GLOBAL THINKING AS DESIGN

DR. VLADIMIR KULISH

DIGITAL REVOLUTION• We are at the very beginning of the

epoch of DIGITAL REVOLUTION.

• The keywords here are in the very beginning.

• It seems to us that everything has already happened and went so fast, but in fact it is only a start.

• Apple Pay came to life very recently, but now none of the sellers at the box office is surprised that you pay by your smartphone.

• Plastic cards are dead, and WE HAVE NOT EVEN NOTICED IT!

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DIGITAL REVOLUTION (cont’d)

EVERYTHING THAT CAN BE DIGITISED WILL BE DIGITISED: medicine, security, education, army – absolutely everything.

During the epoch of digital revolution, the role of information – especially in its electronic form – becomes more and more important.

Those, who possess the property right on information or new knowledge, can nowadays define what the global economy is to be.

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GLOBAL URBANISATION• Digital revolution goes hand in hand

with the rapid urbanisation of humanity.

• Countries are dying as structures. Through 50 years instead of 218 countries there will be 600 cities.

• After 25 years, for instance, Austria will no longer exist, because already now Austria is Vienna and some small number of towns around.

• This happens due to a change in perception of the information sys tem, the deve lopment o f transport and technology in general.

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TEMPORARY MONOPOLY

• T h e m a i n p r i n c i p l e o f earning money remains unchanged: IF THERE IS A MONOPOLY, THERE IS MONEY; IF THERE IS NO MONOPOLY, THERE IS NO MONEY.

• We hate IKEA, but go there again and again. Why?

• Think about the principles of innovation, which are the b a s i s o f a t e m p o r a r y monopoly.

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TEMPORARY MONOPOLY (cont’d)

For example, there is Amitabh Bachchan, a celebrity, a temporary monopoly in the entertainment world.

If you have a party and invited Amitabh Bachchan, but he fell sick, you won’t be able to replace him by somebody else.

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TEMPORARY MONOPOLY (cont’d)

T H E I M P O S S I B I L I T Y O F R E P L A C I N G SOMETHING IN YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS – THIS IS WHAT CREATES THE VALUE OF A PRODUCT.

Once Volvo released the model 242: the most wretched and ugly car in the universe, but Volvo has invented the idea of temporary monopoly – absolute security and it was impossible to substitute this concept by something else. Later Toyota and yet later Mercedes took over the idea of absolute security, and Volvo lost its position in the market.

IN ORDER TO RETURN A TEMPORARY MONOPOLY, ONE HAS TO RETURN HIS INDIVIDUALITY.

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HOW ALL THIS RELATES TO HIGHER EDUCATION?

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THE FOUR PILLARS OF A CONTEMPORARY

HUMAN BEING

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1. INFORMATIONInformation is evolving in such a way that we are growing “more stupid” every morning.

In five years, a manager will not choose whether to hire Sanjay, who knows English, or Arjun, who does not know it. He will choose whether to employ a person with the advanced or very advanced level of the English proficiency. The rest of candidates will not be even considered.

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1. INFORMATION (cont’d)

• Information is evolving every day, but we are not.

• In the new paradigm, all of us are amateurs.

• Namely this creates great opportunities for business, b e c a u s e w e n e e d n e w c o m p a n i e s , w h i c h w i l l constantly remove the gap between new information and our knowledge.

• Nowadays, no company can handle this alone.

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2. MULTI-POLAR WORLD

• The world has become multi-polar.

• Linking the existing systems together, we create new-order systems.

• If you are trying to produce phones, forget about planning. Until you complete your plan development, technology will change one hundred times.

• In the new reality, one has to go by the

METHODS OF TRIAL AND ERROR.

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3. HIGHER EDUCATION• THE VALUE OF CONVENTIONAL HIGHER

EDUCATION BECOMES NULL AND VOID.

• Knowledge in the University world has ceased to be unique, the new reality destroys a monopoly on knowledge.

• One does not need to attend Harvard to get knowledge from Harvard.

