Job Discussion Forums

[ppzz70]

I am interested in teaching English online. In fact, that's the reason I recently purchased a computer. However, I have heard several negative comments about teachers who have put in a lot of time and effort and ending up not getting paid for their work. As well, a couple online companies will not allow teachers to communicate online with one another. If I took a job teaching online, I would want to communicate with a teacher who is currently working for the company to ensure that it's a legitimate organization. I would like to be optimistic and believe that there are credible online tutoring companies out there. However, I would also want to know which ones to stay away from. Any comments???

[merlin]

Still in development.
Many companies/organizations with good intentions get started with it only to realize that the meeting of policy, technology, methodology and pedagogy is more elusive than the loch nest monster and godzilla.

here's what happens:
policymaker says "I want to use computers"
TEFL CALL guy says "You can do all kinds of stuff with software x,y,z"
tehnician says "We can make it work but you gotta pay bookoo bucks."
It's then passed down to the teachers
The teachers on the line try to implement the theory.
Students aren't satisfied.
Fingers are pointed.
The program collapses or continues to drain money from the organization as a kinda cool thing that doesn't really do much.

There are some serious problems with the current theory/methodology. Well-intentioned programs will continue to fail until these fundamental problems are addressed.

for example: forum language is unique to forums and of questionable use in a "speaking" class.
there are more but you'll have to advance me funds for my book to get them

[Twisting in the Wind]

I actually tried to start a business like that with my computer literate hubby. What happened is this. We came up with a perfectly awesome (thought we and the internet company)name for our school....only to find that a school in the UK had scooped up the same name before us
So, we then decided to be a dot net instead of a dot com.
Everything A-OK....
Then, hubby put me to work writing content.
It was harder than it appeared to be. Writing any text is harder, I found, than it appears to be.
I had to make sure that content and chapters logically followed. This is what a mystery novelist must have to deal with-- keeping track of characters and themes and plots
Then there was the matter of testing ss to ensure they were in the right "level" in our little school.
Then we had to think about recruiting ss. How would we do that?
How would we set up to be able to take credit cards?

Would we make the questions multiple choice, T/F?
How would we make up for not having a "Real" teacher? Ahhh....a webcam!! Preordained teaching times that ss would sign up for....but, ahhhh...so much to coordinate!!
At the time
There was just so much to do and it became overwhelming while I was at the time teaching FT in a standard (non-cyber) classroom.
So, we just gave up on it.

[merlin]

THat's the basic thing I discovered - you need a large group and funding - A LOT OF FUNDING - to even get it off the ground. And then it's unlikely to be profitable unless combined with other ventures like book sales, a large school chain, univesity research, etc.

[Twisting in the Wind]

Yes, Merlin. You're spot on. You need a lot of funding so when you travel down a wrong path and accidently do something wrong that costs a lot of money, you won't go under; you'll still have enough funds.

I have investigated this quite a lot: The only things that make money on the internet are the vices!!!!

gambling
sex (porn)
drugs