Education Revolution: Alexander Lazutin Of ICarta Technologies On Innovative Approaches That Are Transforming Education
An interview with Eden Gold
To start listening instead of just reading, has many advantages.
The landscape of education is undergoing a profound transformation, propelled by technological advancements, pedagogical innovations, and a deepened understanding of learning diversities. Traditional classrooms are evolving, and new modes of teaching and learning are emerging to better prepare students for the complexities of the modern world. This series will take a look at the groundbreaking work being done across the globe to redefine education. As a part of this interview series, we had the pleasure to interview Alexander Lazutin.
Alexander Lazutin is the Founding Director of ICarta Technologies, a software development company based in the United Kingdom. Recently, he built a mobile app called SpokenPages for Android and iOS to help people listen to audiobooks, make notes on what they hear and learn on the go. Alexander is a strong advocate of self-development and the constant strive to educate oneself regardless of age, position or responsibilities. He is keen to seek ways that may not fall into the status quo such as his approach to learning from people, experiences and books.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share the “backstory” behind what brought you to this particular career path?
To start a software development company was a rather spontaneous decision, stemming out of my desire to create apps and various other software products. Noticing around, I saw the increase use of mobile phones and the strong influence that they were having on people’s lives. Imagine how you would feel if you left your phone at home for a day?
I’m sure that you would feel uncomfortable and rather lost. That is today’s reality. Therefore, I wanted to build usable products that people will use, the sheer thought that millions of people use my products on a daily basis was (and still is) a strong motivator to make things happen, invest time energy and resources and take risks to make that a reality. For me, that’s more important than any potential financial gain. My education was in Economics but I had a strong background in mathematics and physics, so learning more about software development was not overly difficult. That being said, it was far from easy. All my learning in the space came from studying in my spare time, trying things and creating bad products and incrementally improving them. I have always focused on building a solid methodology and once that comes together, improve on it, make it a process and make it more efficient.
Fast forward a few years, the same applies today. Our company distinguishes itself from the array of software development companies around the World in the quality of our work. We took time and effort to first develop ourselves and our methodology and now, we are able to offer custom apps for a fixed price and deliver them in under 6 weeks! I haven’t seen a better offer in the market and we have had good reviews from our clients who bought our packages.
I must say, I enjoy what I do, I think it was a great decision to go into software and has opened a sea of opportunities to positively affect people’s lives, and one key area that I hope to improve is education.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Since I started my career, there have been numerous very interesting situations that I found myself in, so this question is the most difficult for me — to single one out.
I will describe a situation that happened some years ago, when a group of engineers reached out to me to propose a collaboration for a hardware system that they were working on. At first, I understood very little of what they were actually doing and at that point, I went from thinking that I was knowledgeable, to complete idiot who hasn’t got a clue about the most basic concepts. It took a few meetings and studying to be able to fathom what they were talking about and be ‘in the conversation’ per se. They were speaking about theoretical concepts and how they were applying the laws of electricity and mechanics to create highly efficient and effective solutions. This was a real down to earth moment which made me realize that I had a lot of work to do in order to be considered on par to offer any sort of contribution to the project. To this day, they remain the smartest people that I had ever met, but I was able to catch up a little and understand what their concept was and even contribute with some effect.
The main lesson, you have a high chance of finding very intelligent people in your lives, when you feel stupid compared to them, that’s ok. Let that motivate you to develop and thrive. Don’t let things go over your head.
Can you briefly share with our readers why you are an authority in the education field?
For over a decade, I didn’t understand why today’s education system prioritizes exams and test, grades and scores over educational methodology, understanding and application of theoretical concepts into practical applications. I had the experience to study in Asia, Europe and North America, two universities in London and California. This inevitably provokes comparison between different places. What I would like to point out however, is the peculiar similarity of the education system, and the standardized procedures that people go through in most places of the Globe.
I believe it’s not advisable to rely on the education system to have you “covered” in terms of skills and knowledge necessary to “succeed” in life or career. Even if some courses and training are able to equip individuals to become specialists in their field, they seldom equip for life in general. I have noticed that the younger generation spend very little time reading, processing information and making sense of it. This inhibits the human brain capacity to think, to process information and be creative. It’s a very important skill which needs to be developed and there are millions of titles that are available to almost anyone to take advantage of and learn from.
Lastly, I want to touch on the process of learning something. At the end of the day, the purpose of education is to learn, but how does the brain learn?
