Congratulations Melody!

Then yesterday evening, when I connected with Michelle in Toronto, she broke the good news: earlier this week she had been called in (out of the blue) for the oral interaction test and she got the required B… she was not prepared for that at all! Actually, for the past 16 weeks, we have been doing French for the only sake of learning French (nor for tackling and acing the SLE tests) once a week… but, since we had been working rigourously on the concordance des temps and the conditional, I do believe it helped her a great deal for her presentation…  yet she deserves all the credit because we had never worked towards the exam together!

Congratulations Michelle!

And, when I got up this morning, I had an email from Denise in Toronto with  «Allo… mauvaise nouvelle » in the subject line!… For a second there, I stopped breathing!… But it was a prank!… She got her C haut-la-main!… Consequently I will be able to relax in Montreal during the long weekend because all the results are in!…  and even unexpected ones!

Congratulations Denise!

Besides those excellent news and four new trainees, everything is business as usual… this is why I am taking the opportunity of this recess in the PSC SLE testing process soap opera to write about my thoughts on online education sites… Once again, I will not point my finger at any of them in particular because a quick tour of their forums shows that a few (if not many) experience problems… and it seems that the larger they are the more bumps in the road they encounter!

What amazes me the most is to see that many do not have proper policies and the ensuing complaints are quite eloquent. Both community members (teachers and students) and staff spend lots of time and energy bleating about their problems (and some are very serious) yet the management of those sites refuses to do anything constructive. Of course it has a lot to do with their philosophy… some owners of such sites want them to be an open source for online education… therefore they open their doors to anyone who wishes to join the community without even elementary screening. Anyone can sign up to be a teacher: with no profile picture, no credentials, no background history, no teaching experience… and five minutes later they can create classes and use the platform to teach any subjects… it is an utopia to believe that anyone can teach only based upon the fact that they are good in some areas or they can speak a language… I think the boot camps here are a good example: most of their teachers never taught French but, because they do speak the language, those schools owners believe that they can!… Well… they cannot!… Actually if anyone could teach, there would not be any education programs in universities right?… Teaching is not an easy task and it implies a large part of responsibilities… language learning will not occur without the help of an expert… of course students will eventually get enough to get by and survive, but they will never become fluent in all areas (reading, writing and speaking).

Instead of trying and fixing what goes wrong by adopting professional policies and rules, they insist on marketing… according to them, if the teachers’ community does not succeed, it is only because they cannot market their services the right way… and, unfortunately, some excellent teachers with blind faith are convinced that it is their fault if they work hard for peanuts!… Well… marketing your services on a site where everything looks and, to some extent is, non professional will not help you build a reputation in your field of expertise. Also the type of clientele many sites attract is not the one who will buy you dinner at the end of the day!… Most of their students are inactive (not taking any classes) and those who do sign up for classes do not want to pay for learning… though I am not sure I would be willing to disburse money myself for being taught by someone with no experience, no credentials and, in some case, who is not even out of adolescence!… Anyone looking for serious and competent teachers will not join such communities (although there are some excellent and professional teachers/tutors there… yet they fall into the cracks of the system and their expertise cannot be recognized for its true value)…

I do not understand why so many community and staff members are so reluctant to implement screening policies… someone who is professional has nothing to hide: they have credentials and experience to show and it is only normal to be asked for this kind of stuff… when people contact me for training, they do ask me those questions… if they are going to invest in me for preparing them to take the PSC SLE exams, it is only natural that they want to make sure that they knocked on the right door and that they will not be disappointed…

If there were times when seeing so many teachers struggling to make a living out of online education services saddened me, I have to admit that I am less and less inclined to pity them… In many ways, they do nurture non professional sites by not taking action and staying there in spite of all the problems that systematically arise… and they also nurture the gurus’ egos and narcissic sides by providing them with a faithful blind audience. One would think that these teachers are somewhat internet savvy and that they could search for other avenues for their online teaching… because there are some sites that are truly professional… and finding them is actually at the tip of their fingers…

