Definitely not a magic show, but the kids sure found Steemit magical!
Contents for Day 4:
- Recap, Q&A on previous days' contents
- Post formatting tips: Playing with Headings, Bold, Italics, Lists and Quotes
- Tips of courting followers
- A deeper look into Steem Power, and how to Power Up (Live Demo)
- Hello Canva
- Playing with photo collages
- Lists of resources for free stock photos
- Lists of free vectors and icons
- Canva alternatives
- Photo Editing: Resizing, cropping, editing, format changing
- Inserting Youtube videos into Steemit Posts
- Hello Steemitchat
- Steemit Contests
Assignments for Day 4:
Comment on at least 5 posts under the #introduceyourself tag
Comment on at least 5 posts under a tag/category of their interest
Key Learnings:
Started off giving them feedback on how to improve their posts. We talked about spacing and paragraphing, so have more "breathing space" for their posts. This is to ease the reading experience.
I also gave them some writing hacks - bullet points instead of paragraphs. In the beginning, as they work on their writing muscle, they may not be able to string sentences together very well. Keeping the certain parts of the contents in bullet points is a quick and easy way to help them articulate their message, reduces grammatical errors and improve the speed of writing. On the readers' side, it will also help them read faster as they can flick through the content and focus on the key points.
We then go into the main content of the day, which is something they had been asking for a few days - how to build followers. I broke down the process with them, down to just a quick 5 minute exercise which involves them:
- Go to #Introduceyourself tag, greet new Steemians with an upvote and a warm welcome in the comments.
- Go to tags/categories of their interest and leave genuine comments to start conversations.
- Of course, it would be useful for them to start by following the other party
We looked into reputation, followers and following in detail, and how to prioritise who to reach out and comment to.
I stressed for them to be Honest, Helpful and Humble, which is to keep it real, offer suggestions/solutions, and be nice.
Of course, they have to be reminded that not all people they reached out to will respond to them, and in that case, just move on.
I suggested they include a short intro too if the situation calls for it. Just their Name, Who they are and Why they found the posts interesting.
Another suggestion was asking questions about the post. If it's a photo, what equipment was used. If it's a drawing, what materials are best to reproduce the work. If it's poetry, how do they find the inspiration to write.
The kids got overboardly excited with Contests, when I showed them a few competitions they can join, on top of their daily posts. They were quick to act, and their picks were #colorchallenge and #sevendaybnwchallenge.
They were also equally excited with Steemitchat, because one of the girls won a random challenge from the chat room (Write the number 23 and win 1 Steem). That sure motivated the rest to activate their accounts, and were upset for a while when there was a 503 server error.
After an activity on leaving comments, we got into Canva.
Little did I know that they already had a training session on Canva last week with another volunteer teacher. They were, however, keen on making collages, which weren't covered last week, so we learned about that.
Since some of Canva's images are paid, I gave them a list of websites where they can get free stock photos. Of course, I told them although the photos are free, always remember to credit the photographer as a sign of respect for them and their work.
- www.pexels.com
- www.designerpics.com
- www.visualhunt.com
- www.jaymantri.com
- www.deathtostockphoto.com
- www.unsplash.com
- www.allthefreestock.com
- www.magdeleine.co
- www.flickr.com (Creative Commons)
- www.Photopin.com (Easier Flickr searches)
- www.pixabay.com
- www.picjumbo.com
- www.freeimages.com
- www.littlevisuals.co
- www.picography.co
I gave them a few resources on vectors too, so they can play around with icons, vectors and illustrations.
I told them there are a few alternatives to Canva that they can use, and some of them tested out different apps to compare features and familiarity.
We also looked at some native apps on Windows to help with simple resizing and editing.
All in all, it was a great day for Canvas, Chats, Contests & Courtship. Now, on top of their daily posts, they have more things to do on Steemit, especially the ones on contests.
I find that with kids, when shown that they can truly interact with Steemit through various means - posts, comments, connections, competitions - they become more engaged. They are now actively planning contents for the next few days, and even doing their researches upfront.
Some say they are motivated by money, but the truth is, if you are they with them, you can tell that the motivation is beyond that. Even the other volunteers noticed that never had they been so diligent working on any projects, which I owe it all to Steemit and the community.
