Weekly magazine “Arguments and Facts” No. 31. Without a flag and anthem, but with medals and Tchaikovsky 04/08/2021
73 million views-this figure stunned the country with the educational marathon “New Knowledge”, held in May of this year. His lecturers were the brightest representatives of Russian science, culture and public administration. The marathon was organized by the Russian Society “Knowledge”, which the most loyal readers of ” AIF ” remember since the late 1970s: then our newspaper began to be published as its newsletter.
The oldest educational organization in the country is now in the process of rebooting. The President of Russia spoke about the need for its implementation in his message to the Federal Assembly Vladimir Putin. About what a renewed society “Knowledge” will be like, how to tear young people away from the Tick-Tock and what needs to be done to make the image of a scientist displace the image of a blogger in the mass consciousness, ” AIF ” talked with its general director Maxim Dreval. Dossier Maxim Dreval. Born on July 6, 1991 in Kemerovo. He worked at Yandex and Mail.ru In 2014, he became a co-founder of Netologiya-Group – the largest online education platform. In 2016, he created the company L2P Limited, working at the intersection of education and esports. Successful entrepreneur, winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the EY Education category. In May 2021, he was appointed General Director of the Russian society”Znanie”.
What is the request for?
Dmitry Pisarenko, & laquo;AIF»:Maxim, we live in a time when any information is available in a few clicks. How can we explain that young people listen to lectures with sincere interest, as it was at the marathon “New Knowledge”?
Maxim Dreval: We have made a lot of efforts to interest young people. We did & laquo; Wow!”I want them to come to our site, immerse themselves, understand that this is interesting , and stay. We realized that it was possible to attract them with such a format. Not with short entertainment videos on YouTube or Instagram, but with informative lectures lasting half an hour, an hour or even more. The fact that our young people are ready and interested in consuming such information has become a pleasant surprise for us and a breakdown of stereotypes.
Indeed, almost any information is available now. But when there is a lot of it, it’s like there is no one at all. Because it is very difficult to navigate in it, to find something really valuable. This is our task-to give the guys a reliable flow of information, to inspire them with education, to make it a trend-cool and fashionable.
– Were you surprised by this figure – 73 million views?
– I was surprised. In the wildest expectations, we were guided by 5-10 million. There are several reasons. I think the first is that the demand for meaningful information is constantly growing. I see this growth year by year. The world is changing very quickly, new professions are emerging, which means that new knowledge and skills are needed. We conducted a study among high school students andstudents from 16 to 25 years old. The demand for intellectual content is now enormous: the modern generation pays great attention to self-development. Half of the respondents use new knowledge to develop erudition, two-thirds watch informative content even during rest. The biggest request is for topics related to career and career guidance.
The second reason is a convenient format. During the pandemic, even those people who were suspicious of the online format realized that in certain cases it is irreplaceable. Finally, the third and perhaps the main reason is the level of the lecturers we invited. We have invited the first persons who are experts in their topic and primary sources of information on each topic.
Where do myths come from?
– The performances of Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak really made a splash. But you have set a high bar for yourself: it will be impossible to always maintain such a level of lecturers, and it seems that marathons will become annual?
– We want to make attracting the most outstanding people a basic principle of society “Knowledge”, our chip. It should be understood that the first persons are not necessarily popular and well-known people. These are not always corporate presidents. Let’s take, for example, turning. After all, there is also a chief master in it, the first person, although he is far from Elon Musk in popularity. There are a lot of such people, and we will invite them.
And there shouldn’t be many leaders of public opinion. But they are quite enough to motivate people, charge them to an active position, make them move on, develop. It is not the quantity that is important here, but the quality.
As for the frequency of marathons, “New knowledge”. We will hold large marathons at least twice a year. The next one will be held in the fall, and I’m sure it will be cooler than the first one.
– Are you really going to call Bill Gates? By the way, it would be relevant: it has become almost a symbol of this pandemic. Many people are worried about whether he launched the coronavirus, whether the threat of mass chipping is behind all this?
– The fight against myths is one of our tasks. Why do they occur? Because people can’t find reliable information on some important topic. In this case, & ndash; on the topic of vaccination. There is so much confusion and misconceptions here! People don’t understand how vaccines work, and it’s easier for them to believe that they are going to be chipped or irradiated with 5G towers. These people simply did not explain what and how.
