Geeking out

A MacArthur Foundation report, "Living and Learning with New Media", was recently highlighted in the New York times article, "Teenagers' internet socializing not a bad thing".

The report's findings? Kids are learning valuable technological and social skills as new media is interwoven into their lives. So a note to all parents: all that time on Facebook and MySpace is not just a waste of time! The report broke down their social media motivations into categories such as "friendship driven", "interest driven" and culminated in "geeking out" where "Youth turn instead to specialized knowledge groups of both teens and adults from around the country or world, with the goal of improving their craft and gaining reputation among expert peers."

What does this suggest for online tutoring?

Traditional online tutoring, as it exists today, reflects the top-down hierarchy of tutoring offline. It works because it fills a need for students who must navigate the one size fits all classroom based on state standards and topped off with standardized tests.

The report suggests there is a potential role in education for "Networked Publics"(participation in public culture that is supported by online networks), and peer-based learning. The study says, “New media allow for a degree of freedom and autonomy for youth that is less apparent in a classroom setting. Youth respect one another’s authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults.” Online tutoring companies are well positioned to facilitate peer-to-peer based tutoring, but I wouldn't look to the big online tutoring companies to blaze any trails. Luckily for them, the one-size fits all school system is not apt to change very soon.

What are your thoughts on peer-to-peer learning?

Facebook Friends

To me, mixing one's business and personal life is probably akin to mixing a molotov cocktail...something you better do very carefully. I've read the articles about HR recruiters trolling MySpace and Facebook looking for those embarrassing photos of their applicants. But if one is conscious of the fact that if it's on the internet, it's going to be found...there must be value in shaking it up a bit, especially for entrepreneurs who need every bit of noise to get the word out about their business and the fact that they are entrepreneurs.

I admit, I'm a novice at this. I think the Japanese part of me which has learned that self deprecating modesty is a virtue, has not helped me prepare for this role.
This blog, for example, is my first toe dip into this area. I chose to add a bit of personal flair to this blog recently for two basic reasons... First is readership. (which with a blog is pretty important) By adding some personal perspectives, opinions and etc...I'm reaching out to family and friends, to keep them up to date on what is happening with me; both professionally and "locationally". These may be topics that we don't communicate on actively...so this is a nice way of keeping them informed (and reading) of events or thoughts that I probably won't go out of my way to convey with a phone call or email.

Second, by keeping the topics varied, I'm also enjoying writing more..and I think it will reflect in an increase in general readership over time. Posts become more regular, people are intrigued about what will happen next...readers subscribe to the feed (hint, hint) etc.

This being said...where is that line between personal and professional life? Today I was invited by a business in Buenos Aires to be their "friend" through facebook. When I started checking out this business's friends..I saw mixed in with actual people, they had lots of other business's as their friends.

I don't like the idea of friending people I don't know with my personal facebook account. Even though now, one can grant people only limited access to profile information. For me, even this is not enough.

Although it's quite obvious this should have been done a while ago, now Tutor Amigos is on Facebook. If you want to help me out, click below and be a friend. Because online tutoring in math, science and English is not yet the coolest, hip thing...your friendship will help Tutor Amigos not look like the four-eyed geek you knew in high school.



How do you balance your mix of business and personal life online? Is it as hard as it looks?

When online tutoring evolves.

I'm a die hard Boston Red Sox fan, but when you heard Harry Caray, the legendary baseball announcer yell "Holy Cow!", you knew it was a Chicago Cub's home run. When Guy Kawasaki says it, you know something VERY cool is just a click away.

In Guy's blog post titled, "I'll never get on a plane again", he links to the Cisco/Musion Systems TelePresence holographic video conference with the "World’s first Live Holographic Video Feed from California, USA to Bangalore, India". It is simply amazing.

With oil predicted to be $150-$200 a barrel in the near future, beaming yourself to faraway lands, and having others beam themselves to you, becomes all the more economically attractive and environmentally friendly. Instead of hopping a flight, walk to a conference room.

