The eduFire Blog » Teachers

Can Anyone Teach?

Koichi — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:15:09 +0000

In short, I think the answer is yes, but I really look forward to seeing what you have to say as well, in the comments! This can be a touchy subject – I’ve seen lots of debate go back and forth on this. I’ve seen “old school” (haha! pun!) teachers argue that in order to become a teacher, you must go to teacher’s school, and you must get a masters in teaching. If you don’t, then you don’t have the know-how or experience to become a teacher. On the other hand, I’ve seen others argue that anyone can teach. It’s not something you necessarily have to go to school for, and everyone has something that they can share with the world. Everyone has something that they are an “expert” in. I think they’re both wrong.

Anyone can Teach

To put it literally, anyone can teach. It’s a fact. Not everyone, however, can teach well. But, it’s not always a matter of experience. I have had so many terrible teachers who were longtime veterans. They knew all the ins-and-outs. They’ve had 20 years to “perfect” their lesson plans. And yet, they were uninspiring, unpassionate, and I didn’t learn very much at all. I didn’t want to learn. When I think back to my teachers, the best teachers weren’t necessarily good because they had been doing it for a long time. My best teachers were good because they were passionate about teaching. I’ve had awesome teachers in their twenties, and awesome teachers in their fifties. Despite their complete difference in experience and age, they were both great teachers… because they loved what they were doing, and it showed.

Not Everyone Can Teach

Unfortunately, not everyone is going to be a good teacher. I do think, however, that there are a lot of people out there who have no idea that they’d be a great teacher. A ton of people who have never thought about teaching, but would be fantastic at it nonetheless. These people didn’t get their Masters in Teaching. They are just passionate about something, and through that passion, could do an amazing job sharing it with the world. I think everyone knows someone like this. Someone that you wish would share everything they know with the world, because you know there’d be a line of people waiting to listen.

That’s why I love eduFire. It’s an open platform, which means anyone can join and start teaching right away. There’s no screening process, and anyone, no matter their location or experience, can be a part of our teaching community. If there was a screening process, there’s no way I would have gotten in. I have no real teaching experience, and have been learning along the way (and I think… well, I hope, my students are enjoying their classes). Great teachers will rise to the top, and not so good teachers won’t. Some veterans of teaching might have the advantage, and some might not. Some greenhorn teachers will hit superstar teaching status, because they inspire others to learn. I haven’t seen any correlation between experience making a teacher good. The only thing I’ve seen so far is passion, and teachers who can stay passionate their entire teaching career are going to climb to the top. If I were to put it into math terms (which I’m really really bad at, because I’ve had a lot of terrible, but very experienced math teachers…)

Experience /= Win

Passion = Win

Experience + Passion = Double Win

So what do you think? Am I just blabbering on like an old fool? Like I said, I’m really looking forward to your perspectives in the comments below!

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eduFire Classes Launching Soon – Important Info for Tutors

jon — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:47:55 +0000

For the last couple of months many of you have been participating in our eduFire Classes Beta. We’ve ran hundreds of classes and have been very happy to hear your feedback (most of which has been quite positive!). We’re happy to announce that we’re just about to move out of the beta period.

eduFire Classes will launch officially on January 20th. I’ve included some additional details in this forum post. A very important thing to mention is that when we move out of the beta period classes that we’re created in beta that have recurring sessions that extend past the 20th will need to be re-created. That’s pretty easy to do using our cloning feature but definitely something we wanted to make sure all of our tutors knew about.

So go check out the forum post and if you have any questions or comments please add a reply in that thread.

We’re really excited to launch eduFire Classes. As far as we’re aware it’ll be one of the first (the first?) open platforms for live interactive video learning on the Web. That’s pretty cool and it’s awesome to have such a great group of people who are excited to be pioneers in online learning!