We have just launched an educational campaign “Let’s figure out vaccines together”. We conduct broadcasts with outstanding people from a professional environment, they answer questions from the audience. This is, for example, the Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko, the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova, the chief physician of the hospital in Kommunarka Denis Protsenko and others. Our viewers and subscribers in social networks send a lot of questions of a very different nature and receive answers from the most competent speakers in real time.
How to become a lecturer?
– Why is there a need to restart the society “Knowledge” at all?
– It was there before and, as it seems to me, it was only growing. As I have already said, the world is changing very quickly, society is transforming, plus there was a pandemic. All this spurs a request for information, education. The country’s leadership understands this.
The Society “Knowledge”is the oldest educational organization, it was founded in 1947. In accordance with the presidential decree, the society was recreated in 2015, and in April of this year, Vladimir Putin, in a message to the Federal Assembly, pointed out the need to reboot it on a modern digital platform. The society, although it existed, has not fulfilled its function to the extent that it would like, for a long time.
– And in which one would you like? What formats of educational work are planned? Will there be live lectures, as it was during the Soviet era?
– They are already being read. Right now, as we are talking, there are several lectures from the “Knowledge” society being given in different parts of the country – I think about ten. I will tell you more: any of our lectures is read with a “live” audience, even if it is broadcast online. We invite guys to this meeting who are interested in the topic.
We have a project “Smart Weeks”.Within its framework, well-known experts, scientists, state and public figures, entrepreneurs, athletes, as well as representatives of the spheres of culture and art hold meetings with students in the regions. The topics are very different: history, science, modern technologies, architecture, art, sports, leadership, information security, entrepreneurship. By the end of the summer, we plan to hold lectures in all regions of Russia.
– Speaking of lecturers. How many do you need? And how to become one of them?
– We have calculated that in the next year we need more than 10 thousand lecturers. This is a huge number. These should be experts – for example, university employees, representatives of business and various professions, whom the audience trusts, otherwise the information will not be valuable for them.
Therefore, we are launching the project “League of Lecturers”, its goal is to find young educators all over the country. In fact, it will be a multi-stage selection system. Whoever you are, if you have knowledge and you want to share it, you can take part. We will give you the opportunity to speak, we will give you a platform, an audience, and this audience will then evaluate your performance. The best ones will pass to the next stage, they will get more and more opportunities, we will develop them, including teaching communication skills, public speaking skills, the ability to package information in an interesting way, arrange presentations, make films, etc.
At the end of the year, we will hold the “New Knowledge” award. The winners will receive grants and new opportunities for study, development, and travel.
Who is more popular-a blogger or a scientist?
– You are betting on teenagers and young people, but you are facing an unthinkable task in terms of complexity to tear them away from Tik-Tok and YouTube. How to do it?
– We understand that we are dealing with a very demanding audience, which is not easy to interest. Every time we have to surprise her, exceed her expectations, otherwise we will not be able to compete with YouTube, Tick-Tok, Instagram and other social networks, entertainment services and numerous bloggers. For us, this is such a challenge. So far, it is possible to keep the attention.
On the other hand, all these resources and the corporations that stand behind them are also interested in capturing the attention of the consumer. They are trying to captivate him with the simplest, most primitive format. This is all clear, and getting a young person out of such a format is a very difficult task. But now there is a trend: many have played enough of this, they understand that they need to shape their own future, and not trust others to do it, not allow themselves to be led by the handle. There are more and more such young people, and this gives hope.
I think it is also important to inform the guys about what is really happening in our country – for example, in science. Many people simply do not know this.
– Neither do they know the names of young scientists. If earlier the image of a researcher was in the center of public attention, now a blogger has taken his place. One of them was even invited to the SPIEF to speak to the public.
– There were also young scientists at the St. Petersburg Forum. But, of course, the prestige of the profession should be increased, scientific activity should be popularized. This is exactly what we are doing. For example, took part in our marathonphysicist Alexey Fedorov, chemist Artem Oganov, biologist Anna Kudryavtseva. All these are young researchers who have already achieved recognition. Alexey Fedorov, the creator of the “quantum blockchain” is insanely talented and very cool. You look at him and you understand: how cool it is to be a scientist, really!
In fact, we are now entering a new stage of technological breakthrough. Surveys show that the attitude to science among young people is changing. This is the area where they want to develop. And the pandemic has led to the fact that the prestige of the medical profession has grown – many children are now going to go to work in medicine.
I am sure that in the near future the image of a scientist will displace the image of a blogger from the public consciousness. Intellectual activity will again be a priority.