My Bitcoin teaching approach

[Pokapoka124]

Wondering what I'm doing here? To give a little back story, I have been assigned to a secondary school (high school for those in the United States) for my national youth service as part of the  mandatory one-year programme for graduates of tertiary institutions. I have been assigned as computer science teacher for the senior class in a school where there are no computers. I guess the students are expected to learn only theory and let their imagination do the rest. I want to give the students a different experience other than the one they are used to. I'm a Bitcoin guy, I wear a Bitcoin shirt to work. I'm practical about bitcoin and want to integrate Bitcoin and crypto as topics in my teaching practice. I am preparing a course outline and borrowed some beginner topics from bitcointalk. I will be borrowing computers from nearby centers for class projects when the time comes. I don't know what to expect from the students, any suggestions will be appreciated.

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[Charles-Tim]

There is nothing bad to let them know (and know more) about bitcoin, but what matters most is your job which you were assigned for. I do not see it as a problem to be practical about bitcoin and let the students know about it, about how it is money, how they can not get scammed which is necessary, how to buy and hold on noncustododial wallet and what to avoid. But this would be better appreciated if you let them know about bitcoin like after classes which should just be a means of you devoting extra time for them. Lastly, you should not make it compulsory but encourage them about it and let them know how the world are now using bitcoin for payment of goods and services and for investment and profit making means.

[Oluwa-btc]

You have been assigned too teach or lecture them on Computer science, you shouldn't shift focus too something else if you're to do anything else, you have too tell and teach them about the basics of programming that's if you're a programmer or inclined.
Get them aware about the types of programming languages and privacy I think you should focus on this both.
But if you really want too tell and teach them about Bitcoin you can and can only be done during break or leisure time as not every students will be fully interested in learning about Bitcoin. Don't forget too groom them about the types of programming languages in this generation, builder's a d creators are the major benefiters.

[GeorgeJohn]

Actually you are supposed to work under the command of the colleague curriculum to impact perfect knowledge to the offsprings, but since they don't have a preferable device to educate students and you choose to use the knowledge of bitcoin to impact on them....so from my perspective, it's should be good when the heads of the college permit you to educate their students with cryptocurrency related knowledge. But from another angle it's nice for students to know the basic things of bitcoin.

[Yaunfitda]

I don't know what to expect from the students, any suggestions will be appreciated.

Then don't expect something in return, as least you have done your part and let those students understand what bitcoin is and let their imaginations run wild. You might hear questions that you might find interesting, and take note of the name of the students asking. Maybe in the future, those are the ones going to be crypto enthusiast and who knows, become CEO of crypto projects. Anyhow, good luck to you and hopefully it will really excite majority of them on the subject of bitcoin and crypto in general.

[GiftedMAN]

Wondering what I'm doing here? To give a little back story, I have been assigned to a secondary school (high school for those in the United States) for my national youth service as part of the  mandatory one-year programme for graduates of tertiary institutions. I have been assigned as computer science teacher for the senior class in a school where there are no computers. I guess the students are expected to learn only theory and let their imagination do the rest. I want to give the students a different experience other than the one they are used to. I'm a Bitcoin guy, I want a trump hat Bitcoin shirt to work. I'm practical about bitcoin and want to integrate Bitcoin and crypto as topics in my teaching practice. I am preparing a course outline and borrowed some beginner topics from bitcointalk. I will be borrowing computers from nearby centers for class projects when the time comes. I don't know what to expect from the students, any suggestions will be appreciated.

The school management will not be pleased with you if they find out that you deviated from your primary assignment of coming to the school for your service that is teaching the student computer, I would suggest you teach them computer during school hours then set out an hour or two for extra moral lesson.You can use this time to teach them about bitcoin any student who is interested will not be absent in your class again.

[Upgrade00]

Actually you are supposed to work under the command of the colleague curriculum to impact perfect knowledge to the offsprings

In my experience the school system does not provide "perfect" education and graduates still have a lot of unlearning and relearning to do after exiting that system.
Op, do you plan to teach the technical aspect of Bitcoin (as much as the students can understand) or the area of financial literacy and independence? Or perhaps a combination of both.
You'll have limited time to impact knowledge as this would fall under extra curricular activities, so the beginner courses you talked about and some follow up lessons should be alright for now.

