This week is ending in total bliss!… I got excellent news from my students… It started with a message from Melody early yesterday morning… she got her B in oral interaction!… her job offer, which was conditional to getting the required language level of the position, is now official!… I am sure that she is a very happy camper right now!
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
2 Comments
Lyne
A nice succinct description of the problems.
These things would not be so relevant if such sites called themselves learning exchanges and no money was involved. But, as you describe, there are sites which want to market themselves as places where people can come and pay money to learn from “teachers”.
It is hard to run a professional teaching resource and also keep it touchy feely. A professional site usually has a professional feel. There will be rules, administration policies, methods of redress of grievances , and fast removal of transgressors. Many non profession, community oriented sites on the internet operate in a professional manner in order to give everyone “a fair go” .
As one site has recently discovered, if you pay money to people and leave lots of loopholes in your administration then some people will find those loopholes and exploit them. The good intentions of the funders of the site will not always be matched by the intentions of the users.
If the underlying technical operations, the programming and interoperation of component software is not thoroughly tested by users before release, then inevitably some users will discover gaps and glitches and a few will go on to exploit them.
Warm and fuzzy intentions are no match for a devious mind. even in the best systems it is likely that some people will find legal ways to rort the system and never be detected because they stay within all the rules. It is called computer fraud and is largely undetected.
The answer, weeeell, you could go for massive administration, security and monitoring systems.
Or, you could rely on user reporting, community activity and observation – Australia has a minor political party with a similar aim.
You could do all this. A much better method is to adopt the KISS principle
- Keep it Simple Stupid.
If it is paid then pay for it . Each person pays the agreed fee, no discounts, no special deals. Read the menu, select for content and quality and pay the money. Teachers must have verifyable profiles and references. A newcomer to teaching can teach on such a site as long as their lack of experience and expertise is clearly stated.
Each transaction must be a separate transaction, able to be tracked through a credit card or a payment service. complex schemes such as payments accumulated across teachers and mixed bulk packages are a recipe for disaster.
A student and teacher should be able to negotiate a rate and payment method, a one off, or a class a series of classes. The teachers pays the site for its use, so simple. WIZIQ can do it why not others.
If a student or teacher fails in their obligations then remove them quickly, no wailing and chest beating or handwringing.
But for some “education” sites that would be too professional, too business like, and would not fit the “dream”.
My response: “If it is free then give it away.”
If you want to maintain a learning community then establish it as an open resource with the clear understanding that it has no link to professional paid services.
Philip
Philip,
Thanks for bringing up those issues… actually I do agree with you: if someone wishes to maintain their site as an open resource, they should make it clear to those who join with the intent to get paid for their services…
And yes there are sites where teachers pay for the use of their platform (yearly fees and not a 15% or 20% cut on their income, which in my mind is a rip off considering they don’t get anything, not even proper technical support!), but they remain independent and they can run their own business without interference… and WIZIQ is, in my opinion, the best solution I found on the net for holding my online business!…