Critical Review #5: Miller, Ch 6 in "Playing Along"

In the "Amateur-to-Amateur" chapter of Miller's 2012 book "Playing Along: Digital Games, YouTube, and Virtual Performance," she uses three examples – conga tutorials on YouTube, pianojohn113's piano lessons on YouTube, and the growing community of people practicing ashtanga yoga via the internet – to illustrate different ways in which people are teaching via the internet. All three of these examples show perfectly how the internet is not just being used by professionals to interact with people trying to learn; instead, these are cases in which amateurs are teaching other amateurs.

The internet is not a place filled with people with credentials – in many cases, this "A2A" form of teaching became necessary because those with actual degrees were busy teaching for money. This is not to say that this is a bad method of learning; I myself have sought out the internet for help when purchasing new viola strings, for example. The benefits of the internet are clear: it's a place where you can "crowdsource" your help. Instead of being taught by one person on the conga drums and never seeing another opinion or style, you have them right at your fingertips.

I similarly agree with Miller's assertion that A2A participants do not entirely "reject structure, hierarchy, and hegemony." This structure and hierarchy is honestly inherent to many artistic practices; the reason we have certain methods of teaching is because they have been found to be the most effective.

Discussion question: how can someone be "qualified" to teach a practice on the internet? Are there certain artistic practices in which this idea of "A2A" teaching is less useful?