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Teaching Outside the Box
Chris Clarke uses TikTok to learn – and to teach
Explaining economics on TikTok has made Washington State University Assistant Professor Chris Clarke a bit famous.
Famous in the way that noted economists repost his short videos. National media call for quotes when they’re writing about economic matters. And famous enough that one of his students told him, “Yeah, my mom watches you on TikTok.”
While Clarke says that’s all great, it’s not the point.
“I engage with the general public because my goal is to listen,” he says. “They know their economic experience and I don’t know their economic experience.”
Clarke uses TikTok to understand what people are talking about, worried about, or interested in. Then he creates short videos to bring context and even answers from an economics angle. They’re highly produced, with graphics and “stitched” content that adds his commentary to other TikTok videos. That last technique is especially educational.
For instance, last year a TikToker got a lot of attention claiming economic conditions in 2023 were worse than during the Great Depression. Clarke said he felt compelled to counter that “megaviral” message. “I put together some numbers that showed it was nonsense,” he says.
Later in the year, TikTok was awash in videos purporting to show that a basket of groceries costing $19.83 in the 1990 movie “Home Alone” would cost more than $65 today. Clarke scrutinized the movie’s grocery-store scene, identifying each item in Kevin’s cart then comparing those to current products. His verdict: Kevin’s groceries would cost $40.60 in 2023. True to his educational mission, the video went on to discuss inflation, median income, and how grocery affordability has changed over the decades.
The work isn’t quick or easy. The “Home Alone” video took 8 or 10 hours of research, for instance. That was an outlier because of the time it took to find comparable products. Usually it’s more like an hour or two for each video. But to build an audience, you have to post five to seven videos a week, he notes. Then there’s the time spent interacting with people via the comments section.
It’s a lot. But it’s worth it because of the educational mission of a public university, Clarke says.
It also helps him become a better instructor, he adds. Clarke learns to summarize material and present it engagingly. And he develops new perspectives based on what commenters and other TikTokers are saying and doing on the platform.
“I think our role is knowledge dissemination, educating as many people as possible,” he says. “My number one goal is public education – to take economics, which is an incredibly valuable topic that affects every one of us, and put it into a format that’s easily digestible.”
It has an undeniable impact on personal branding, helping him become a thought leader in his field. The discussion about being in a “silent Depression” bubbled up on TikTok months before it broke into mainstream media, for example. Clarke’s video about it positioned him to be a source for a wider discussion in mainstream media.
Plus, as an educator, it’s “tons of fun,” to share your expertise, he said. “You don’t have to spend 20 hours a week on it. Get your students involved in some way. I think this is something every educator can do, engaging with the public.”
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Chris Clarke uses TikTok to learn – and to teach. Explaining economics on TikTok has made Washington State University Assistant Professor Chris Clarke a bit famous.
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