Psychological and Didactic Issues of Digital Textbooks Creation

The article substantiates a special approach to the development of a school digital textbook which is based on the idea of synthesis of psychological, didactic, methodological, and subject knowledge with the priority of using the psychic pat- terns of personality development. To denote an interactive electronic textbook, it is proposed to use the term “digital textbook” (DT). From the methodological point of view, DT is regarded as an “enhanced” paper textbook, characterized by such basic properties as interactivity, multimodality, hypertextuality, and personality. The question about the development of the digital textbook concept before the textbook creation is raised. A number of psychological and didactic problems are discussed, such as: 1) the relationship between paper and digital textbooks (an option of the simultaneous use of both textbook formats is proposed); 2) DT as an essential com- ponent of the digital educational environment (the maximum effect is achieved if every DT is integrated into a single system as well as educational environment); 3) the features of reading on screen (non-linear nature, activity and dynamism, superficial understanding, greater fatigue, etc.). Besides, the article analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of DT and presents the results of its effectiveness based on the foreign studies. A conclusion was made that the wide-scale introduction of DT is possible solely when its positive influence not only on academic performance, but also on the cognitive development of students is revealed.