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Taking a Picture of Your Non-Virtual Workspace to Add Trust to Your Profile

Koichi — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 07:26:10 +0000

Over at Onlinesapiens (a great blog about online learning and Learning 2.0), Emapey shared a really interesting idea about sharing an image of your workspace in order to build trust. If you are teaching online (and I’m guess you probably are, if you’re on eduFire), then this might be worth a shot! This is one of those things that makes a lot of sense, but I can’t figure out why. Maybe one of our members has a past full of psychology, and can fill us in?

Here’s how I see it. An image of your workspace helps make the “virtual” a little more “real,” which puts a lot of folks at ease. The stuff we’re doing with online video learning is pretty new to a lot of people, and by adding a picture of your workspace, you become a little more solid and trustworthy to those who aren’t used to a virtual environment. I could be making this all up, but that’s my two cents on the issue.

What do you think? Do you think adding a picture of your workspace (versus, say, a picture of yourself) to your profile page would make a difference? If you want to give it a shot, remember that eduFire lets you add HTML tags (which means you can embed an image in your “About Me” description) to your profile. Here’s a little cheatsheet for those of you who are rusty / new to HTML.

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Reason #4541 Why We Love eduFire: Snow!

Koichi — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:51:50 +0000

The other morning I woke up to several inches of beautiful snow. Snow on it’s own isn’t too bad, but then it warmed up slightly and melted a bit, then dropped to a frigid 25 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s about -4 Celsius). Everything turned to ice, and I was trapped! I live on a pretty big hill, so I wasn’t going anywhere.

That made me realize, though, that it didn’t matter! When you’re teaching or learning online, all you need is a computer, some equipment, and an internet connection. I was able to open my window and enjoy the snow, while everyone else was skidding around trying to go to work.

How many of you get to enjoy/not enjoy the snow where you are?

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eduFire’s Sign Name

Koichi — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 07:26:13 +0000

One of the tutors on eduFire has come up with a great idea (and a great video) about coming up with a sign for eduFire! I would explain more, but the video does a better job at that than I ever could.

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39 Free Japanese Courses You Can Sign Up For Right Now!

Koichi — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:15:35 +0000

Right now, eduFire has a ton of Japanese classes available to the world. The best part? Right now they are free. The earlier you get in on it, the more you can start learning. I’ve made a list, organized by date and level, to help you find the courses that are right for you. More are being added, so definitely take a look at the recently added classes page to find more (another classes in other subjects too!). Here’s that big list I promised you:

Beginner:

12/03 Beginners Japanese A02 – Where are you from?
12/03 Beginners Japanese A01 – Introductions
12/04 Beginners Japanese A04 – Tell me about your Family
12/04 Beginners Japanese A03 – What’s your job?
12/04 Basic Japanese
12/06 Basic Japanese
12/06 Introduction to Japanese Proverbs and Idioms
12/07 Beginner’s Japanese
12/07 Basic Japanese
12/08 Beginers Japanese 04: Tell Me About Your Family
12/08 Beginers Japanese A02: Where Are You From?
12/08 Beginers Japanese A03: What’s Your Job?
12/08 Beginners Japanese A01
12/08 Beginner’s Japanese
12/09 Beginner Japanese
12/09 Japanese For Beginners Jump Start
12/09 Japanese For Beginners Jump Start
12/10 Japanese Customs/Events
12/10 Japanese Customs/Events
12/10 Japanese Comprehension
12/10 Japanese Comprehension
12/12 Explore J-Pop & J-Rock
12/13 Japanese for Tourists / Travelers
12/13 Japanese for Tourists / Travelers
12/15 Useful Japanese Phrases
12/16 Master Hiragana & Katakana
12/16 Master Hiragana & Katakana
12/18 Beginner Japanese with Genki
12/18 Beginner Japanese with Genki
12/19 Explore J-Pop & J-Rock
01/06 Tofugu’s “Japanese for Complete Beginners”
01/06 Tofugu’s “Japanese for Complete Beginners”

Intermediate / Advanced:

12/04 Reading For Japanese
12/06 Intermediate Conversational Japanese
12/07 Intermediate Conversational Japanese
12/07 Reading For Japanese
12/17 Advanced Japanese Conversation
01/17 Business Japanese

Have any of you participated in One-To-Many classes, like the ones above?