When they are shown web apps, they just love to play around with it, exploring the limits of what can be done. This trains them to be resourceful, because if they can't get what they wanted one way, they would look for alternative means. By now, Google is already their best friend. :)
And because of their progress and passion, I thought they deserve a reward, but more on that on Day 6. It's something steaming….
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!?!!?
- Day Two | Interests, Format & Structure
- Day Three | Grounding and be Grounded.
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
Trust me, when @maverickfoo started this bootcamp he didn't have me in mind but I am a major beneficiary of this posts. Thanks man.
Glad to know you're benefiting from it, bro!
Trust me, when @maverickfoo started this bootcamp he didn't have me in mind but I am a major beneficiary of this posts. Thanks man.
Hey, thanks for the kind words, bro. Yeah, we're constantly working on the content and will be sharing an updated version by next month. After we're done with the kids, we're having another session just for ladies. So we get to test the contents again.
I look forward to learn more. High five.
Good job man, I'm learning a lot from these posts as well
Thanks for the support! Will continue posting. :)
gob job man :)
Thanks!
wow, impressive... is one week I'm on steem I need to improve, can you give me some links to learn a bit more?
Hi, welcome to Steemit. You can check out the previous posts in this series. The bootcamp is still ongoing, so check back once in a while as we add new contents everyday.
First let me bookmark those stock image sites, didn't know there was so many. Sorry if I missed out that ini your previous posts, but how many kids were there in the class?
No worries chief. Officially is 19, but we have a few volunteers learning along as well. :)
What a fantastic idea, you are bringing in the future steemians, that will be fully loaded with information on how everything works, how to make it interesting, and most important of all how to be interested by it, top job, my hat off to you sir.
Thanks @deliberator. Just doing the best I can. There's a gap between the current generation and the current situation of the world. We can only do our best to bridge it, but the kids, they have to cross it themselves.
Where did you even find inspiration to make this Steemit Bootcamp for Kids? Are you funding this on your own?
I merely donated 9 days of my time. It's by a non-profit, CyberCare, and they have good sponsors like Accenture to support the kids. Not a lot of money, which is why I decided to waive my usual fees.
very nice exposure for the kids! c'mon man our next generation will conquer this!
Yeah, they will conquer this and beyond what we can imagine
Hello @maverickfoo
This is an awesome initiative being carried out with the interest of underprivileged kids. Never relent!
Upv by the latest fellow at @sndbox,
@eurogee, the Steemivangelist and the founder of @euronation Newbie's Support Team
Thanks @eurogee. Feel free to take the contents and replicate a bootcamp in your city. :)
Great kids taught by a great teacher, and greater rewards for them even?? Wow!! Seems like these underprivileged kids are really maximizing the opportunities that you and the organizers are providing them.. Life-changing initiative @maverickfoo, well done!!
Well, sometimes when life shows you the glimpse of possibilities, that's all you need to put in effort and make things happen for yourself.
Very noble of u to do such a generous deed, to these kids... bravo.
Thanks! Just trying to help them in anyway that I can.
Wow.. amazing post
@originalworks
The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @maverickfoo to be original material and upvoted it!
To call @OriginalWorks, simply reply to any post with @originalworks or !originalworks in your message!
Thank you @maverickfoo... for the ideas on how to spice up!!
Resteemed by @resteembot! Good Luck!
Curious?
The @resteembot's introduction post
Get more from @resteembot with the #resteembotsentme initiative
Check out the great posts I already resteemed.
Resteemed by @resteembot! Good Luck!
Curious?
The @resteembot's introduction post
Get more from @resteembot with the #resteembotsentme initiative
Check out the great posts I already resteemed.
Good job!
Bless you with your passion on sharing #steemit and how it will change/help youngsters today :)
incredible, hope to share more for others, greetings from indonesia @maverickfoo
Oh heck ya! Nice one, I upvote this all day!
very nice exposure for the kids!
Very nice and good
You got a 15.97% upvote from @mercurybot courtesy of @maverickfoo!
You got a 0.96% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @maverickfoo! Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!
You got a 25.77% upvote from @yourwhale courtesy of @maverickfoo!
good job man
Very well, the education obtained is very useful, hopefully you can educate them with the right explanation, easy to understand so that can be practiced in their daily life. Good luck.