3 Ways Creators Are Changing Education ✏️

Inside new tools from Grace Wells, Kit Brown, and April Lynn

Good morning. TikTok’s lean-back user experience is getting even more passive. After months of testing, select users can now use auto scroll—the feed rolls through videos without any swiping from the user. Could this be the end of doom-scrolling? Or will it just leave us with…doom, hold the scroll?

Creator Roundup: New Education Offerings

As she grows her channel, YouTube education creator Aprilynne Alter analyzes what’s working with the algorithm alongside her audience / Aprilynne Alter

Creators are taking a fresh approach to educating their audiences, from a school handbook to in-depth YouTube tools. Here are three recent standout projects:

YouTube education creator Aprilynne Alter studied over 300 thumbnails from 40+ creators to break down the psychology of thumbnails in a 30-minute video. 

  • The vibe: Concise and entertaining, broken into four parts with easy-to-follow visual cues. Alter also put together a chart compiling the common attributes of high-performing thumbnails. 

  • As a self-proclaimed YouTube beginner with nearly 35,000 subscribers, Alter’s approach is learning side-by-side with her audience to uncover what it takes to be an education creator.

Elementary teacher and TikTok creator Kit Brown wrote a book for students ages 7–9 titled How to Shine at Primary School: Build Classroom Confidence and Playground Positivity. It comes out in May.

  • The book is a distilled version of Brown’s popular education TikTok videos, with guidance on topics like confidence, resilience, and classroom and friendship challenges.

  • England-based Brown has grown a following of over 2 million sharing clever teaching videos and vlogs outlining his daily life as an educator, semi-pro soccer player, and content creator.

Advertising creator Grace Wells launched Product Film School, a course for aspiring commercial videographers.

  • Starting this spring, the 12-week course will share Wells’ learnings from her four years on TikTok making commercials for brands and going viral for profiling random objects.

  • “Commercial content is still an untapped market,” Wells said in a TikTok. “Brands need commercials for every digital platform and there’s not enough people with the skills to create them.” Wells plans to teach those skills through seasonal cohorts.

Comedy Creator Advocates for ‘Kidfluencer’ Protection Laws

Comedy creator Caroline Easom shares skits centered around character “Lil Sandwich” that underline the dangers of children being featured in family vlogging channels / Caroline Easom

Comedian Caroline Easom’s popular short-form video series parodying a fictional child creator named “Lil Sandwich” has pointed out family vlog channels’ lack of regulations for minors. Now, she’s using the skits to push for “kidfluencer” labor laws.

“My satire is advocacy work…I do think I’m getting some people to care about an issue that they wouldn’t have cared about otherwise,” Easom told ABC News.

Now 16 videos into her “Lil Sandwich” series, Easom has drawn in tens of millions of views across short-form platforms and gained more than 400,000 followers in the past month. And the comments section shows the conversation is resonating.

“Showing [kids] here and there is one thing; making them the center of your vlog should be classified as abuse. Child actor laws need to be expanded to cover these kids,” one user commented on Instagram.

Looking ahead: Easom voiced her support for Ohio’s House Bill 376, which would require adult vloggers to set aside a percentage of their yearly profits that their kids can access when they turn 18.

The bill will be heard in the upcoming months, according to ABC.

TikTok’s New AI Tool: Create Songs with Text Prompts

TikTok introduces “AI Song” to create AI-generated song lyrics / Illustration by Moy Zhong

TikTok’s new “AI Song” feature lets users enter text prompts to generate lyrics, combining them with a pre-saved music catalog to create a totally new song, according to TechCrunch.

The tool is currently only available for select users—such as music creator Jonah Manzano, who showed his followers how to generate a song in under three minutes.

Zoom out: Creator platforms are competing to produce AI-powered tools that catch on with their users, such as YouTube’s “Dream Track” (which lets creators sing like artists including Charlie Puth and Demi Lovato) and Snapchat+ (a premium subscription packed with an image generator and special chatbot).

👀 Creator Moves

  • Heroic Signatures is hiring a social media manager to grow the brand of fantasy franchise Conan the Barbarian online. 

  • Telus Storyhive is funding video podcast creators from underrepresented communities in Canada with up to $12,000.

  • Barstool Sports is hiring a graphic designer to create thumbnails and social media graphics.

Hiring for your creator business? Post a position (for free) on our job board here.

🔥 Press Worthy

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