TTT #54: "YouTube - The Gutenberg of Today" with Bilal Hameed

YouTube revolution is the equivalent or as important as the Gutenberg Printing Press revolution.

Thanks to the internet's revolution, it is now easier to record data than write it down due to low costs. With access to high quality curated content anytime from anywhere in the world through technology, students can now be the owners of their learning pathways. Availability of 24/7 help from peer to peer learning communities has contributed to lower stress levels in students and enhanced learning.

Inspired by MIT OpenCourseWare and Khan Academy, Bilal decided to record his class lectures, initially, as a resource just for his students. The word spread, and the domino effect happened. Now, his YouTube channel has over 20K subscribers and 2M+ views. With almost 20 years of teaching experience, Bilal still loves his job and is always looking for ways to deliver more value to his students.

I felt that if the revolution has to come through technology then you gotta first have consumer behaviour changings.

Bilal is a pioneer of implementing tech and experimenting with new learning techniques within classrooms in Pakistan. He went on to build two highly innovative institutions in Karachi that are now top-ranked schools in the country.

Driven by competition, Bilal has now moved on from management roles to take up new challenges in the EdTech space with his organisation Qadam. He believes that everyone must keep innovating, not just live on the success of something that worked and always try to get ahead and ahead.

Bilal is working on new ways to leverage technology for student well-being. Some students, for example, spend more than 8 hours in classrooms preparing for the standardised exams, causing high stress and anxiety levels. Bilal wants to fix this for students to have the space and time to be mentally and physically healthy.

Lastly, Bilal shares his top advice for students:

Don’t worry if you haven’t figured it out yet. Don’t worry about changing of mind. You can always start anytime, and it’s never too late. Figuring out something for yourself and not worrying about having everything sorted is perfectly okay.