And for those who have some financial resources, it would be much more beneficial to start their own online education business… no one needs to be under the banner of a large site!… I think I do very well on my own and none of those sites would actually provide me with what I need to run my online teaching… I do have policies and rules which I abide by… Doing business either on the web or in the real world is the same… yet it appears that some people are still living in the dinosaur age… the internet is no longer something new that people are suspicious of… many transactions are done over the net and lots of professional services are also found there… and I think that consumers are keen and well educated (of course there will always be some gullible individuals): they can tell right away what site is professional and what site is not!… There is no need for a PHD to sort them out…

“Toute activité orientée selon l’éthique peut être subordonnée à deux maximes totalement différentes et irréductiblement opposées : l’éthique de responsabilité et l’éthique de conviction”

Max Weber

I have been seriously reflecting on this lately… my thoughts were triggered by comments posted on the forums of an online education site (which, by the way, I will not name here because it is only one among many)… This site, as well as all the other similar ones, provides teachers with a platform so that they can start their own online teaching/tutoring business… Of course, many people are lured by the idea of having their own business… therefore there is a growing number of tutors/teachers signing up… although many are inactive or left the site a long time ago… yet figures show that there are many teachers working… It is the same with students: most of them do not take either private sessions or classes… but it looks good from a statistic point of view!… A quick tour of the classes offered on the site is enough to realize that there are not thousands of individuals registered in any of them… and the ones that are popular are the ones that are free…

For months, teachers have been ranting about students’ no-shows trying to find a solution (and some threads are now heating up)… most of the time, people sign up for classes with no real intent to ever attend… why do they do that?… well… your guess is as good as mine… Then, lately, it came out that many teachers do not dare to show up for the classes they opened… I guess they left the site (for any reasons) and, since they did not have the ability to cancel their classes and probably did not know that someone from the staff could have done it for them, they just left things the way they were!… I agree that it is not what is expected from professionals… anyone with a minimum of professionalism would ask for their accounts, profiles and classes be deleted…

Actually it is precisely where the problem is!… Since there is no screening done, anyone can sign up as a teacher/tutor… it is not rare to see someone with two profiles: one as a student and another one as a teacher… credentials are not important, therefore one can see several teenagers (some as young as 13) teaching!… I agree that some kids are smart cookies, yet they cannot teach!… To some extent, it is kind of insulting for experienced professional teachers!… Do you know many teenagers who are mature and responsible enough to hold a steady and demanding job such as teaching?… They will often neglect doing their school homework to go out with their friends and party!…

In a way, I do feel sad for the few true professional teachers who devote time and effort into trying to make their living on such sites… yet I cannot understand why they stick around while they could be using their time and energy in building their own online business… People who teach on those online education sites are not operating their own business: their status is similar to employees’ status, yet without a  regular salary and social benefits!…

Own a business means controlling everything from A to Z: targeting a specific clientele, establishing prices and methods of payment, choosing the proper tools, setting the rules, deciding on the ideal environment, etc… The minute there is a middle man, it is no longer someone’s business… it is the middle man’s business! He has total control on everything: rules (if there are any), methods of payment, type of clientele, platform, etc… and he takes a substantial percentage on the money his teachers earn!… If teachers want changes, they are invited to post their ideas on the Idea Board… the ones that agree with the middle man’s agenda might be adopted, but the ones rocking the boat are discarded!… Such an environment only creates frustration and dissatisfaction among teachers…

Yet I see people who are still trying to change things… investing time and energy into something that is doomed to fail! Unfortunately, teachers are not known for their business skills… it is why most of them work in the regular schooling system (grade schools, high schools, colleges and universtities). Only the ones who have an excellent sense of entrepreneuship can succeed in business!…

People who are not afraid of taking risks, however, can become very successful!… And I do believe that some can learn a few skills that would help them start their own business… All it takes is the will to succeed, some positive aggressiveness, some money, a good plan, a specific niche, some market research, a professional logo, attractive business cards and brochures, a domain name, a website, a blog (providing useful and accurate info), a good network (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other similar social networks are not the best – at least, not for training businesses), experience, credentials, excellent references and a platform (one branded with their business names that can be rented yearly – no strings attach) that suits their specific needs.

