World Monitor Magazine WM_November_2019_web | Page 55

EXPERT OPINION
everything is there at your fingertips,
and you can immediately show
everything. Of course, teaching has
become much easier. But technology
does not answer the questions of what
to do with this information, or how to
apply it. This problem has not changed.
Of course, the more specific the
subject, the greater the ability to use
technology to transmit information,
which is important.
Today I read that Coursera will give
absolutely any university access to all
their catalogs for free. I wrote to them
right away. What can this give me?
This means that if my students speak
English, I can cancel such lectures in
such subjects as macroeconomics.
If they spent $ 500,000 to create an
excellent course in macroeconomics,
lectures are given by the best professor
from Yale, and the chances that my
professor at Narxoz will read better
than he does are small. Better to let my
students listen to the Yale Professor's
lectures. Another question though is
what they understand there.
Someone must work with them to
understand what is clear, what is not,
and help to give them context. All the
examples from the Yale professor will
be based on the American experience,
which means these are not entirely
universal examples. If we are talking
about the transfer of information,
then technology provides unique
opportunities. And precisely because
of this, in the near future we will
understand that the university is not
the only one involved in the transfer of
information.
And this is a problem in Kazakhstan. In
the best case, when they talk about the
university, adults remember the Soviet
system where they sat in a classroom
from 09.00 to 15.00, recorded lectures
and gave out what was put into them.
Word by word. We must understand
that today’s university needs to be
about what to do with information, to
be able to distribute information, to
determine what is important and what
is not, what is useful, what is not, in
what context, where the information
comes from, whether the source is
reliable, and so on.
In the same way, we must ask students
questions on the theoretical side.
Suppose they study business, so we
give them data, say that a mine will
open: how many tons of raw materials,
how much it costs, investments and
so on, and then they should make
decisions based on this data. In order
to be profitable for as many years as
possible, you need to do this.
In the next part of our case, there are
glaciers around this mine, and you will
destroy them, because of this there
will be no water for farmers who live
nearby. Is this question your problem
or not? From the point of view of the
owner of the mine, perhaps this is not
your problem, but for the state that
gives permission for development and
production, this is a serious problem. If
you look from this point of view, the
answer is completely different. Now
students must discuss with each other,
because the problem is complex.
On the one hand, without development,
all people will die. But what if could be
done differently? Maybe you can open
the mine elsewhere? There is no utopia.
And this creates a completely different
conversation than the first time. This
is what we can do at universities
to simulate situations and cases
suitable for the reality in Kazakhstan.
Questions about whether Starbucks
should open another franchise coffee
shop in Chicago are not relevant to
us. In addition, to the education base
that we give in the first year, we give
a programming course because we
believe that in the modern world a
person cannot live without these skills.
Even, if as a result, a student does
not become a programmer, he must
understand how this works and have
basic knowledge in programming.
Everyone will have a course in ethics
because this is a big problem. One
part will be devoted to theory, the
second practice, separately for each
specialty or for groups of specialties.
For example, for lawyers this is
somewhat different than for financiers.
We will also give them a course in
entrepreneurship, in Kazakhstan this
knowledge is very lacking. Today we
discussed that it will be possible for
students to create their own company
help them to realize some idea:
register a company, understand the
administrative and operational part of
the company. This initiative will allow
students to immediately gain practical
experience.
We are now thinking about how to apply
more practical real-world experience.
We are after all not a pure theoretical
university, but a practically oriented
university. Most of our students should
be able to do something. We must
combine practical and theoretical
education. In part, it is an attraction
to teach more practitioners. And,
of course, genuine practice is very
important, not for show, but for a real,
good practical experience.
In Narxoz, in this regard, we have a huge
advantage because we have a huge
layer of graduates quite successful,
many have their own companies. By
negotiating with them, we can create a
network for our students, which other
universities cannot create.
What else are we doing? We realized
that studying in Kazakhstan for
supported by EUROBAK
53