The purpose of Things

I think we can all agree on this definition:

Everything that is invented, build, manufactured is made with a certain purpose in mind. If this thing does not serve the purpose it is broken.

A car is made to bring you from A to B. If the car does not serve this purpose anymore, it is broken.
A toaster is made to toast bread. If it does not toast bread anymore, it is broken.

And I think we can all agree on this second definition:

If something is broken and does not serve its purpose anymore, it is useless.

If these definitions are true for cars, toasters, cellphones etc they are also true for websites. In this case language learning / teaching platforms. They work fine for students who are searching for teachers, of course. As we all know there are far more teachers than students available but what happens if you change the perspective and have a look from the teachers side?

All platforms promise teachers that they will earn money “from the comfort of your home” by teaching “students from around the world”. And to be honest, this is the main reason for teachers to subscribe to such a platform. All the rest like virtual classrooms, flashcards, tests, schedule etc is just the cherry on the cake. Nice but not really necessary.

A colleague made a very good statemant about this issue in the Myngle forum and I would like to quote it here:

What I hope Myngle will do for me as a teacher is:

a) bring potential students (with both motivation and means) to the site through marketing and advertising (and yes, promotions),
b) guarantee them that they will have a quality experience no matter what course or teacher they select, and
c) make it easy for them to find exactly what they are looking for – at which point it becomes my responsibility to “sell” my courses and deliver the goods.

And there is the failure in the engine of every platform out there. They all fail to bring enough students on the site so teachers can sell their goods.

Even more problematic, none of them seem to have have a plan to solve this issue or to have an idea why it does not work. None of them wants to state: “Sorry guys, you came too early, the customers are not (yet) here.”

All of them are using the same graphs which show you how big this market is, I think 12 billion USD in 2009. But if this market would be really here right now why is nobody using those platforms then?

Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe in this market and it will be there but this is the little but important difference between present and future tense. Sure, those 12 billion USD will be spent somewhere but not on those platforms, at least not in 2009 or 2010.

Now let us go a step further. If the platforms do not work, why should a teacher pay commission to them? I am not talking about the case when a teacher really finds a student there because then the purpose is served and the platform deserves its commission.

I am talking about the case that the platform tells the teacher: “Well, we have no idea how to get students so please go out on the internet and find yourself some students. Then bring them over here, so we can get commission.”

It’s like going to the bakery and the sales person says: “Sorry, we don’t know how to bake bread. Please go home and bake it on your own. Then bring it back here so we can sell it to you.”

Honestly, who would do that?

Astonishingly there seem to be teachers who bring students, THEIR students, to those platforms in order to pay commission for teaching them there. Why? Or better, for what?

For the virtual classroom? Get DimDim, Adobe Live Connect or WiZiQ.
For the schedule? Subscribe to Scheduly or Google Calendar.
For the payment? Subscribe to PayPal and even Credit Cards are no problem.
For the website? Open a simple blog on WordPress, Blogger or EduBlogs.

All of the above does not cost you a dime. It’s all available for free.

And it is one of the reasons why I founded the E-Teachers Academy. In the Academy you will learn step by step how to build your own little platform and generate a new source of revenue besides the platforms.

As soon as students are coming to the platforms you will already be established on the market with enough experience to create a second, third or fourth revenue stream on those platforms. This way you will be able to earn decent money and to balance fluctuations of students on those websites.

The E-Teachers Academy will open in June 2009. For all the news, subscribe to the newsletter and follow on Twitter.

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Stephen Jones

The market for online teaching is more with corporate than private individuals. A company with thousands of employees will never go to just one teacher. Instead they will either look for an online school or go to a platform. The real question is 'Are these platforms ready to take on the hordes when they eventually come?' Many of these platforms have complete amateurs 'teaching' on them who have little or no idea about how to teach a language offline (let alone online); these unqualified individuals, some of whom barely manage to speak the language they profess to teach, are ruining the credibility of such platforms. It is time for the platforms to tighten up their nets if they want to catch the big fish.
KirstenWinkler

Hi Stephen,
welcome to my blog :).

A company with thousands of employees will stay with the providers they already use. As Berlitz is building up their online activities others will follow, Wall Street Institute etc, you name them.

Platforms will never be able to offer the same services to those companies as a platform is a platform or marketplace. Even if my apples are not A quality I can try to sell them. And if my apples are A quality I don't work for a platform.

So platforms are and will be for individual lessons only. But this is a huge market, too. In one or two years. It's like Twitter. Who knew two years back what it will be today?

To me platforms are service providers for teachers and students. They (should) make our life easier and therefore earn their commission or a monthly fee. But the rest should be up to the teacher and his student.
chinamike

You may find this interesting:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0519/p09s02-coop....
KirstenWinkler

I do, thanks for the link :)
chinamike

You are officially invited to China where the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks can be had for $3.00.
KirstenWinkler

Well, it's not about offering services that are free, it's about founding your own business with the less investment possible.

The problems for teachers who want to do build up their own service is that they think
1. it is expensive
2. it is difficult

In the Academy they will learn that this is not like this anymore. With an investment between 0 USD and 5 USD per month you can basically offer the same services as the platforms do. So this is a great way to use the time unless platforms will work.

If you established yourself as an online teacher by then you can easily create new revenue streams by offering your services on those platforms.

So basically it's about maximizing your revenue, not about offering low cost or free services.
chinamike

I wouldn't dream of disagreeing with you but the difference between being free and costing $5.00 a month is a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
KirstenWinkler

Only $5 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks? Wow, here in France we might get an Espresso for that :).

And for $5 you already get a decent webhosting, but as I said, you can start a business for $0, too.
chinamike

Bravo, you have set out a great case for this kind of service. With swine flu on the horizon people should be jumping at a chance to learn more about how to set up their own free/low cost services.

All the major educational providers should be very clear about how they can add value beyond the free basics you will be teaching us about. I would expect these providers will all be sending people to your classes to learn more. :)

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