Posted on 10/23/2005 7:42:33 AM PDT by equaviator
E-Tutoring Broadens Bounds of Outsourcing By GEORGE and MARTHA IRVINE, Associated Press Writers
COCHIN, India - A few stars are still twinkling in the inky pre-dawn sky when Koyampurath Namitha arrives for work in a quiet suburb of this south Indian city. It's barely 4:30 a.m. when she grabs a cup of coffee and joins more than two dozen colleagues, each settling into a cubicle with a computer and earphones.
More than 7,000 miles away, in Glenview, Ill., outside Chicago, it's the evening of the previous day and 14-year-old Princeton John sits at his computer, barefoot and ready for his hourlong geometry lesson. The high school freshman puts on a headset with a microphone and clicks on computer software that will link him through the Internet to his tutor, Namitha, many time zones away.
It's called e-tutoring — yet another example of how modern communications, and an abundance of educated, low-wage Asians, are broadening the boundaries of outsourcing and working their way into the minutiae of American life, from replacing your lost credit card through reading your CAT scan to helping you revive your crashed computer.
Princeton is one of thousands of U.S. high school students turning to tutors in India.
"Hello Princeton, how are you? How was your test?" Namitha asks.
"Hello, yeah ... I'm good," Princeton replies. "It was good."
Namitha works for a company called Growing Stars, based in Cochin and Fremont, Calif. Princeton and his 12-year-old sister Priscilla each meet with their online math teacher twice a week.
The chitchat ends quickly and a geometry worksheet pops up on Princeton's computer screen.
Teacher and pupil speak to one another, type messages and use digital "pencils" to work on problems, highlight graphs and erase mistakes. Princeton scrawls on something that looks like a hyped-up mouse pad and it shows up on Namitha's screen. He can also use a scanner to send copies of assignments or textbook pages that he needs help understanding.
"Here we go," Princeton says, as they begin a lesson on such concepts as parallel lines and complementary angles in the quiet coziness of the family's suburban home. Above him, on the desk, sit plastic figurines of Mickey and Minnie Mouse and the Statue of Liberty. On the walls are framed photos of his family, including his grandparents who — by coincidence — live in southern India.
His mom, Bessy, brings him orange juice and cookies.
"India has very good teachers, especially in math and science. Also, these subjects are culture-free so it is comparatively easy for Indian teachers to teach them," says Kiran Karnik, who heads India's National Association of Software and Service Companies. "Online tutoring is an area which shows enormous potential for growth."
Most companies are reluctant to talk about earnings. But Shantanu Prakash, chief executive of India-based Educomp Datamatics, estimates that Indian online tutoring companies earned about $10 million last year, 80 percent of it from the United States.
That's small change in the Indian information technology industry — a business built largely on the outsourcing that is shifting jobs from the West to cheaper, foreign locations. Annual export revenue from offshore outsourcing last fiscal year totaled $17.2 billion.
But about a dozen Indian software firms are banking that online tutoring will flourish in America, where falling standards are causing concern.
The first e-tutoring businesses started less than three years ago, and already thousands of Indian teachers coach U.S. students in math, science or English for about $15-$20 an hour, a fraction of the $40-$100 that private tutoring costs in the United States.
The Indian firms have benefited from the growing U.S. government-financed tutoring industry — which had revenues last year of nearly $2 billion. That growth is partly due to the No Child Left Behind law, which requires schools to test students in math and reading every year from third grade through eighth grade.
While the outsourced tutoring companies are competition for their U.S.-based counterparts, the National Education Association — a professional organization that represents millions of American teachers — "enthusiastically supports the continued and expanded use of distance education," according to a statement and its guidelines for promoting quality teaching in class and online.
However, not every child has Internet access at home, said Denise Cardinal, an NEA spokeswoman.
"We think that good tutoring and good public schools should be available to every student, regardless of the family's income," she said.
Princeton's family, like others with college-bound students, pays its own tutoring bills, seeing online tutoring as a way to get high-quality instruction at a lower cost.
Most full-time teachers at Growing Stars earn about $230 monthly.
But while the money is good by Indian standards, what's missing is one-on-one contact.
"This is a bit like teaching in a void," says Priya Shah, who helps high school students improve their English writing skills. "The lack of eye contact is a disadvantage, but it's a gap which one overcomes with time."
But the work is much less stressful than teaching a class of 40 kids or more, and the tutor can adapt to the individual student's learning pace.