• This is why, if five years ago possessing a high-ranking university diploma opened the doors of any corporation in front of you, now this knowledge is available to anyone who desires to acquire it.

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3. HIGHER EDUCATION (cont’d)

• The only question remaining is when exact ly the death of physical diploma will take place. This is a matter of a few years.

• It means, if you decided to start saving money on your child’s conventional university education, do not spend your time and effort on that.

• Soon UNIVERSITIES WILL CEASE TO EXIST IN THEIR PRESENT FORM.

• S y s t e m a t i c k n o w l e d g e i s necessary, but i t does not guarantee one’s success.

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3. HIGHER EDUCATION (cont’d)

• During the employment process, a manager often looks at the applicant’s skills and later trains the employee in human relations.

• The new reality allows one to change the order: find a person, with whom you feel yourself the most comfortable and then train him or her towards professional skills.

• E v e r y o n e c a n b e c o m e a professional , but far f rom everyone can become a person, with whom you feel comfortable.

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4. LIFE AS A SERIES OF TRANSACTIONS

• We perceive LIFE AS A SERIES OF TRANSACTIONS.

• W e c o n s t a n t l y r e a c h agreements.

• The main goal of all devices and technologies is to reduce our transaction expenses in every kind of human activity.

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ACCEPTANCE OF & ADAPTING TO EVOLUTION

IF AN INSTITUTION OF HIGHER

EDUCATION IS TO SURVIVE IN THE

EPOCH OF DIGITAL REVOLUTION, IT

SHOULD PRODUCE GRADUATES,

WHO ARE NOT ONLY CAPABLE TO

ADAPT TO THE WORLD RAPIDLY

CHANGING AROUND THEM, BUT TO

PLAY AN ACTIVE ROLE IN CHANGING

THE WORLD TOWARDS THE BENEFIT

OF ENTIRE SOCIETY.

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…and many others could not be conceived and born by people who are waiting for specific

solutions, win-win actions, and proven

concepts!!!

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As long as one is unable to c o m e o u t o f t h e f r a m e s i m p o s e d b y “ c o m m o n consciousness”, breakthrough products and processes cannot come into being.

Hence, the main task of the contemporary educational system is to teach people

HOW TO THINK, BUT NOT WHAT TO THINK…

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Those, who aspire to become leaders of modern society, may not afford the luxury of being conformists l iving accord ing to s tandards accepted by the majority nowadays.

T h e y c a n n o t affo r d i t , because…

THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE!

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WHAT SHOULD BE AN ACADEMIC MODEL IN THE EPOCH OF DIGITAL

REVOLUTION?

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ACADEMIC MODEL BASED ON DESIGN THINKING

• DESIGN THINKING: parallel/non-linear thinking (a given issue/concern/problem can be tackled in different ways);

• CONTEXT: to develop a hol ist ic understanding of the present scenario (relate things that seem unrelated/thinking by analogy);

• ASSESSMENT: choosing the best option to tackle the issue/concern/problem under a given set of conditions/constraints; feasibility study;

• IMPLEMENTATION: to realise the solution (overseeing the entire execution process).

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A NOVEL TEACHING/LEARNING SYSTEM BASED ON DESIGN THINKING

• OBSERVATION OF REAL WORLD, TO DEFINE WHAT IS TO BE DONE

• DECIDING ON PARAMETERS, WHICH MIGHT BE IMPORTANT UNDER A GIVEN SET OF CONSTRAINTS

• M A K I N G N E C E S S A R Y GENERALISATIONS/MODELLING

• PROPOSING POSSIBLE SOLUTION(S)

• TESTING & REFINING SOLUTIONS, IF NEEDED

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AVANTIKA IN THE MODERN REALITY

1. To create a temporary m o n o p o l y o n t h e educational model;

2. To educate people, who know how to think;

3. To teach students how to d i s t i n g u i s h b e t w e e n important and unimportant pieces of information;

4. To generate new ideas & create new things.

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THANK YOU!!!�26