Digital Cultures
TikTok
A Platform of Informal Education, Where Content Creators Turn into Teachers
Our Research
Abstract
TikTok is a video sharing social network that claims to be, “The leading destination for short-form mobile video” with a mission to, “inspire creativity and bring joy”.
Introduction
While it shares multiple qualities with other social media platforms, Tik Tok is unique in that it relies on rapid-fire video suggestions. It allows for a high degree of customization of videos by providing content creators with creative tools such as filters, special effects, video templates, and the option of inserting music clips.
Literature Review
Although research on Tik Tok is scarce due to it being such a recent phenomenon, there is ample literature on social media and its role in facilitating learning.
Methodology
We identified those who we term “Tik Tok Educators” based on a number of criteria. We looked for creators who have a high number of followers, who post videos regularly, and who have a profile with a narrow focus, where the majority of videos are made with the intent to inform.
Findings
Both the interviews and our own observations on Tik Tok revealed to us that Tik Tok is a platform that facilitates education through the tools it provides to its users, the structure of the app, and more accidental qualities like the make-up of the user base.
Conclusion
Although this type of education is new and “informal” in relation to traditional models, we would encourage readers not to dismiss it as sub-par or irrelevant. Rather, thanks to previous research as well as our own, we know that education changes and adapts to new mediums, new educational environments are created, and new modes of education are created with them.
TikTok
Gallary
Future
Outlook
You can find educators of different calibers form a variety of fields!
Click though and your find channels that give advice on health, writing, art, and more!
Some of our participants revealed that Tik Tok may be moving in a direction to make educational videos more accessible. Giovanni rumored that the app may allow for videos longer than 60 seconds so that educators are able to elaborate on a topic or create a multi-part video series without the viewer having to painstakingly search for every section.
There is also a rumor that Tik Tok may change the format of the profile so that 3 videos will appear at the top, allowing potential followers to get a flavor for the Tik Tokers content. This would help content creators taking a step toward branding themselves as educators and crafting a professional image.
It appears that already Tik Tok has been moving in a direction that facilitates the creation of educational videos. Recently we observed a trending hashtag #learnontiktok, suggesting that educational videos on Tik Tok are growing in popularity.
In fact, it seems that Tik Tok developers may be trying to make changes to the app based on how the users want to use the platform. Morningstar and Farmer, co-creators of the first MMORPG called Habitat describe this phenomenon in their article “The Lessons of LucasFilms’s Habitat.” They advise their readers that “it is a mistake to assume that the users will all undertake the sorts of noble and sublime activities which you created the system to enable. Most of them will not.” Perhaps Tik Tok was created with a similar “noble” goal in mind, but for better or for worse it has become a platform, like Habitat, with multi-purpose use. Morningstar and Farmer eventually solved their problem after they, “tried to observe what people were doing and aid them in it,'' rather than controlling exactly how the system was to be used. We can hope that Tik Tok will follow in their footsteps and take a similar approach in the future.
References
