Outsource your tutoring?
In the continuing saga of The World is Really Really flat, I checked out WizIQ today. Basically it’s a Web2.0 tutoring service. I’ve seen these before, and there are others that were much more impressive from a user interface perspective. But WizIQ caught my eye for a reason that really had nothing to do with the site itself.
When I did a search for math tutors, 9 out of the first 10 people listed were in India. At first I thought that was too bad, because when I think tutoring, I think of an elementary student hunched over the kitchen table as some college kid or teacher attempts to get him to understand difficult algebra concepts. Is that basically what was in your head too?
Then I started thinking about the flat world. Why on earth does my tutor need to be in the same room as me? Heck, combine Skype with some digital whiteboarding and concept mapping and you’ve got a great Web 2.0 recipe for a tutoring session for no cost whatsoever.
Instead of drawing upon the pool of people that can drive to your house, you can draw upon a global pool of educators. Of course time zones can be an issue, but that can always be worked around.
I’ll be the first to admit it, there’s no tutor like a teacher you already know and trust. But if you’re going to the web to try to find a tutor, then why restrict yourself to people close to your geographical location?
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Harman
4/26/2007
Hi,
I am the founder of WiZiQ (pronounced Wiz-IQ). Thanks for the note. Since WiZiQ is something VERY close to my heart with years of effort behind it, I would like to point certain things out:
1. I am glad that the ‘web 2.0 meets education’ that you pointed out with skype, whiteboard etc. example is exactly what we have built WiZiQ around. We have built a virtual classroom technology (integrated in the website) for audio/video communication, shared whiteboard, content sharing (PPT, PDF etc.), annotations etc. It also has recording capabilities. Most of all, it doesn’t need downloads and installations.
2. It wasn’t intended to be just an outsourced tutoring website, rather a global community of teachers and students.
3. You mentioned a very important point, ‘teacher you trust’. We have tried to use the social networking concepts (similar to linkedin’s) to help students find teachers through their trusted network of friends.
On the web site design, please let me know what parts you don’t like (BTW, a new release is coming out in the next couple of days).
Anyone, please feel free to e-mail me your comments about WiZiQ at harman@authorgen.com. I would appreciate any feedback that I can get.
Ganesh
7/20/2007
How is Wisiq different from other services like growingstars, vienova, tutorvista, http://www.schooltrainer.com, transwebtutors, etc.)?
Dan
4/17/2009
I believe WizIQ seems to be a volunteer based network. The platform itself is quiet impressive, but I’m wondering whether you have students who have a seen sustained improvement? I have also heard of several online tutoring websites but the customer service and results are horrible. The other day I came across TutorJam (www.tutorjam.com) who claim to have academic directors who design lesson plans and watch the progress of students..This seems very similar to Sylvan or Kumon but is still online. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Dan
4/17/2009
Sorry the link didn’t show up – it is http://www.tutorjam.com
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