that an unplanned and rapid transition to online learning – with no training, insufficient bandwidth, and insufficient training – will lead to a poor user experience that will not lead to sustainable growth, others believe that a new hybrid education model with significant benefits will emerge. Many schools and universities have already made successful transitions. However, some students without reliable internet access and / or technology are struggling to participate in digital learning and we are going to bridge this gap.