Social networks have radically changed the way we communicate and understand the world around us. The learning process is not the same either, if we can now nourish it with fun, anecdotes and the multiple resources offered by the latest digital trends. This is the case of driving school teachers, increasingly present on platforms like TikTok; a dynamic and interactive environment that even favors the approach of veteran drivers to continuous and easily assimilated training.
Models such as the Alex Requena Positive Driving School in Barcelona, which has 178 thousand followers on TikTok and up to 11 thousand views of its videos on YouTube, promote the dissemination of new complementary ways to learn how to drive. The same thing happens from Bilbao with Autoescuelas Mikel which, in a few years of digital life, has managed to gather 352 thousand followers on the same social network. His teacher since 2008, Michel Álvarez, points out that “a community has been generated.” We spoke with both of them to understand this new scope of action for driving schools and their students.
If social networks share something, it is their pleasant and entertaining nature. “Normally, getting a driving license is seen as something difficult or tortuous, and I prefer to approach it from motivation. For this reason, I try to turn the concept around,” says Alex Requena in reference to the name of the Positive Driving School. The teacher says that he got his start in YouTube videos, in which he showed the exam routes so that the students in Barcelona could see how it worked: “I recorded these videos with a Go Pro, but it was very cumbersome to put it on and take it off, so finally I decided to leave a fixed camera. Many things happen in the car and I realized that, in addition to teaching, I could make both the student and the person watching him smile. The secret was to tell a real story and, above all, tell it with the naturalness of the moment. “That worked very well.”
In this way, learning becomes a game; And, in the words of the teacher, “we have a smile like an open window into the interior of the person and, from enjoyment, we learn much better.” For his part, Michel Álvarez values the advantages of creating short videos on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, where he has reached 200 thousand subscribers. “Through them, we can provide a lot of information about laws that have changed or that people do not know and are doing wrong, believing they are doing it right. They allow us to reach people immediately and transmit the message we want to give.”
In April 2022, Michel Álvarez began his adventures in the digital environment. “I didn't think about social networks, I had a more traditional approach to teaching,” he says, “However, I had always told my wife and my friends that I would like them to dedicate a minute a day on the news to talk about some important law because, in the end, those of us who do it well are in danger, precisely for doing it well. Then, one day, we hired a young IT guy and he suggested I do it myself, but through the networks. That's how it all started".
This continuous learning reaches not only students who take the exam for the first time but also all interested people who already have a driving license and can stay up to date with changes in road regulations, as well as find out how to do so. correct to circulate. In his words, “where people fail the most is at roundabouts, either because when they got their license there weren't enough or because they don't remember. And it is so simple that there are no accidents... If everyone left from the right lane it would already be done. You can go on the left to overtake, but before your exit arrives, get into the right lane with enough time.”
As has happened in other areas, social networks open the way to new audiences or, in this case, new students. This offers various possibilities and a constant interaction that feeds back the student-teacher training. Therefore, reading the comments and responding helps to understand the environment in which we operate and to know details about the users and their interests. “Yes, a community is created,” says Alex Requena and continues: “there are people who tell me 'look, I've had my license for a long time and, in addition to laughing, I always learn things or refresh concepts that I thought I had forgotten'.”
Likewise, these platforms serve as a basis to connect students who share the same physical space. “Social networks are their means of communication. Before getting into the car, the student signs a privacy contract and whoever does not want to leave, does not leave; but the majority are delighted, they like it. Then they meet each other at the driving school and identify themselves through the videos,” she concludes.
For his part, Michel Álvarez is called Guardiola on the networks. “Maybe I look like the coach,” he jokes. Regarding the choice of content, “the courses I give to people who already have the license are a source of videos, but so are the requests from my students, from the people I sometimes pass on the street or from our followers.”
“It is continuous learning,” responds Michel Álvarez in relation to this experience of driving schools on the networks. “I also follow other teachers, I see the comments they make to me and this leads me to ask myself things. I think I am becoming a little more complete as a teacher.” For his part, in the words of Alex Requena: “the students act as a mirror. “I learn things about myself from observing them.”