That was evident during Princeton's class.
"Princeton, let's go over that again," Namitha says a couple times when he didn't understand, patiently redrawing a diagram on the screen.
When he gets answers correct, Namitha flashes a smiley face on his screen. "Oh, I am smart," Princeton half-jokes.
The system isn't perfect. Sometimes Princeton has to repeat himself so Namitha can hear him. Or his computer freezes up.
"It's so old," he says. "That's why I'm asking my dad to get a new one."
But despite the glitches, Princeton's mother, Bessy Piusten, is pleased with the results, saying her children have been getting all A's and B's since they started online tutoring about two years ago.
Daughter Priscilla, who takes online algebra lessons, wants to be a neonatal physician. Princeton wants to be a pharmacist. Their mother is a respiratory therapist at a Chicago hospital, and her husband is a radiology technician.
At the end of the session, Namitha assigns Princeton problems for their next meeting.
"Homework! C'mon!" Princeton protests. "Fine, fine. But without homework, life would be wonderful," he says. His little sister, who is watching, giggles.
Princeton acknowledges that because of his tutor "math is now easy for me."
Maybe some day, he adds, he'll be able to chat with his tutor via video screen. But either way, he prefers an online tutor over an in-person one.
"If I talk back to that person, they won't do anything to me," he says, laughing. "This way is much better."
What is the trade-off?
Very interesting.
This is just one example of the coming revolution in education. Very exciting times are coming.
I'd love to hear the water-cooler chat at one of these places.
Translated from the Telegu:
"How your kid?"
"I can't believe it! It took him twenty minutes to see how to find the area of a rhombus! I tell you, these boys may have inherited the money, but they didn't inherit the brains.....
"We think that good tutoring and good public schools should be available to every student, regardless of the family's income," she said.
And vouchers or some other method of introducing competition would be a great way to have that... think about this: a "virtual e-homeschool" where your kid gets his 3R's in a combination of local teaching and e-tutoring, for maybe $3K per year total. That would put the fear of God into these NEA commies.
My girlfriend is getting her second degree from Oregon State...and we live in Washington. It's much cheaper, take her about 30-35 hours a week.....but she gets to pick WHICH 35 hours. The degree is the very same degree, the ciriculum the same as well. The professor for her forestry class resides in Montana, ecology professor in Portland. Fellow students from all over the country...with two active duty soldiers in Iraq.
One can now get a Harvard degree online...for a little less than 1/2 the retail price:)
I expect to see Indian and Chinese Universities seeking accreditation in the US soon...which will be CRUSHING competition for the basic state universitites now spouting the PC crap.
I have taken a lot of courses online (mostly continuing ed) and it is a wonderful thing to move at my own speed.
I agree. The current educational system is a "dead man walking."
One goes to an ivy, not so much for the education, but to make life long friends with other high achievers or sons and daughters of high achievers. The guys who started Yahoo were roommates at Stanford. I think the same is true for the google guys. Bill met Hillary at Harvard. Hewlett met Packard at Stanford.
My girlfriend is getting her second degree from Oregon State...and we live in Washington. It's much cheaper, takes her about 30-35 hours a week.....but she gets to pick WHICH 35 hours. The degree is the very same degree, the ciriculum the same as well. The professor for her forestry class resides in Montana, ecology professor in Portland. Fellow students from all over the country...with two active duty soldiers in Iraq.
One can now get a Harvard degree online...for a little less than 1/2 the retail price:)
I expect to see Indian and Chinese Universities seeking accreditation in the US soon...which will be CRUSHING competition for the basic state universitites now spouting the PC crap.
E-learning could exploit competition in ways better than the classroom. Students can be grouped with true peers, wherever they are, so that every student sometimes is the best in their group. Prizes, awards, and recognition are natural incentives. It can be fun to learn boring subjects if it is made into a competitive game where students can earn fame and glory and treasure.
This will have a greater impact on education than past attempts to bust the NEA...and Ipm quite surprised the NEA supports "distance learning". It's a sign they[re collectively stupid.
Couldn't agree more.
One more example of how the world is getting smaller and more interconnected everyday.
Bump
Didn't Bill and Hillary meet at Yale? But in the end does it matter where they met?
Yale is correct. Thanks for catching that.
"The reason in-person classroom learning works so well is competition, often missing in e-learning...."
What I wonder about is whether the e-learning process makes for a virtual institution which by proxy, does not promote respect for an institutional authority.
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