Of course, all of the above demand time and effort… it is not something that will happen overnight… On the other hand, if well done, success is almost guaranteed! Considering the hours and energy consumed in ranting on the forums of sites that will alledgedly allow teachers to become successful entrepreneurs (the question is: when? if ever…), I truly believe that people who are seriously contemplating the idea of having their own online teaching business would be better off on their own… unless they do think they still have some precious time left to waste on false promises…

Bottom line, it is a matter of personal choice… when teachers choose to work with a middle man, they have to accept the fact that it will never be their call to change whatever they do not like… they either stop complaining and try to make the best out of  a situation that is far from being ideal or they decide to take risks and jump in unknown waters where possibilities are endless…

“Je suis agnostique. Ce qui ne veut pas dire que je ne crois pas, mais que je ne sais pas si je crois”

François Mitterand

Congratulations Nelson!

Also… Luna started in her French essential position this morning… although she was a bit nervous, I am sure that she did very well… I will know everything about it when I will see her online for her weekly lesson tomorrow evening. As for Krystal in Toronto, she is kind of fed up with the endless process (more than six months for the two positions she applied for) of trying and getting a job within the Public Service of Canada… therefore she started looking elswhere… yet she still wants to move  on with her French training, judging that being bilingual is an asset for any career she will pursue. And, if she is ever called in for the PSC SLE tests, she will be ready…

Tomorrow Joyce in Moncton and Michelle in Toronto will start preparing for the SLE oral test and working on improving their French. None of them has a date for their testing yet… but they know that, sooner they are getting at it, better they will perform when they will be called in. It is what I call a judicious decision… waiting until the very last minute is rather ill-advised…

Which brings me to what I have been pondering upon for quite a while… Is teaching online taken seriously?… Of course, I am excluding my own trainees because they really do appreciate being able to get the help they need because of  a technology that allows them to get the same quality training they would get in a face-to-face setting. A few years ago, this type of training would have been unthinkable… well, it could have been done over the phone or Skype with a minimum of tools (if none at all). Today, with virtual classrooms, screen and library content sharing, a whiteboard and access to their sessions recordings, my trainees get a state-of-the-art professional service.

That being said, the kind of specialized training I am providing is quite draining… often I have only a few hours to help people preparing for their three SLE tests with the federal government. Of course, I want all of them to achieve the levels they need to meet their positions language requirements… therefore, it is as much stressful for me as it is for them! Although most of my students get their levels, some do not and I cannot help it: if I had had more time with them, I could have prepared them better… even if they never blamed me for not passing their levels!… Unfortunately I am no miracle worker… though there are some days I wish I would be!

This is why, last winter, I thought I could join a site where I could teach French a couple of hours per week without stress… I was thinking of people wanting to learn the language based upon personal interest instead of upon vocational purpose… I did not want to add this type of training to my already existing business because I wanted to keep it the way it was: a service intended for federal public servants and people who had applied for a job within the PSC.

It did not take me long to realize that it was not what it was supposed to be… I gave two series of four classes each that ran in April and May: the first one was kind of successful… five people had joined and they attended regularly. Then, two dropped out before the second one started… then another one after the first class of the second round… I finally ended up with two students. I do believe some teachers do just fine by providing one-on-one tutoring… most of their students are probably the ones they already had and they brought them there so they could use the platform.

There are thousands of people (both students and teachers) on that site, yet I would say that the vast majority is inactive…  Also, when they had introduced classes at the end of 2008, in order to attract students they had made them free… Of course people were signing up for classes yet, when teachers decided that their work had to be compensated financially (online teachers have to pay their bills as anyone else) and started to open classes that were no longer free, the numbers of attendees dropped drastically. In my mind, it was already too late for that shift… the FREE culture had already taken deep roots… Since then, management is trying all kinds of incentive to attract people into paid classes… so far, the no shows rate has not dropped!… instead (from what I read in the forums) it would have increased… Giving away mugs, bumper stickers, pens or T-shirts is called  advertising/marketing, but giving away the actual service? I call it dumb!… especially when it is done on an extended period of time…

