When my daughter was in high school, she wasn't very good at math, so we hired
a tutor who came in once or twice a week and helped her to get good enough to
get through it. She's now at university, and when I ask her whether she's
taken lecture notes, she tells me she didn't have to because they're on the
Internet.
I saw something on TV the other day which took all of this several steps
further. A girl was being tutored in math just like my daughter once was. But
what she was paying attention to was not a live and present tutor, but a
computer screen. Equations and geometric shapes would appear on the screen,
and she would type in responses. Back would come word that she got it or
didn't quite get it and on it went. Where was the tutor? Why, in India of
course!
The girl's mother appeared on TV and explained that hiring a virtual tutor in
India was much cheaper than hiring a real one here. It all made perfect sense
and I began to wonder how much further it could all be taken. Do we really
need schools to send kids to? Do we really need university classrooms? Are
our teachers and professors vulnerable because educators are much cheaper in
India? In a digital world, are the possibilities indeed endless????
Ed
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