[KingsDen]

Well, you have a nice gesture and you meant well for the students.
IMO, with the picture you provided, those students are under 18 years, bitcoin is a volitile asset, anyone who is to venture into cryptocurrencies should be upto 18 years so as to ensure they can manage the consequences of their financial decisions.
Just like gambling, the clause is there. If you negelect this, those students could use their school fees and invest in bitcoin and if it eventually dips, it will fall back to their parents.

If you want to create awareness of bitcoin, you can say that after classes and pass it as information and not mandate them or make them believe bitcoin is a get rich quick scheme.

[sheenshane]

I see no problem with the teaching approach to them, just explain everything first the pros and the cons of Bitcoin because it's very crucial to them that might they become confused about this very volatile asset.  Just only give the awareness either on the good side or on the bad side, don't force them to adopt it, as you've said, let their imagination do the rest and if they are interested they will find a way for sure.

Even though you have no computers, you can do it maybe on your mobile phone or tablet, a short video explaining Bitcoin's basic information will give awareness to them.

Here's a simple video on youtube that will enlighten them about Bitcoin and Blockchain and how it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSo_EIwHSd4

[sunsilk]

Good luck with that.

You can insert that to the syllabus that will be given to you by the school administration. I've been into theoretical class and it's really hard to imagine what's actually happening.

Being in a computer class and then there's no computer, it's hard for the students to cope up with the lesson. I remember that when I've been into a computer class during my elementary level, although we've used computer but only for a few times.

[Rigon]

Bitcoin will be spread all over the world in such a way that every human being will have a touch of Bitcoin at their doorsteps.However, the kind of thinking that you have done is actually a very good step. If every human being has such thoughts then Bitcoin will definitely move to a better position.A good education about Bitcoin will definitely increase the value of Bitcoin.

[kawetsriyanto]

I'm practical about bitcoin and want to integrate Bitcoin and crypto as topics in my teaching practice. I am preparing a course outline and borrowed some beginner topics from bitcointalk. I will be borrowing computers from nearby centers for class projects when the time comes.

Let them know about Bitcoin and crypto are okay, but don't make it a student's obligation and even make it as a project to be done by students. Remember that they are not university students, they may be not ready to know Bitcoin or crypto deeply. What we can do, is only let them know the existence of Bitcoin and crypto.

You also need to consider that Bitcoin or crypto topics do not deviate from the fundamental principle on the subject. You are a computer science teacher, make sure everything is still working as it should. Prioritize to teach what they should learn, Bitcoin or crypto topic is just a little additional knowledge.

[franky1]

over the years i have spoken to many people in africa trying to teach others about bitcoin.. here is what they found:
1. remember the difference between bitcoin and other things pretending to be bitcoin.
if you going to teach people about bitcoin ensure its about the bitcoin network stuff.. and not about CEX(centralised custodial exchange deposit databases balance). nor other networks that pretend to be bitcoin but dont have blockchains, mining, standard bitcoin transaction fee's, confirmation times
EMPHASIS: ensure your teaching them about bitcoin when doing a lesson about bitcoin. dont confuse them with other things that pretend to be bitcoin but dont have the bitcoin benefits, features and limitations.

truly understand africans utility of daily life and what possible things actual bitcoins can bring to them as benefits/limitations. give an honest lesson about bitcoin. no fluff, no subterfuge, no utupian hopes/dreams. in short be honest and accurate

2. you WILL if your educating them on bitcoin come into the debates with students about fee's/confirmation times and the comparison to things with less fee's like altcoins, altnets and their current african currency experiences like m-pesa and fiat that have less local transaction fee's

3. when showing them the actual bitcoin network they soon learn trying to get 30 students to do 30 transactions on the bitcoin network where they see confirmations happen within the same lesson time(meaning adequate fee for quick confirm) they soon learn that they have just witnessed a payment each that cost them EACH enough value on just the fee's that could have bought them several school books and even their lunch per student.., just in fee's per payment alone