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Using Google Docs to Collaborate with Students

Koichi — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:51:29 +0000

Cool Cat Teacher just wrote a post about the use of Google Docs in her classroom, and how it allows her students to collaborate on spreadsheets, documents, and presentations. That got me thinking. How could it be used by tutors (or the students of tutors) on eduFire? Google Docs are a great resource for teachers and students alike to allow collaboration of documents – something you can’t do with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel. Here’s what I came up with – let’s see if you can add some more.

Homework

Since both the teacher and the student can work within the same document (at the same time, even), a teacher could send homework via Google Docs, the student could fill it out, and then the teacher could correct it. When the next lesson rolls around, both the student and the teacher could pull up the document, and they can look over it together.

Presentations

One of the best ways for a student to learn, is to teach the subject they are learning themselves. A teacher could have a student make a presentation (though, if you’re using this in session, you should just use the present feature available in Adobe Connect), and then send it to you to look over. Once again, the teacher can make edits and notify the student. Plus, you can share these presentations with everyone in the world!

Keeping Track of Progress

If you’ve ever used a spreadsheet program before, you’ll know that it’s an excellent way to keep track of data. Using the Google Spreadsheet application, you can keep track of what the student has learned, when they learned it, etc. If you have a lot of students, this really helps to keep track of all that information. Also, you can share these documents with your students so they can see what they’ve learned, making it easier for them to review and make sense of everything.

Making PDF’s

Although there are a ton of other ways to do this, Google Docs is a great way to turn documents, spreadsheets, and presentations into PDFs, for even easier distribution. That way you know everyone can open the file you’re sending, and it will look the same for everyone as well, which is great since eduFire has such a broad community!

More information about Google Docs

There is also this great presentation (made in Google Docs, of course!) all about using Google Docs in the classroom. A lot of these techniques carry over to eduFire classes as well, so definitely take a look.

So, what ways do you use Google Docs in your eduFire classroom? How do you use it in your real life classroom? How do you use it in live tutoring? I believe the possibilities are endless, and only require a creative mind to come up with them! I look forward to seeing what you have to say about it!

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Rock Star Professors

jon — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:18:25 +0000

A ton of people sent me this link last week so I had to blog about it!

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star

There are a lot of Professor Lewins out there. Some teach at places like MIT. Other toil in even greater (relative) obscurity.

Had an interesting conversation with my girlfriend on the subject of the direction of media. There’s definitely a lot of trash out there these days and it seems that society is increasingly drawn to fluff, pettiness and shocking vulgarity. Not all of us of course but the whole the picture ain’t pretty…

I’m a big fan of the notion that instead of kicking at the darkness you make the light brighter. That’s what’s happening here. 99% of the planet learned physics from someone a lot duller and less passionate than Mr. Lewin. And that’s a shame because many of us don’t have the same fire for these ideas that he’s instilling in students. Which is also exactly why this is so cool…millions of people learning from Lewin? In the future that’ll happen. Kids from China will access his lectures…oh wait, they already are.

What we’re attempting at eduFire is exactly the same thing. We’re trying to make the light brighter by elevating the best teachers on the planet.

Is it possible that one day they’ll be blogs and magazine following hot teachers and detailing their techniques?

Is it possible for an eBay-esque ecosystem to rise up around education?

Is it possible for a teacher to make a million dollars a year?

Yup.

It is.

Not easy. But possible.

Which is why it’s 2:15 AM on a Saturday night…er, Sunday morning and I’m so fired up about the opportunity to help make all that happen that I can’t sleep.

