Why Online Tutoring?
I find great joy in doing math with a pencil- usually on paper, sometimes on a scrap piece of wood, sometimes right on a project that I'm building. I've been weary of involving too much technology in the past, as the beautiful simplicity of math seems to get lost in the glitz and glam of whatever device we're using. My shift to online tutoring, where technology takes center stage, feels like going a bit against the grain. However, as I'll discuss below, the benefits of online tutoring are many, and if done correctly, can still allow math to be front and center.
1) Freedom of Location
The first, and most obvious benefit of online tutoring, is that it allows much more flexibility, both in space and time. The only requirements are an internet connection and a device capable of accessing it. From there, a school, student's home, library or coffee shop (with headphones of course) or even a sibling's soccer game with a nearby hotspot all serve as possible places to work from. This mobility allows you to build tutoring into your student's life, rather than trying to build their life around it.
2) Tutoring Session Can be Recorded and Rewatched for Reinforcement
One of the most powerful benefits of online tutoring is the ability to record the session. When working with students, I frequently use sample problems to work through with the student, so that they can see each step and use it as a model for completing other problems. However, once the tutoring session is over, the student has only the finished product to work from. Having a video of each step, as it happens in real time, can be invaluable to the student for using later when they are working on their own. This allows the tutoring session to retain even greater value once it has ended.
3) Student gains comfort using technology for something other than Snapchat or Videogames
There is a little doubt that students today are comfortable using technology. In fact, they typically are able to learn new technology faster and easier than adults. However, learning to use that technology in an appropriate way is crucial to a student's success. Faster, more powerful, and more connected technology is driving the world toward one in which projects are completed non-locally. Members of a given project may be spread out around the town, state, country, or even world. Learning how to use online tools for collaboration through tutoring gives students repeated, structured practice working in realtime with collaborators in a different location.
4) Online Tools such as Miro Interactive White Board
I wasn't really excited about branching out to online tutoring until I found Miro. This is an online, shareable, infinite whiteboard that both tutor and student can work on at the same time, from two different locations. It integrates with Google Drive, allows pdf's to be uploaded and worked on collaboratively. If the student doesn't have a digital copy of what they're working on, they can just take a photo of the work and upload it. It can be typed, written, or drawn on right on the screen, then exported as a JPEG or PDF.
But the part I'm most excited about is how easy it is to be messy. I always encourage my students that some of math should be messy. While their final answer and work should be neat and organized, there's often or scratch work, that students need to complete. I find they are at times reluctant to do this "messy" work, often for lack of lack of scrap paper nearby. Having an infinite work space around their worksheets will help students push through and do the extra work needed to evolve their skills.
When shareable work spaces are combined with tools like Google Video Hangouts and Skype, which allow realtime communication between tutor and student, the full benefits of online tutoring can be realized.
5) Online tutoring is environmentally friendly!
My students are spread across a wide geographic area. The less driving I do, the less green house gases are emitted. Who doesn't want a healthier planet?! :)
These are just some of the benefits of online tutoring. If you've had different experiences, good or bad, I'd love to hear about them! You can either comment below, or you can email them to me. If you're unsure if online tutoring is right for your child, let's chat on the phone about it, or we can do a trial session and see how it goes!
Until then, Happy Learning!
Aaron