Teacheo enables virtual classrooms for remote e-learning, online tutor marketplace

When we talk about broadband stimulus funds, we tend to focus on infrastructure: fiber, wireless, and the computers themselves (in public computer centers which are getting federal funds, too). Indeed, the US government’s primary goal in giving out billions of dollars to bring broadband to unserved and underserved communities is to allow people who live in remote areas to participate in the online conversations that are taking place around the world. Very soon living in a rural area does not mean you are cut off from the world. Indeed, with high-speed broadband, you can take classes for whatever interests you. That’s why I’m really excited about online tutoring marketplaces like Teacheo, which I just wrote about on my other tech site, Pajama Entrepreneur, that provide a true virtual classroom with video, white board, and more.

At first, it seems like a rather boring site where a parent can find a math tutor for his or her child. But it goes WAY beyond that. The power of applications like Teacheo is this: people who have knowledge in a specific area – say, agriculture or cheese-making — can band together and create their own virtual classrooms where they learn from one another or teach other people their craft. This is very critical for professions such as farming where people cannot travel easily to meet one another in order to share knowledge about killing pests, the latest methods for improving crop yield, and more. It also reduces social isolation. It’s a fantastic tool for young people who want to attend classes in web design, programming, physics, math, and other subjects, but cannot afford to go to a fancy school or to travel.

Make no mistake – this is just the beginning of what I see as a HUGE trend in education. Let’s face it: education in the US has become far too expensive for most people. They take on massive amounts of debt for what citizens in other countries get for free. Worse, most colleges and universities (in the US and abroad) are nothing more than factories of credentials (polite term for diploma mills). They are the last places to get “educated”, a word that has long lost its meaning and has been perverted by the massive education bureaucracies with their “experts” and lobbying groups, their billion dollar endowments which they use to play the stock market, and their obscenely paid senior executives. The real teachers who have a passion for their subject matter and a love of teaching turn away from these ghastly places.

True learning takes place within a small community, not necessarily geographical, but a community of people with the same profession (e.g. web design) or interests (cheese-making). The newbies learn from people with a lot of experience, who in turn mentor them. The entire mentoring system with apprenticeships has largely vanished from the US and it is in grave danger of disappearing from other countries. This can bring it back. It is sorely needed because in so many areas I find the skill level of people dropping dramatically. The result is they provide shabby products and services. But it’s not always their fault. They need good mentors, close communities where the members vet one another and learn from each other.

I have cited to the example of people in rural communities using a site like Teacheo, but everyone, including people in cities with 100 Mbps connections can benefit from it. Most of us do not stay in the same job or profession all of our lives. We need retraining throughout our lifetimes. Sites like Teacheo can dramatically lower the cost of retraining and also connect us to the teachers who are most suitable for us. Hopefully sites like Teacheo will attract people who love to teach and have a passion for helping people learn.

Read: Teacheo: online marketplace for tutoring and virtual classrooms