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What Tiger Woods can teach us about education

jon — Sun, 06 May 2007 08:20:04 +0000

I had a great conversation on Thursday with someone about the notion of applying best practices to education. Historically best practices have not been applied in any meaningful way in the field of traditional education. Teachers in one district often don’t know what the best teachers in their district do let alone teachers in other districts, states and countries. All that has the potential to change in the coming years. And given that we’re likely moving into a world of entrepreneurial education the question is whether as the generally collaborative nature becomes increasingly competitive won’t teachers want to hoard their “secrets.”

I don’t think they can nor will they want to (if they’re smart).

Think about Tiger Woods.

Before Tiger came to the PGA the average tour pro was a bit more slothful than they are today. They weren’t spending nearly as much time in the fitness trailer or on the range. Tiger comes to the Tour and radically changes it. Now people are hitting the weights, shedding pounds and dialing in their flexibility. While Tiger Woods tries to keep his workout regimen a secret I’d be shocked if most Tour pros didn’t have a pretty good clue as to what he’s doing. And you know what? They’re still no Tiger.

Having a Tiger Woods in golf raises the bar for everyone. The sport has become more compelling as players drive the ball further and score lower. Tiger faces increasing competition from people who he inspired to get closer to their true potential. But no one sheds tears of pity for Tiger nor should they. Because in the end he relishes the fact that he has helped push the game to another level even if it means he has to work harder to stay on top of it.

Education will eventually go in the same direction. Tiger-esque teachers will emerge (it’s already happening in South Korea) who realize that by getting really, really good at what they do they’ll be able to reap rewards that are more comparable to what superstars in other industries achieve. And what this will do is raise the bar for everyone. As competition emerges in an industry that has seen precious little it’ll be really fun to see the results. And just as importantly, the impact those results will have on students.

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Turning Teachers Into Rockstars

kareem — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:07:06 +0000

From the NYTimes last week on hedge fund manager salaries:

To make Alpha’s list, a manager needed to earn at least $240 million last year, nearly double the amount in 2005. That is up from a minimum of $30 million in 2001 and 2002. Combined, the top 25 hedge fund managers last year earned $14 billion — enough to pay New York City’s 80,000 public school teachers for nearly three years.

Doing the math means that each NYC public school teacher makes, on average, $58k per year.

Now, last year a report on education in the US found that this country is on the brink of an educational crisis:

The Teaching Commission notes that “our schools are only as good as their teachers,” yet this “occupation that makes all others possible is eroding at its foundations.” Top students are far less likely to go into teaching today; salaries are stagnant; nearly 50 percent of new teachers leave within five years. To remedy this, the commission calls for raising teachers’ base pay, finding ways to reward the best teachers, raising standards for acquiring a teaching degree and testing would-be teachers, on the basis of national standards, to be certain they have mastered the subjects they will teach.

People don’t work for money, they work for meaning. But when the disparity between the upside of working at a teacher (avg 58k to maybe 80-90k after a lifetime of service) versus working in another white-collar job (6 figures after a few years, up to $1.7B if you’re the hotshot hedge fund manager) is too large to ignore for many of the most talented folks.

The question then becomes, how to close the upside gap between being a teacher, and working in another, more lucrative job?

There are incremental solutions, like the findings in this report released by the Center for Teaching Quality in North Carolina. It calls for pay based on performance, and not seniority… rewards should go to teachers with better-performing students, and to teachers that do more work outside of the classroom. We fully endorse that idea, but there are more dramatic ways to close the upside gap.

The way we’re approaching it here it to help teachers scale their expertise by enabling teachers to reach more students. The best teachers in the world shouldn’t be constrained by physical walls that enable them to reach a few thousand students a year at most. Those best of the best should be rock stars, and should make more money than crappy teachers whose lectures you have to struggle to stay awake in.

Helping education scale effectively is a problem we’re working to solve at Education Revolution. It excites me that by achieving this, we’ll not only be incentivizing super smart people who might otherwise go into I-banking to help the world become a smarter place, but also help drive change in an industry that badly needs it.

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