This is the process of myelination, the formation of connections between neurons in the brain and building a sort of “protection” layer around this connection forming a membranous sheath surrounding the axons, thereby insulating it. When you are only starting to learn something, like a music piece on an instrument, it seems difficult at first as you aim to memorize sequences and recount them. This is the starting phase of building that connection. Repeating the piece over and over builds on this myelination process and the connection gets stronger. Ultimately, the stronger the connection, the longer you remember the skill. That is why you may be able to demonstrate something that you learnt many years ago, but struggle to replicate what you learnt a few days or hours ago.
Can you identify some areas of the US education system that are going really great?
Having had the opportunity to study at the University of California, I can say that the US education system provides ample resource of opportunity and people to learn from each other, it gives them a space to develop and pursue their academic or innovative ambitions. US universities are often regarded as some of the best in the world, and I think that is because they attract smart, motivated and talented people from around the world to interact, collaborate and overall improve the standard of education. This has a virtuous cycle effect as that in turn, attract more smart, motivated and talented people, who together, push the limits of academia and global innovation.
If people are determined to achieve the very best in the field, US universities provide a great environment for that and are very inclusive to contributors.
Another thing to note is the highly flexible system operated at US universities. In a way, it replicates professional life in that you can choose your courses and it is your responsibility to sign up to the right classes and take on as much workload as you deem optimal. This flexibility seems strange at first, as coming from Europe, it feels very unstructured, but having looked back at it, I think it’s a very interesting approach that could potentially differentiate people based on their interest and activity levels.
Can you identify the key areas of the US education system that should be prioritized for improvement? Can you explain why those are so critical?
I would say that primary education needs improvement and should be greatly prioritized. This is because primary education is predominantly set by the establishment and is rarely influenced by incoming individuals since they are mostly children and lack any real academic development in most cases, hence the approach should be different. Based on comparisons of school education, the US performs quite poorly compared to the global average, falling behind most European and Asian nations. Top of the list are East Asian countries with the occasional European nation like Finland boasting a competitive primary education system. My view is that primary education is the US is not of a high enough standard, there is lots of room for improvement if we take the average across the country for example. The goal of primary education is to spark curiosity, feed the desire for information, knowledge and skill. To teach young children how to think and develop their core skills. They won’t graduate high school equipped fully for industries, professions and the like, instead, they should be equipped with analytical skills, interpersonal skills, a strong ability to onboard, digest and make use of information. They should be accustomed to a learning methodology, perceive an understanding and apply theoretical concepts to practice.
Primary education is critical as often the determining factor of a nations development. I think it is an often overlooked factor when analyzing a region or country is the level of standard education. As good as higher education may be, far fewer people will end up completing it whereas primary education is completed by the outright majority and thus a good indicator for the population. Primary education is the core upon which further knowledge is built and skills acquired, if the core is weak or unstable, it doesn’t provide a reliable foundation for the accumulation of knowledge further down the line. If someone isn’t taught to think, to develop and to be curious, they will struggle to develop and learn simply because they have to figure out how to do that. Further, what’s important is the ability to apply that knowledge and that is vital for primary education to establish the importance of application. Then we often hear from children, “why are we learning math, we’ll never algebra in real life?” — but algebra has plenty of applications in real life, in many sectors which are very interesting. The fact that these questions are asked means that schools fail to show the practical applications of what they teach, thus dimming the desire to learn a concept.
Please tell us all about the innovative educational approaches that you are using. What is the specific problem that you aim to solve, and how have you addressed it?
With the SpokenPages project that we setup, we aim to learn unconventionally from real-life examples, memorable accounts and key business and life concepts written by leaders in their respective fields. We aim to popularize the notion of learning from a variety of people today and those long gone, to experience the work and findings of top authors and come up with a personal view of what you hear. I find that it’s important to have your own opinion on things and form it rationally. You don’t have to agree with every smart person that you listen to simply because they have experienced success or are famous. Everyone has been wrong, many times and that’s ok. A lot of things don’t have a distinct answer, there’s evidence and opinion and it’s how you work with that information and what you get from it is important. That’s why we encourage our users to make notes in the app of the book that they just read, for two main reasons; one, to remember and recall the key ideas that you heard, when you hear something, think about it then write it, you learn and remember it much better than simply hearing it and forgetting it. Second, to briefly input their view on the key concepts of the book and the ideas that they gained, whether they align with the ideas of the book, or even expand on them further.
Another key reason for building SpokenPages and focusing on being able to learn while doing something (on the go) is that listening to books sparks thoughts and imagination. Essentially, we are stimulated to think. How often in life do we actually think? Surprisingly, it’s not as often as we might want, a lot of things are done mechanically and we seldom pause and let thoughts wander in our head. Being able to think is vital for learning and we aim to stimulate thought and in some way, inspire people to develop themselves.
In what ways do you think your approach might shape the future of education? What evidence supports this?
