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Shepherd Chimururi-Youth Interactions Correspondent
Zimbabwean educators who are famed for master minding one of the best education systems in Africa are shockingly missing in action as far as taking digital space on social media such as YouTube.
Educational content by the esteemed educators is sadly just a drop in an ocean. Local students are being starved of home grown educational content and are now relying on other enterprising international teachers especially Indians.
The few Zimbabwean produced channels on the platform have meagre view averaging 2000.
So bad is the situation that comediennes like Mai Titi, Madam Boss and Lorraine Guyo among others have more views than educators who are into more serious stuff that is needed by hundreds of thousands of students annually.
This is unacceptable!
To put into perspective how local educators are dismally performing on the global stage and losing out on a golden opportunity to make money here are staggering statistics of top best learning channels on You Tube.
Ted Ed is considered the king of education channel on You Tube.
Formed in 2011, Ted Ed provides a wide range of classes, from visual arts to mathematics, health studies, and business. Each video features attention grabbing animations with lessons delivered in a fun way.
Ted Ed has over 11 million subscribers and the channel has been viewed around 1.8 billion times! On second place is Crash Course with 10.2 million subscribers and over 1,5 billion views. Crash Course uses descriptive illustrations and humour to keep learners informed and entertained.
Another powerful educational channel is Khan Academy. It is probably the fastest growing You Tube educational channel.
Launched in November 2006, this channel provides video tutorials in subjects such as math, history, science, computing, and economics. In each lesson, the teacher explains the concept and provides examples in front of you using screencasting.
This channel has over eight million subscribers.
In the era of Covid 19, learning, learning is no longer confined to classrooms and lecture halls. Online learning mostly via educational videos have now become a frequently used method of teaching.
The trend is when students want to research on internet or to quickly solve a problem they prefer watching videos than reading PDF notes. This is more powerful in abstract subjects like where animations are used to visualise the actions of the subject. Retention span is longer too.
Teachers are urged to produce more live action infield videos instead of studio videos. For example a video lesson about caves is best suited to be shot at Chinhoyi caves instead of using pictures. The same with a video lesson about rocks can be shot at Domboshava hills.
If the video depicts real images chances are high students will understand clearly and boost pass rates.
A deeper observation on the content on You Tube gives an impression that our local educators have not yet grasped the skill of screencasting.
Videos of this nature are mostly shown on DSTV educational channels.
Teachers aspiring to make it on You Tube need to invest in presentation skills, articulate a professional voiceover, set up a proper studio with light and appropriate camera angles, engage professional camera persons and video editors. Shooting an education video with a phone or camera with low pixels and in a poorly lit room will not do any good.
The challenge also goes to students to transform all sorts of challenges they are putting on social platforms like Tik Tok, Facebook and Istagram like the dance, twin, bedroom, fashion, food competitions etc and convert the passion and energy into education challenges where they can produce lessons on evaporation, Kariba dam, Masvingo ruins, types of farming, national heroes, etc.
A sincere appeal also goes to the respective Ministries of Education to revive and capacitate the audio visual department that is housed in Mt Pleasant with new equipment and skills.
For educators it is not just about teaching your class but providing a service to humanity with Zimbabwean flavour. Think of those Zimbabwean students dotted around the globe who yearn to learn about their country, history or even hear an authentic Zimbabwean accent delivering a mathematics lesson.
Virtual teachers hoping to attract views on social media channels must consider sharing links on other social media platforms so that they can have impact. Let the spirit of entrepreneurship possess our teachers. The age of being a rigid classroom teacher is gone.
Time to transform into a money spinning studio teacher is now. You Tube is your stage. Conquer it.
Online Reporter