I have even seen people requesting free classes from teachers on topics they were interested in!… I do believe this is rude and I actually do not understand such mentality of “give me, give me”… Some argue that it is due to the nature of the Internet: apparently people using the web are expecting everything for free… FALSE!!!… In my mind, if you do market your services based upon free stuff, you will get the individuals who are indeed looking for freebies all the time…  then do not expect them to change overnight when you want to turn things around!… This is why, before starting giving away your services, it is important to know exactly what you want… if you want your site to be a free resource, well… so be it!… But if you wish to make it a source of income, then think twice… because professional teachers who will join your site are expecting to be paid for the service they will provide and they will not wait for ages until that happens!… And, above all, do not maintain false hope… they are intelligent people and they will choose for themselves whether they wish to pursue or move on elsewhere. E-teaching is a serious job… and I do know that motivated people with a goal value it… I see it every day in my practice…

“L’expérience est une lanterne que l’on porte sur le dos et qui n’éclaire jamais que le chemin parcouru”

Confucius

For the past few weeks, I have been searching the web looking for a virtual classroom… Of course, I found many yet they were kind of too sophisticated for what I did intend to do: too many useless functions, too many buttons, not enough control left to the attendees, not enough whiteboard space… without mentioning the cost associated with the use of those platforms! It was kind of outrageous!

Thanks to my friend Phil in Canberra who is an avid Google searcher, has obviously more time than I have to browse the web and is always looking for good deals (great products for little money!). He sent me several links and I tried out a couple of platforms: some were okay, but did not look too professional and did not offer enough functions. On the other hand, when I did look at WiZiQ, I knew I had found exactly what I wanted… a dream come true? Exactly… This platform is designed for teachers and students to hold one-on-one sessions or group classes, therefore it really serves my purpose.

There are two versions: the free one and the Premium one… since I was not sure if I really needed to upgrade to the Premium service ($49.95 USD per year), Phil and I hooked up yesterday for a couple of hours. We explored all the platform possibilities and decided it was just perfect: a large whiteboard, a library content (wich allows uploading of documents, pictures and slide shows before class starts), a handy chat room, full writing/video/audio control on the attendee’s part, screen sharing, session recordings available for both the teacher and the attendee to view after class and much more.

Afterwards, I made the decision to upgrade… with the free version, attendees cannot download the documents (I would have to send them as attachments in an email) and I cannot give them full writing/video/audio control. Also with the Premium service, I can manage all my PayPal invoices and payments directly from the site… session recordings can be downloaded or burnt on CD/DVDs (very useful for the attendees)… I can brand my classroom with my business name and logo… I am entitled to full technical support without having to wait 24 hours for an answer and I think the price is ridiculously low for what I get!

What I like about this platform is that I can hold a class immediately… with no prior booking! All I have to do is launching the session and inviting my student to enter right away… and when there are five minutes left, I am asked if I wish to extend the session and, if so, by how many more minutes! Bottom line, my student and I can stay there for as long as it is needed. For instance, last night, I had booked a 90 minute session with Phil… we finally ended up spending more than two hours in the classroom.

What is also neat is that, after each class, the teacher is asked to provide technical support staff with feedback. Last night, Phil and I had some problems with the audio/video… on my end, sometimes, there would be a delay on both video (which occasionally froze for a few seconds) and audio… and I could hear friture through my headset. Therefore I reported those hiccups in my feedback comment. Not long after I got an email explaining why this problem had occurred: someone from technical support had checked the logs of my session and apparently latency had gone up to 5.7 seconds at Phil’s end which had resulted in the problem. The probable cause was slowdown of the Internet connection at the moment of our session. When I told Phil this morning, he said he had been quite unsatisfied with his Internet service provider lately having noticed that his Internet had been slower than usual. He is supposed to contact them today and, this time, he will have some concrete data to provide them with!

I was also told to let my students know that it was recommended to have a connection with minimum bandwidht of 512kbps for a good experience in a 2-way video session and around 256kbps for a 2-way audio session. Very useful information indeed!

Of course I will still use Skype with those who, for some reason, do not have the minimum bandwidth required… and, if ever everything goes down (like it happened with my own Internet service provider last week), there is always the good old phone!

“Vous reconnaîtrez votre voie lorsque vous la rencontrerez, car vous aurez soudainement toute l’énergie et toute l’imagination dont vous pourriez avoir besoin.”

