Bringing Clubhouse into the classroom

A few weeks ago, a previous student of mine invited me on to the Clubhouse App. It was like an explosion of information through conversations. I was immediately thirsty for more knowledge. I couldn’t believe I could be in the same rooms as people like Nir Eyal, Lupe Fiasco… even Elon Musk!

As an Edupreneur, I was instantly hooked on joining conversations and meeting new people. Slowly I landed in many rooms filled with innovative educators. It was and still is amazing. Then it occurred to me.

How do I get my students access to these professionals?

I am what you would call an agile educator. I move quickly. My entrepreneurship course would be perfect for this! There were a few blockers for me to make this happen. Students had to be 18 to be on the Clubhouse platform. They also would need to have an iPhone as that is the only type of phone that works with Clubhouse at this time.

How can we do this?

Then it occurred to me. It just so happened that our class just worked on a project with an entrepreneur and he had to be on the road during a question and answer session. I held the phone up to my computer on speaker while my students, some in the class and most on a Google Meet, were able to interact with him. That’s it!

I scheduled the date on Clubhouse and invited some people in my network who are amazing entrepreneurs.

The day before the event, one of my students asked me how my network was so big. He asked how he could start networking to grow his own. BINGO! That would be the first question I asked the following day.

So how did it go?

The technology went off without a hitch. All the entrepreneurs on the Clubhouse chat had used the platform before. The sound was fine. The two biggest challenges were getting my students to ask questions and time. There was only so much time in the class period. 40 minutes was all we had. It was very limiting. We only got through two questions. Also, the students were timid in the process. Not sure why yet. Usually they ask a few questions whether they are in the classroom or on the meet.

Overall, it was a success. The amount of in depth knowledge our students received was phenomenal. There is still learning to do. In the coming days, I will be unpacking the experience with my students. Empathy is the name of the game here! They are the clients and I want to see how we can better this experience to bring together people from all over the world teaching and learning from each other.

Learning continues. Even if it has to be 40 minutes at a time.

‍