TikTok is the latest learning tool to captivate audiences across the world, and educators are leading the trend.
By using the social media platform to promote facts rarely taught in schools, teachers and scholars alike are creating videos that shed light on unknown history, CNN reports.
TikTok has become a growing go-to source to gain information. A 2022 Study.com survey revealed that 25% of users utilize it to “enrich their education.”
A popular account, the “Gen Z Historian,” is doing exactly as the username suggests. The influencer, whose real name is Kahlil Greene, is educating the youthful masses on historical moments.
After first gaining traction for his video explaining the whitewashing of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he’s curated his content to focus on other topics students may not be exposed to in the classroom. Calling it “Hidden History,” Greene is garnering tens of thousands of followers in the process of “filling in the gaps” left in the education system.
Especially as Critical Race Theory has been under fire by more conservative politicians and the states they represent, students being able to access resources that promote the truth about certain topics is as necessary as ever.
“For me, it’s about sharing this information to empower, to educate and most importantly, to strategize how we can create equitable systems starting at the grassroots level,” said teacher turned educational content creator, Ernest Crim III.
Crim’s content is focused on highlighting the achievement of diverse trailblazers, broadening the knowledge of his audience to “untrain” their biases about certain groups.
However, the mission for fair academic influencers is facing more obstacles as the spread of misinformation is also popular on the app. However, these influencers encourage viewers to be actively engaged in the content they consume.
Passive viewership, according to Greene, allows misinformation to become more popular. Thinking critically about “facts” that may or may not be true is an essential first step to combat ignorance.
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