It's potential application to online, personal tutoring is equally mind bending. Instead of driving to a tutoring center or making your poor tutor drive to you, you can "beam over".

But wait...online tutoring already accomplishes this, doesn't it?

Well...it does... Just not so Star Trek-like. In fact, according to Dr. John Stuppy, President of Tutorvista, "online tutoring is as effective as face-to-face" already. His presentation at the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) 2008 National Conference points out "..(in) a study of over 300,000 students who received face-to-face tutoring versus online tutoring, there was no statistically significant difference in pre- versus post-test gains on third party norm-referenced assessments." Additional benefits sited were, an "increase in their children’s grades, sometimes after just a few weeks." and " some students are more likely to ask questions and admit when they still don’t understand something".

I can't say I have seen a similar study of 300,000 students in Spain , which is the market Tutor Amigos offers it's service. But I can tell you from first-hand experience that increases in our student's grades have been achieved after just a few weeks and parents have commented how their generally shy sons and daughters are much more active and engaged when working with an online tutor, as opposed to an in-home tutor which is a popular model in Spain.

Now there are differences in how some companies deliver today's online tutoring service, which I will address in a future post. The take away is this: online tutoring, as it exists today, is just as effective as having a tutor sit next to you and do the tutoring. You don't need to wait for this amazing Cisco/Musion systems holographic technology to go mainstream in order to benefit from online tutoring, however someday this amazing technology will go mainstream. And when it does, online tutoring will be poised to be not only as effective, it may even be better.

How do you think online tutoring can be improved? Now? In the future?

Message from the Founder

Goodbye 2007 and welcome 2008!

2007 was an incredible year as we made the leap from a promising idea to the real world with Tutor Amigos. We have so many accomplishments to celebrate from developing, launching and then relaunching our website to tutoring our first students and starting an online tutoring trial with the Boys & Girls club of Lawrence, MA. I am very thankful to all those whose time, interest and effort have helped us take these first steps. I also want to thank our students who, whether they realize it or not, are pioneers in education. Their curiosity and willingness to try something new has enabled us to blaze a trail that we aim to have many more students follow in 2008.

2008 is starting off with a bang. We are already busy moving forward with an exciting new initiative and..a wee bit of recognition.

Semi-finalist for the 2008 Echoing Green fellowship
First, I received word that Tutor Amigos has been selected as a semi-finalist for the 2008 Echoing Green fellowship among nearly 1,500 applicants. Echoing Green is a provider of seed funding and support to social entrepreneurs "with bold ideas for social change in order to launch groundbreaking organizations around the world."

The Tutor Amigos idea is simple: to connect over the internet, math tutors in Latin America with Latino students struggling in their transition to the North American math classroom. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Latinos that need our service the most, are least likely to be able to obtain it due to low incomes and lack of access to a computer/broadband. Can this be overcome? I believe it can by partnering with nonprofits, schools and communities who serve Latino immigrants.

Do you know an organization that needs help? Contact me:
jonathan(at)tutoramigos.com and let's talk.

New initiative
Grant funding aside, my goal is to create a socially missioned, yet self sustaining organization. To this end, we have launched http://www.tutoramigos.es to offer our services in Spain. Spain is an attractive market in terms of computer/broadband penetration, a strong currency, a common language and a common need for academic support in Math as well as Science and English. I believe with our strong value proposition, we can make some waves across the Atlantic in Spain and create another current to ride as we continue to experiment and learn in 2008.

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

All the best,

Jonathan

Tutor Amigos provides free tutoring for the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence

This week Tutor Amigos started providing free online tutoring in Math for Spanish-speaking students at the Boys and Girls club of Lawrence, MA. We are very excited to be working with the Boys & Girls club after school program in Lawrence and look forward to helping students with their homework so that they might improve their math skills and gain confidence with Math.

Great new look, same great service

Tutor Amigos is very happy to announce the launch of our new website and a new offer of a 60 minute trial session for only $5.00. We look forward to connecting more students with extra help in Math and Science, in the language they need it to be in.