Digital Promotion of Russian Language Abroad Discussed at the MIEF

On 27 April, Rossotrudnichestvo held the Digital Educational Space as a Tool for Promotion of Russian Language Abroad roundtable at the Moscow International Education Fair (MIEF). The Pushkin State Russian Language Institute acted as the event co-organiser.

The online event was devoted to debating on education and promotion of Russian language abroad, which factors are closely related to implementation of additional education programmes in foreign nations. Mikhail Popov, Director of the Scientific and Educational Projects Management Department at Rossotrudnichestvo, acted as the moderator, whereas Margarita Rusetskaya, Rector of the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, Nina Aniskina, Rector of the Pastukhov State Academy of Industrial Management, Anzhela Dolzhikova, Vice-Rector for Further Education at RUDN, Tatiana Krupa, GlobalLab President, and Rossotrudnichestvo’s representatives abroad took the floor as speakers. 

“Promotion of Russian language abroad is closely associated with implementation of further education programmes. Due to the existing pandemic-caused restrictions, the teachers and children have to stay home and leave the customary venues of training. Odd as it may seem, the lockdown become a catalyst for development of Russian-language projects in the field of digital economy,” stressed Mikhail Popov, Director of the Scientific and Educational Projects Management Department at Rossotrudnichestvo. 

Visitors of the roundtables were given details of the projects implemented under the aegis of Rossotrudnichestvo as part of the Human Resources for the Digital Economy federal project within the scope of the Digital Economy of the Russian Federation nationwide project. These include, for example, the RUDN Digital Library of Digital Cooperation (https://roslib.rudn.ru) which gives access to teaching aids in Russian language, Russian-language books in history, ecology, audio and video materials. Rector of the Pastukhov Academy related about the project of promoting the values of Russia’s national culture and skills of work with traditional Russian fold arts and crafts by using contemporary information technology, Touch the History – Traditional Folk Arts and Crafts (FA&C) of Russia – Digital Accessibility (https://craftrussia.com). GlobalLab presented a programme of contemporary online clubs, quantoriums and other formats of further education based on the “citizen science” model and intended for school-aged children to develop digital literacy via Russian schools abroad (https://globallab.org). 

“Nowadays, teaching Russian language cannot go without Internet technology – these are the data resulting from the practice we have been implementing at the institute for more than 5 years. As academician Vitaly Kostomarov used to maintain, any language is learned best in the cradle, in bed and in the Internet; he implied that mother’s language in infancy or love, personal relationships or new technology serve as the stimuli for learning Russian language,” noted Margarita Rusetskaya, Rector of the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute speaking about a joint project with Rossotrudnichestvo – Education in Russian (https://pushkininstitute.ru). 

To watch the full recording of the broadcast, to go Confucius hall at the MIEF: https://ls.mmco-expo.ru/room/zal-konfutsiy.  

About the Moscow International Education Fair (MIEF)

The Moscow International Education Fair will be held in online format on 26-29 April 2020. The main topics at MIEF-2020 shall be pre-school, general, secondary professional, higher education and further education. A separate section of the MIEF will be dedicated to the state-to-business interactions. The forum part will include more than 250 events in various formats, to bring together in the online mode up to 1,000 experts and speakers. 

The project implementation will utilise a new digital communication platform which rallies the statesmen, professional, expert and business communities, university and school students, their parents. This will put in place a unique online environment for discussion of new educational technology and smart solutions, with the Fair to become a brilliant specimen of such. 

Due to online formats, MIEF-2020 will be able to drastically expand the audience by increasing the number of unique visitors up to 500,000 persons and, for the first time ever in that format, consolidate the entire Russian-speaking world around common problems and values.