As advances in technology continue to increase exponentially, it is not unlikely that the next time you go “under the knife”, your surgeon could be a robot and you doctor might be in a different country. Granted there are a number of other factors that come into play (legal, ethical, etc.), but 10, 20, 50 years down the road could this sort of procedure become common place? It really does beg the question, what can’t be outsourced?

I have actually participated in this type of tutoring system, although not from a Foreign Service. During my second year of college, when I still aspired to become an electrical engineer ( thank god I woke up and those days are long gone), I had a private math tutor whom I met with 8 times a month, six of which were online and two were in person. Comparing the in person sessions to the online sessions, they both have their benefits. While it is nice to sit at home in your pajamas and get tutored, the lack of face to face communication greatly hinders the process, both for the tutor and the student.

I understand that there are many families who cannot afford private tutors, and that they are really the prime market for this type of service. My fear is that the price of this service will drive the market down as a whole, and in turn will decrease the overall quality of the service provided. I currently charge $20/hr for my services, and this rate (while still reasonable) will be destroyed by people like the woman in this article, who is making $200 a week for 24 hours of work (the equivalent of about $8.33/hr) for her tutoring service.

If more services follow this trend, we better watch out. Are Ivy League professors going to follow by leaving their institutions and offering their services online for more money, thus cutting out the institution that earned them their reputation? Who knows for sure, but it’s definitely something to think about.

I think this is a great idea and how can anyone be mad (if anyone is) if another country is taking a service already offered, probably doing it better, and for less money. And time, little Johnny doesn’t have to be driven 20 minutes to the tutor, then picked up an hour later wasting fuel in Mom’s Suburban.

I was in tutoring for reading (imagine that after reading my posts) and was a math tutor. The system is not regulated and disorganized. Maybe some lower price competition will force US companies to reform and actually help the kids instead of line their pockets.

How far will people go with outsourcing to India?

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/report_many_u_s_parents

Hilarious video!

Uh, I don’t think so. See/refer to discussion on Angie’s post re ethics.

Assume you were kidding and wrote in jest, and good judgment humor is always welcome on the blog; but if not, this is not a wise road for anyone to go down re a blog post, comment, or book review ….

Anyway, I think that this online tutoring and assistant business is a good idea for some of us who can’t afford the luxary of paying good money for a one-on-one tutor/assistant. However, there is a limit on what I would pay for. Tutors and assistants don’t really require75% nonverbal communication (thank you Dr. Beaman) in order to effectively deliver their intended purpose.

In relation to what Matt Sprecher said, I too think that this is a funny article seeing that we as grad students are taking a good amount of online classes for our education. Isn’t this basically the same thing? It all depends on the subject matter and teaching methods. For instance, our online course in Six Sigma this quarter is very informative and is a great way to learn. This is mainly due to the interactive teaching methods provided. If I just sat there listening to a teacher speak or reading the words from a textbook, I would not get nearly as much out of it. Sometimes, online teaching is more appropriate in my opinion.

Somehow it is nonsense that our country is the one with the most science Nobel prizes but at the same time is not able to prove that its school system is panic-proof. I don’t think that this is because the quality of our schools is too bad. Moreover it’s due to a lack of individual attention from the teachers due to bigger classes for cost saving reasons. Furthermore, today’s teachers tend to be overwhelmed because they have to deal with more social problems, which used to be solved in the family circle. Additionally, there are more and more households where both parents work and therefore they can not help the children with their homework, or they are simply not educated enough to do so. TutorVista addresses exactly this problem. I do agree with Steve that our society is moving away from personal communication, but I can also imagine that the children like to learn with the TutorVista system because it feels like the teacher would actually sit next to you and do the homework or studying together with you.

Families spend money for their satellite TV and power bill and I can imagine that in the future, online tutoring will naturally belong to the budget as well.

Just as businesses are forced to outsource to keep up with competition, people will have to utilize these discounted services as well. If I want my (future) children to do well and stay competitive academically with their peers, then we will have to take advantage of services such as the TutorVista.

The lack of face-to-face communication is definitely a growing disadvantage to the current generation. “Friend Sites” such as myspace, facebook don’t enhance socializing ability and comfort as well as when I used to knock on the door down the street to ask if Bobby can come out to play. Verbal communication is being phased out by the digital age. People would rather send a text or an email than talk verbally. These foreign-based services do contribute to that, but not enough to miss out on these valuable services. That is more of a larger cultural trend that we must find a way to counteract.