4. due to this many gave up educating students about bitcoin being a plausible option of using bitcoin as a 'digital cash for the unbanked to spend on daily stuff' EG comparing it as a second option to using m-pesa/fiat as a daily spend network. and just advised them of using bitcoin as a possible savings /wealth hoarding (store of value) without all the banking bureaucracy.

there is a big big reason why in the last 12 years. we have not seen the likes of africa's 1billion population, india's 1 billion population and asias 1 bill population adopt bitcoin en-mass. and why it seems that only the developed countries like US/EU/UK/RU(combined sub 1bil population) have delved into adopting bitcoin somewhat.


pre-empting the obvious typical boring replies of certain people on this forum:
..
i know i know. im going to see the same clan of idiots reply and want to say how the fee's can be cheaper if you just pay less/ use other networks/coins/use centralised exchanges as bank accounts/custodial services . but then the kids will be:
a. waiting more then an hour to see a confirm if paying less than adequate fee's on bitcoins network.. (not a great experience to wait around and not see money move in a class that suppose to show money move).
or
b. not even experience bitcoin.. if you are just demonstrating centralised exchange balance/altnets/altcoins
..
i know i know. im going to see the same clan of idiots reply, argue, insult and want to advertise their other network as the 'bitcoin' they would want to see you teach the kids. and argue how somehow i turned this topic into a discussion about their preferred network.. (even though i obviously told you above that you should be trying to teach them about the actual bitcoin network not the idiots preferred network)
..
but heck you will see the certain idiots advertising their other networks, show off their desires/happiness that they helped suck up to certain coders to stifle bitcoin scaling and stifle low fee possibilities. and watch them same idiots scream and shout out insults while they try to explain that their vision of bitcoin is not to serve the unbanked and not to be used by those that only have say ~$5 of value a day to spend(basically they want africans exempt from using bitcoin daily)

(maybe by highlighting their screams and shouting and insults they do in other topics. this might actually make them not reply. in which case my pre-emptions have worked)

[famososMuertos]

Spontaneity is a wonderful thing when it is taught, I am sure that something like bitcoin is not in the curriculum at the course, so the pedagogy required to teach bitcoin must be accompanied by spontaneity to make a difference teaching.

Perhaps an important point is not to confuse being a disseminator with teaching, bitcoin may be your passion but it does not have to be that of your students and that is where pedagogy and spontaneity do the magic.
^{I don't think it's necessary to add photos of your students or anyone involved with your environment.}

[so98nn]

First of all you will have to create an excellent mindset for those students and then understand who is really interested in the technological stuff like blockchain and crypto space as whole.
I mean there wont be a point to keep the whole class engaged with the bitcoin lectures. There are students who love arts, who love history or geology! Not all of them are really into maths and coding stuff.

The choice is theres. There is no point in creating unwanted distractions to such students.
However, loving the way you working towards this. Hope so your management will also agree upon the same.

[Zlantann]

You have a very outstanding idea. From this you can be able to raise another Satoshi. But ensure that you make the bitcoin class very simple so that the students can understand it at their level. For me you don't need a special class for the lessons because you don't need to go into the complex aspect of bitcoin except they show much interest.

But it is important to note that the subject you are assigned to teach is a very important one. Most student have not even touched the computer before and some know nothing about the internet. And this computer skills are needed for them to be exposed to bitcoin. Hence, I suggest you concentrate on the computer class. Use the computers you are getting for practical computer classes. Organise extra classes for the computer lessons and just use the bitcoin class as a spice.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Wondering what I'm doing here? To give a little back story, I have been assigned to a secondary school (high school for those in the United States) for my national youth service as part of the  mandatory one-year programme for graduates of tertiary institutions. I have been assigned as computer science teacher for the senior class in a school where there are no computers. I guess the students are expected to learn only theory and let their imagination do the rest. I want to give the students a different experience other than the one they are used to. I'm a Bitcoin guy, I wear a Bitcoin shirt to work. I'm practical about bitcoin and want to integrate Bitcoin and crypto as topics in my teaching practice. I am preparing a course outline and borrowed some beginner topics from bitcointalk. I will be borrowing computers from nearby centers for class projects when the time comes. I don't know what to expect from the students, any suggestions will be appreciated.

