So I started tutoring kids in the areas of Maths and Science following their own school's syllabus for a year now, and so far I've been gaining more and more student through connection of current students. Since I'm pretty OK on technology I use programs like Microsoft Excel to manage class times. The way I tutor those students is through Skype video calling where I would have a HD webcam so they can see my whiteboard in the background and a microphone so they can hear me properly instead of the built-in microphone on my laptop. It's a great way to reach to students, and even I don't charge students who are disadvantaged financially, and it's a fantastic experience. Does anyone have thoughts on this, online tutoring via video calling? If you do this sort of thing, do you use Skype or another service?
Hey Harrison. I mentioned in another thread that I gave ESL classes to Japanese people for a few years using Skype. Back then I was sucking on the WiFi signal in my village (it came in from about fifty yards over there), as the only phone connection was something like 28kbs/second, hardly enough for anything like Skype. I did have a couple of students who insisted on video chatting, but the band width was just not up to it and they didn't last long with me. The vast majority of my classes were just Skype calls. We did use the chat feature to share links and be looking at the same pages on our screens during the classes (news feeds, blogs, pictures, maps, etc). And the platform I used insisted that we use headset and mic and not the speakers and mic of our computers. Also just a lot more comfortable. I tried using Skype for my day job a couple of years ago, but gave up on it, just too old-fashioned and like having a phone cradled to my ear when doing business. peace, revel.
I use skype as my business phone. I have not gotten into the use of the webcam I have been resisting that.I can now do my complete insurance business online using skype and webcams. No need to run all around town to meet people to sign contracts. I am still working on getting comfortable with the process.