Day Two | Steemit Bootcamp for Underprivileged Kids

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

Beginners luck is out. Time for real work!

Contents for Day 2:

  • Recap

  • Identifying Your Interest

  • In-Class Activity: List down at least 5 topics of interest

  • The 4-MAT

  • Writing Dos' and Donts'

  • Basic Structure of a Good Article

  • In-Class Activity: Writing A Post

  • Introduction to Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Hello Typershark

  • Hello ResizeImage.Net

Assignment for Day 2:

  • Pixar in a Box is a behind-the-scenes look at how Pixar artists do their jobs. You will be able to animate bouncing balls, build a swarm of robots, and make virtual fireworks explode. The subjects you learn in school — math, science, computer science, and humanities — are used every day to create amazing movies at Pixar. This collaboration between Pixar Animation Studios and Khan Academy is sponsored by Disney. (Extracted from Khan Academy)

Key Learnings:

  1. Kids were rather "high" on their success of their first Steemit Posts, but they were quick to learn that it was because of the support of #teammalaysia. They now learn that they need to start connecting and building followers.

  2. An easy recommendation I gave them was to search for Tags and Categories they have interest in, follow the Steemians there and leave a nice comment.

  3. They are also encouraged to make new friends from the #Introduceyourself tag.

  4. The students are guided through a series of questions designed to identify their interest. Since they just finished school, I did a round-robin around the room for each of them to share their favourite subject in school.


  5. The students were then given 15 minutes to list down at least 5 topics that interest them, based on the questions above. I went around the room to help them identify the topic to write for the day, guiding them with a process called "Chunking". This process will be explained further on Day 3.

    By the end of the round, each of them was clear what they should be writing about for the day.

  6. Then, I share with them for their articles and posts to be interesting, they must cover the the magical 4MAT - Why, What, How and Call to Action. In summary, the four areas are:

    • Why - What is your purpose of writing the article?
    • What - What are you going to talk in detail?
    • How - How can the readers practice what you wrote about? How can they achieve the purpose you mentioned? What's the process involved?
    • Call-To-Action - What can the readers do after reading your post?

  7. I gave them a simple structure to follow based on the 4MAT, and they are told to elaborate on their points.


  8. I also took some time to give them a couple of tips on writing, such as:

    • Do not write in ALL CAPS, unless you're writing an angry letter to a nasty politician
    • It is totally okay to have one sentence in a paragraph. This is also to reduce long paragraphs and a "block" of text.
    • To achieve a "conversational" tone, and to produce a post that "talks" to the readers, I suggested they try to write like how they talk, to make is read as natural as they speak.
  9. Knowing they will be spending a lot of their time on the keyboard (until the world is more open to voice recognition and dictation), I urged them to learn and memorise common keyboard shortcuts like CTRL+A, CTRL+C etc.

  10. On that note, some of them weren't happy with their slow typing speed, which was why I recommended them to play Typershark. Knowing the kids enough games, I feel that this was a great suggestion.


  11. Thanks for contribution of our little artist in the class, @kellychua, we were introduced to ResizeImage.net. It's a free web app to resize, crop and edit photos, without having to install any software.

  12. Interestingly, Kelly asked me yesterday "how to resize images". Because I was with another kid, I told the class, and Kelly, that there is this powerful answering machine called Google, and since they, I noticed they stopped asking me simple questions. They would ask questions only after Googling. Fast learners!

Because I had a business meeting to attend, I only had half a day of session with them today. One of the facilitators helped guided them during the second half of the day, to encourage them to write and connect with more Steemians. Thanks Lucy!

Again, if you want to support the kids, do give them some feedback on their writing, and of course, upvotes would totally make their day. You can check out their works here.

Check out the previous post(s) in this Steemit Bootcamp for Underprivileged Kids Series:

  • Day Zero | The lead-up and Preparation
  • Day One | Introduction to Steemit, the kids' first #Introduceyourself post, and no way a combined SBD133 of upvotes on the very first day!?!!?

Wait, why's Mav posting on Steemit nowadays?

Well, unlike other blogging and social media platform, Steemit is the only platform that allows me to earn cryptocurrency when I engage with it. Yup, one Steem is about USD7, and you, too, can earn Steem Dollars every time you:

  • Create content (articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos, photos)
  • Upvote (like) other people contents
  • Comment on other people's posts
  • Have discussions, share opinions etc!

Yup, basically it's the very same thing you're doing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc all along!

The only difference? For once you can earn a nice income on the side!

Sign up for a free Steemit account, and you can thank me by coming back and upvoting this article. And guess what, you will earn Steem too for doing that! #awesome

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Awesome! This is just what the Malaysian Steemit Community needs. You guys are really doing a great job in educating the youth about Steemit. Keep up the good work

I completely agree! Nice comment.

Thanks for the support! @bitrocker2020 and the team are working hard to find ways to get more Steemians on board, and starting with those who need it the most is the best approach (I think).

Agreed! Those who need it the most and with the open heart and open mind to accept and learn!

Not to say the kids, even me myself learnt about pixar in a box, 4-mat and typer shark from your post! Haha awesome work there! Looking forward to read more about this.

Glad you like it, @jiafui. Just did a recap for Day 3, and if you like frameworks and apps, I covered a few today. Check it out here when you have the time. :)

Oh hey sure, thanks!

Fantastic work

More to come, bro! Looking for new contents to teach the kids every day.

Useful it and great work man .
Thanks for sharing

Namaste

Thank you thank you!

I completely agree! Great comment!

Glad that you even recommended them a typing game to practice their typing skills. Brilliant!! @maverickfoo

Haha, yeah. I grew up playing that, and when I heard Noah Kagan of Sumo/Appsumo mentioned it, I instantly knew playing it was a smart move! #justification

these are good tips. I'm going to bookmark this series as well. thanks man. keep up the good work! :)

Thanks @calebleejl. Just finished the post for Day 3. Possibly the longest post I've done, and I even summarised some of the stuff I covered. Probably will expand on some of the points/slides after the 9 days bootcamp, so everyone can benefit from it too.

Here's the link to today's post. Thanks for the support!

9 days boot camp?! wow! they are so lucky man. do point me to the direction of the good stuff that you've shared :)

Once these kids are high on Steem, no more underprivilege for them.

Totally agree. They will have the ability the earn income on their own, and don't have to rely on others. Who knows, they can even support others one day!

Steemit can be the life-changer for those kids. Great job bro.

Quite glad that I get to live through their changes every day during the program. I'm (humbly) reminded on our potential to learn, grow and impact. The ripple effect is simply amazing.

You are more blessed that to be the one giving instead of receiving. Keep it going.

awesome stuff buddy. great pilot program which can make a huge impact on these kids life

Already found someone that can help take this to the next level. Tell you more on Friday.

@ariel.dominique, say hello to Uncle Simon aka bitrocker2020.

Great comment! Thanks

This is really a great and meaningful initiative to help those who are underprivileged. Nice work.
Are they all less than 18 years old?

Thanks @jiashin.

It's a mix of 17 to 21, but mostly are around 18. SPM leavers. :)