“Complicated things are simple”
– Maxim Alekseevich, one of the main themes of the forum is “Far East-2030, let’s join forces and create opportunities”. How important is this topic for your organization?
– I think that the Far East issue is historically extremely important and, given the current circumstances, what is happening in the world, it is of critical importance. I am increasingly imbued with the idea that Vladivostok is the eastern capital of Russia. Every day there are more strategic issues related to the development of the region.
Speaking of the Knowledge Society, we have long since opened all our projects to the inhabitants of the Far East. Let us take our Far Eastern lecturers as an example. One FEFU lecturer, who won the Knowledge.Lecturer project, became an advisor to the Minister of Science and Higher Education. This is an excellent social career booster. And we have many such stories about employment, expansion of the sphere of influence and audience.
This is also important for young people, because they have the opportunity to be in different places in our country, learn a lot and meet outstanding people.
For example, in the near future we plan to bring 100 of the best bloggers to the Russian children’s center “Ocean”, where we have prepared for them a specialized session of the Knowledge Society – Knowledge.Authors.
The most important thing is our multimedia studio-classroom at FEFU, which has been operating for four years. This is a meeting place for outstanding people, students, young people and a way to talk about complex things in a simple way.
We have been actively investing in the Far East for a long time, developing our regional branches and representative offices here, and this is a strategic issue for us.
By the way, this very active interaction and the development of the Far East itself inspired us to shoot a documentary. The new series of the “Russia of the XXI Century” series will be dedicated to the Far East, in particular to the Sakhalin region, unique in its geographical location and strategic importance. In the film we will not only show the natural resources of the region, but also talk about different industries. In addition, we know that Russia is, first of all, its people, so an important part of the film will be conversations with local residents who are in love with their home and business.
“There is a specific plan”
– Who does the Knowledge Society plan to join forces with in its educational activities?
– We have an agreement in principle to support our teachers with all the regions of the Far East. I am referring, first of all, to the attention that will be given to them. Attention from the subject manager, regional awards, incentives and benefits. Teachers solve an important social and civic problem, this is a great responsibility that must be encouraged. Their activities can be compared to volunteering.
– Are there specific agreements?
– For example, we agreed with the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) that one of the sites for the nearest federal educational marathon, Knowledge The First, will be deployed in Yakutia. We want every district to have a site. This will make the Knowledge Society even more accessible and the project with Yakutia is very important for us. There are agreements with federal ministries, with Ocean, with banks. We have signed 14 agreements. And this is not just a declaration of intent, but a concrete plan.
For example, an agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Trade has drawn up a calendar of joint projects and activities. We have a lot of joint work ahead of us in the area of professional guidance, development and popularisation of manual professions.
“A teacher is a personal example”
– Among the teachers of the Knowledge Society there are many successful entrepreneurs and high-ranking officials. What is the incentive for these people?
– Yes, even here, in the conference hall of the Knowledge Society at the EEF, the Deputy Prime Minister, ministers, and heads of such corporations as Rosatom, Sibur, the Deputy Speaker of the State Duma – a lot of interesting people – spoke. I myself listened to Alexey Evgenievich Likhachev’s lecture (I sat for almost an hour) and enjoyed it immensely! I saw how he was preparing – this was not just for show. We have transformed the attitude towards such performances.
– Because?
– First of all, because of the sincere request of the public. We cultivate this interaction, it changes the lecturers, it arouses their interest and enthusiasm, they feel that their mission is to share knowledge. I see how important and difficult this part of the job is for them, for which they seriously prepare and each time they try to surprise the children and interest them. Even the most outstanding people experience excitement before the lectures and fantastic satisfaction after interacting with the public.
– What do you expect from teachers?
– First of all, a teacher is always a personal example for us. It is not only the theoretical knowledge that you transmit as a bearer that is important. You must show how this knowledge changes you, how it helps you make decisions in life, what mistakes you made and what conclusions you drew from them. An example to follow, a moral guideline, is important.
Second, being a teacher today is more like being a mentor. Because we are more guides to the world of knowledge than a collection of theoretical information. It is valuable that the vast majority of teachers see themselves as mentors and our audience sees them as such.
And the motive is also important. Why do you do this? All our teachers, whether they are engineers, managers, mechanics, scientists or astronauts, all pass on their knowledge because they see the value and importance it has for the public. The motive is not money, or even recognition, but an audience whose eyes shine.
Of course, this means that we should not reward or recognize merit. No. We do this because it is right. But if this had been the goal, the result would of course be completely different.
“There are no universal solutions”
– Do teachers and topics attract different interest in different regions?
– There are highly sought-after teachers everywhere. Of course, there are differences in topics and speakers, and here it is important to talk to the audience. It is important to understand what is in demand. There are no universal solutions. We have a huge amount of products, and this is not the case. We are in cinema, and in theatre, and in games, and in photography, and in poetry…
The topics include career, business, science, history… And each of these broad topics has a large number of branches. We work with schoolchildren and students, with teachers, with lecturers, with military personnel and with civil servants. All that is needed is individual work, just working together with the public. Today, customer-centricity is the main trend in business. In our case, this means that we develop our product together with the public.
“Getting used to being surprised”
– Is there a high demand for education in the country?
– Three and a half years ago, President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin called for a reboot of the Knowledge Society. We already understood that the request was big, but we had no idea how big it was.
It is even more surprising to observe people’s willingness to take on deep and complex topics and long formats. We are already used to the fact that young people are developing. They are at that age, they are, in principle, quite conscious kids, they want to be responsible for their own destiny.
But the colossal demand for new knowledge from officials and military personnel surprised us, because, apparently, people are already adults and are not so prepared to change.
We see this in the example of the Knowledge.State project, in which we work with employees of ministries, departments and sub-departments. We started with 30 departments, now there are 74. Millions of people, a huge amount of content, courses. This pleasantly surprises us.
– Great! And they tell us all to just watch videos on our phones…
– Yes, there are stereotypes about clip thinking, about lazy youth… Now we see this in a different way. Clip thinking is rather the result of the development of the entertainment industry and the information sector in general. Before, people procrastinated in large numbers, when there was no television and the Internet. It’s just that the way of procrastinating has changed now. And this leads to the popularity of such light formats. This doesn’t mean that people have changed. This means that the form has changed, this needs to be taken into account and this creates new challenges. Now, if you provide creative and constructive knowledge, you need to make it no less interesting and exciting than entertaining content. You just accept this challenge and then the audience listens with great interest for 40 minutes or an hour and comes back to you. The thing is that sometimes people don’t want to admit it and it’s easier for them to blame the audience.