Jerry Gillies 

Before anything else, I want to let you know that Saul got his oral evaluation results this morning: he achieved his C level! He will start his new job with the government on April the 1st… I am so thrilled! I had pushed him to his limits and I had been tough… but it was well worth it!

Congratulations Saul!

Besides teaching public servants (or public servants to be), I started looking into offering online French courses (beginner, intermediate and advanced levels) to regular people in class format so that they can share the costs… I think I do need to teach people for other reasons than merely passing tests. I have been working with public servants for many years and I believe a change of scenery will be beneficial, although I have no intent to give up what I do with government’s employees and future employees. Yet I think I do need to bring some balance in my practice… before I really get fed up! Teaching to the tests can become very boring after a while… and I owe all of my trainees my best. And there is nothing like doing something totally different to stay fresh!…

Last Sunday I gave a free session to a group of six people during which I outlined an upcoming true beginner’s class series… Actually I wanted to test the water and the Adobe Acrobat Pro Connect platform at the same time. One-on-one teaching online is quite easy… it can be done via Skype in a very simple and efficient way. But when you want to teach groups (even small), you need more features such as whiteboards, file sharing function, slide show presentations, note emailing, etc.

Adobe provides a platform that can be used as a virtual classroom. I have to say that it is great! I had had a couple of tutorials over the preceeding weeks and I had also had the opportunity of getting some time on my own to test it, play with all the available functions and have a “feel” of this new environment. Therefore, when I got there on Sunday, I felt quite comfortable… but, in case I would experience some technical bugs, I had asked Marcus to be there as my backup. When I entered the virtual classroom, I was eager to start and use it with a “real” audience.

I had set Marcus as a host so he could have access to all the functions in case of bugs. Since we were alone for 20 minutes, he had turned on both his camera and microphone… we talked while waiting for people. The first to arrive was Susan (yes yes, my Susan from real life!)…  She could see and hear us, but we could neither see nor hear her because she was set as a participant… all she was able to do was “talking” to us through the chat function. When other people started to arrive, Marcus turned off both his camera and mic… suddenly I was left alone! I mean… I was not really alone since there were six other people in the classroom with me, BUT I could only see and hear myself!… Have you ever been sitting in front of your computer talking to it? Well… try it! You will then feel so weird!

And the most annoying thing was the chat function… since people do not have access to a mic, they write their questions… Imagine you are talking and suddenly a text line pops up before your very eyes! Useless to say that it is very distracting and all it does is that you lose your train of thoughts… At one point I had to tell everyone to keep their questions for the end…

Bottom line, I felt like a lecturer with no audience! Or even worse, like a comedian on stage with people who did not react to her jokes!… SILENCE everywhere!… Probably the longest 60 minutes of my life!!! Indeed I could not wait to get out of there! Susan, this morning, told me it did not show on their end how ackward I felt… yet she knows me and she thought I was not on my usual grounds. I really do need to interact with my students! I am not the type who speaks all the time and does not allow her trainees to speak, laugh and interrupt.

I had been told that the best way to teach on this platform was to keep everyone as participant… it means they do not see any buttons and they do not even have control on their cameras and microphones. Only the host can grant them such privileges… how? by setting them as presenters…  I can easily understand that, when there are 99 attendees, not setting them as participants would be risky! If someone ever clicks on a button, it affects layouts and stuff that everybody can see!… And apparently some people are not very disciplined and therefore it is tough to keep control on the class.

Well… I taught in penitentiaries where I had 78 inmates under my supervision… I do believe I can control an audience of 4 or 6 people quite easily! I can do it in real life, why would it be different in a virtual classroom? I have been teaching for 25 years… I think I can allow my students to have fun and enjoy their learning journey without losing control on the bonne marche of my classes.

On March 8, I will have a free assessment session to evaluate people who want to participate in a series of intermediate French classes… There will be six people and, this time, I will set them as presenters! After all, they are adults and I doubt anyone will start playing with buttons just for the fun of messing things up! Also with such a small group, I doubt we will experience widthband problems… All I want is a “real” virtual classroom! And I know I can achieve it… trust me, I will! Stay tuned because I will keep you posted…

“Les miroirs feraient bien de réfléchir un peu avant de renvoyer les images.”

Jean Cocteau