My goodness! Teaching computer science without computers wouldn't do much good, I hope you can borrow those computers you say. Where you live, do the students have a mobile phone with an internet connection? I think everyone has one nowadays. I say this because for them to get an idea of what bitcoin is, they should have experience with the internet.

[aysg76]

You want students to learn about bitcoin and it's backend technology is good approach and one step ahead benefit is you are assigned as Computer science teacher to them so I think it would be easy for them to learn about it and you can explain them in much better way.But the problem with the school is they are not focusing on expanding students knowledge about bitcoin and just burdening them with the regular stuff showing the best in their written books.Will the school be offended if you go off the tracks alongside with your course?

I remember there was one member on the forum who was giving some technical bitcoin projects to the students like creating a Lightning Channel payment system as assignment and have a thread for the same on the forum so is the case with you but don't have clarity on the restrictions by the school or how children react to it.But you could explain them about bitcoin usage and let them be familiar with the real usage of bitcoin in much creative way or showing some practical exposure through your cell phone if you can in some free time.

You have already your plans like buying computer and integrating courses so choose some variety of topics on different aspects like keys,wallets, security and usage as technical aspects and also the economic concept and how bitcoin can help in it through decentralisation.This will take efforts but if you can it will be good for the students.

[xSkylarx]

Wondering what I'm doing here? To give a little back story, I have been assigned to a secondary school (high school for those in the United States) for my national youth service as part of the  mandatory one-year programme for graduates of tertiary institutions. I have been assigned as computer science teacher for the senior class in a school where there are no computers. I guess the students are expected to learn only theory and let their imagination do the rest. I want to give the students a different experience other than the one they are used to. I'm a Bitcoin guy, I wear a Bitcoin shirt to work. I'm practical about bitcoin and want to integrate Bitcoin and crypto as topics in my teaching practice. I am preparing a course outline and borrowed some beginner topics from bitcointalk. I will be borrowing computers from nearby centers for class projects when the time comes. I don't know what to expect from the students, any suggestions will be appreciated.

My goodness! Teaching computer science without computers wouldn't do much good, I hope you can borrow those computers you say. Where you live, do the students have a mobile phone with an internet connection? I think everyone has one nowadays. I say this because for them to get an idea of what bitcoin is, they should have experience with the internet.

Agree, I know it is a ton of effort to demonstrate it but still difficult. I just remember the post in social media that there was a teacher teaching how to use microsoft word which he draws the MS Word in black board and start explaining it tools, we are amazed with the effort and eagerness of the teacher but if we think the student i think they would having difficulties on gaining or learning it because they havent experience it and also havent really touch and do it by themselves. So if you have a chance to have a computer , learning curve would be easier

[kryptqnick]

Wow, op, I think it's great that you got an opportunity to work with kids. I'm really sorry, though, that the conditions are so dire, I can't imagine learning computer science without computers (we always had them at my school, and everyone else I knew also had them, even though I'm from a third-world country). Do they have smartphones, then, these kids? If they do, they can learn some things via them, so that borrowing computers isn't required all the time. If it's high school students, they aren't likely to be as loud and openly disrespectful as younger kids (in terms of ruining the discipline to the point where it's impossible to conduct a lesson). But it's important to show them something they can relate to. If it's a very generic course about computers, why not talk about things like building one's own setup, the GPU craze and things like that. I'd suggest Linus Tech Tips for the inspiration on that part. Also, why not card about cyberattacks, even something very simple like DDoS attacks, and show them how it's done? And when talking about GPU craze, you can bring up mining, and thus cryptos. I'd try to do it that way, at least. Then again, if they don't have computers and aren't likely to build their own systems any time soon, it's probably not the best choice of topic. But you can talk about cyberattacks, and how they're a part of contemporary wars now. Also, if these children completely don't know how to use computers, maybe you should start with the very basic things like how to turn them on, paint, write texts etc. It strongly depends on the context, and I have no idea which country this is, which level of digitalization is has etc.