This morning I read a very interesting article in the NY Times.
[...] Education moved from a bespoke craft to a more industrial approach. [...]
[...] Still, one-to-one tutoring is the learning method proven time and again to sharply improve a student’s measured performance. A good human tutor can deliver a “home run,” educationally and statistically, explained Christopher J. Dede, a professor of education at Harvard University. [...]
Very encouraging for the classic one-on-one private teacher / tutor, right? I will get back to this point of the article later because there is more to talk about.
Remember the report of the U.S. Department of Education that proved that online learning is at least as efficient as classic face to face learning, if not even more effective when both the methods are blended? This report is now quoted all the time.
When I first read this report I thought the reason why the US government did it was to have something to build a new strategy on. I did not think that they would transfer courses online because they are better than conventional courses, I thought the reason would be money. Saving money, to be exact. I think I was right, quoting the NYT
[...] The Department of Education recently announced that it was developing a new National Educational Technology Plan to provide a “vision of how information and communications technologies can help transform American education.” The plan, the agency said, will include “concrete goals,” with a draft expected early next year. [...]
As I thought. They just needed a proof that if the government wants to save money, the quality of the lessons would not decrease. The report delivers an even better result:
[...] students doing some or all of their course work online ranked in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile. [...]
So what can we expect? A total move towards online lessons? Maybe not.
[...] No one really expects classrooms to go away or K-12 and college students to learn in isolation. [...]
I still think reaching 80% of the courses are possible to be converted to online courses. You still want to do some real life experiments in chemistry, physics and other hands on topics but if you take a look at the classic curriculum of each discipline there is a lot of potential for online learning. And think about that: if 80% can be learned online, you as a teacher have 80% more time for all the important things like interaction, communication and one-on-one teaching.
And that brings us back to the 16th century teaching approach and that one-on-one teaching will make the difference between good singles and a home run.
Studies show that with about 40 hours of one-on-one attention of a teacher per year a student can mark one grade higher. Imagine you as teacher will finally have the time for this because most of the learning that not necessarily needs your attention will be done by the students online. Amazing, right?
And from the perspective of the independent online teacher like me, this means more business in the future. One-on-one won’t die out, it will constantly move online.
All in all a great article that shows once more the direction towards the education world is heading into, may it be public education or business driven education: online. As a teacher no matter if you are at a public school, university or if you are an independent one you have to adapt to this move.
Gary Vaynerchuk says it best in this video. Just exchange web 2.0 with online education 
.
So don’t let the wave break your face, ride the wave instead.