I would say that our approach complements education, If people are stimulated to think by listening to books, prompted to write accounts of what they learnt, that develops the core skills needed to make the most of education or work. Most education (especially school) is standardized and to differentiate from one another, people have to do something different, something unconventional. Things like using SpokenPages to learn really help with that and allow people to develop in different directions depending on their interests and conclusions. No two people will achieve the same result from using SpokenPages.
Regarding evidence, even though SpokenPages is new, it builds a little further on the concept of audiobooks. We have a tendency that successful people spend time developing themselves through reading and onboarding useful information. They spend their time productively which over years, results in exponential growth. We take this concept and encourage people to make more productive use of their time that’s seemingly “taken” from them. For example, on a journey somewhere or the standard commute, you can make use of that time by developing yourself as opposed to mild entertainment or pointless waiting.
How do you measure the impact of your innovative educational practices on students’ learning and well-being?
Our approach is different in that we have no tests, no set structure, just the opportunity to learn and develop. Students can choose whatever they want to learn, pick their favorite and listen. A lot of repulsion in education is because students are ‘forced’ to do something that they don’t want to, most of the time because they don’t understand why they need to do it. In simple terms, they don’t see the point. That in turn has an adverse effect on their wellbeing and stifles their learning by triggering a more rebellious approach.
Our way of learning doesn’t leave people tired, instead, they end up feeling more curious, thoughtful and fascinated by what they’ve heard and learnt. That being said, it is a complimentary approach to education and doesn’t entirely replace any of the education practices. What it could affect though are the core impacts and priorities that this approach triggers versus what the standard system triggers and take that on board.
What challenges have you faced in implementing your educational innovations, and how have you overcome them?
The main challenge that we have so far experienced is getting people to understand what we are trying to do. We put a lot of work into making the solution available and creating all the content for people to use and learn from. We had to differentiate to the big players in the book and audiobook space by taking a more educational approach as opposed to entertainment or leisure. Also, we made the technical aspect a little more efficient so our pricing is a lot more favorable.
Keeping in mind the “Law of Unintended Consequences” can you see any potential drawbacks of this innovation that people should think more deeply about?
As of now, I have already said and will say again that we recommend this be a complimentary solution, not to replace education or anything else. We simply want to encourage thought, learning and self-development. I believe that this would aid education and not only education.
Also, I will say that by using SpokenPages, you don’t automatically become smarter and expect to see better results in exams, or wherever. I don’t want people to get the wrong impression, it is not a silver bullet. We have no measure of success, it is simply a process. It’s a bit like “the samurai has no destination, only a journey”.
What are your “5 Things I Wish I Knew When I First Started”?
1 . The time commitment — it took a lot longer and required more effort than expected to build this solution.
2 . To realize the importance of using idle time sooner.
3 . To start listening instead of just reading, has many advantages.
4 . Some things require more patience and trust, don’t needlessly stress.
5 . In any situation, stop to think and be present in the moment, don’t make rash decisions by trying to move too quickly.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
An ancient Chinese proverb I think sums it up nicely, “Education is like rowing upstream, if you don’t put the effort in, you will be pushed back”. I totally agree with that and it fits in well with the topic.
For me, it is relevant as a reminder to always “Stroke with purpose” meaning metaphorically to make constant purposeful effort to strive and develop oneself. In difficult times, it’s hard mentally to focus and believe in the process. In prosperous times, it’s easy to neglect.
We are blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Recently, I came across a British businessman called Simon Squibb who founded HlpBnk and persuades people to start their business and follow their dream. I have seen him putting people randomly on the spot and financially investing into people’s businesses I find it to be a very humble approach and above any advice or finance, I think he inspires people a lot. I would be interested in having a conversation with him for sure, to find out a little more about why he does this and what his ultimate goals would be.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I will share links to SpokenPages for people to try.
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icartatechnologies.spokenpages&hl=en&gl=US
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/spokenpages/id6449033416
Our company website is: https://www.icartatechnologies.com/
Thank you so much for these insights! This was so inspiring!
About The Interviewer: Eden Gold, is a youth speaker, keynote speaker, founder of the online program Life After High School, and host of the Real Life Adulting Podcast. Being America’s rising force for positive change, Eden is a catalyst for change in shaping the future of education. With a lifelong mission of impacting the lives of 1 billion young adults, Eden serves as a practical guide, aiding young adults in honing their self-confidence, challenging societal conventions, and crafting a strategic roadmap towards the fulfilling lives they envision.
Do you need a dynamic speaker, or want to learn more about Eden’s programs? Click here: https://bit.ly/EdenGold
Education Revolution: Alexander Lazutin Of ICarta Technologies On Innovative Approaches That Are… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.