Helping Students Learn Is Great, Helping Them Earn On Steemit... Even Better

I got home one day to notice a message from one of my students whom I was trying to get on Steemit. I was expecting some issues, possibly related to markdown or some other issue that may occur while posting on Steemit. I was pleased to find out that it was neither of those, in fact, it was some really wonderful news by my students.

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What Happened

The text came over whatsapp in the form of a thank you note, thanking me for helping him get on Steemit. More importantly, he managed to get his first payout. Now, if you are a newbie on Steemit, you will probably not understand what the big fuss is all about when it comes to Steem and Steem dollars. It is likely that you were swayed by how Steem or Steem dollars could be converted into your local currency.

To give you a bit of a context, Steem dollars is approximately 8 times my local currency. In other words, 1 Steem Dollar is approximately 8 dollars in my local currency. While that may not be a lot, 8 dollars in my local currency is equivalent to a Mcdonalds meal or an Americano from a hipster cafe, or even a meal at a local road side store. Thus, for a student trying to get by with their limited allowance, it is a big deal.

So aside from getting his first payout, he decided to cash out his first payout to our local currency. What made him so happy was that it worked! I could tell the enthusiasm and happiness in his text.

Lessons Learnt

I was happy for him to have had his first payout. It certainly is a great feeling cashing out your Steem and I'm glad that I have managed to teach an actual skill that is outside of the classroom. While it 'skills outside of the classroom' does not necessarily consist of earning payouts on Steemit, I think the bigger picture here is what Steemit can do.

I think in many ways, Steemit is somewhat like an introduction towards the advancement of cryptocurrency, blockchain and its application. It can be easy to just do the things that we are used to, posting on Facebook and Instagram while not getting rewarded for your creativity. Furthermore, it can be seen as a norm too. Since no one has ever paid anyone for their contributions on social media, that is the norm. That is, until they experience Steemit's possibilities.

Furthermore, I think Steemit opens up the opportunity for talking about money. Most would normally accept money as it is, a mythical item that helps you buy stuff. The fact that you can use Steem in the place of fiat currency opens up a whole lot of learning and teaching opportunities. I believe that through equipping the students, it helps in giving them a bit of an understanding of how the future could be like, instead of just learning what is written in the textbooks.

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Conclusion

In the days to come, I hope to have more students share their successes on Steemit, especially the cashing out ones. I suppose it is quite difficult to talk about Steemit without touching on how it can reward you, monetarily. That being said, it is one of the best ways to get others convinced of its potential.

The text that the student gave was posted in the Steemit group that I have on Whatsapp. I hope that this spurs more of them to post more. My hope is for them to build a community among themselves and it starts by, well, getting started. It is the exam season before the holidays and I hope to see more of them posting during their semester break.

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