Posts tagged wisekangaroo

Wisekangaroo is pleased to announce a new partnership with Nu School USA.

Starting today Wisekangaroo will be offering the Nu School Enterprises’ best selling program – The Speech Team Connection, which is designed to be musically interactive. This four-booklet grammar series, which teaches from beginner to college level, has been developed into a complete line of multimedia products.

Nu Schools Multimedia products, available through Wisekangaroo will transform the way kids and adults learn English. Students will have the flexibility to study on their own times using the state of the art multimedia lessons that include a mix of musical videos, interactive online quizzes and text.

Atul Pandey, Founder and CEO of Wisekangaroo.com said “This partnership significantly enhances Wisekangaroo.com’s offering as a unique and innovative English coaching school. The Speech Team Connection series will wow students, parents and teachers alike and will encourage students to learn English in a new and interesting way.”

The first of the four grammar series is being released today. The Beginner Level multimedia Grammar product is now available on Wisekangaroo.com. Ms. Graves, the creator of this series has devoted the past eight years of her life to developing this uniquely innovative teaching tool. This project is dedicated to her mother, Essonia Rhodes Graves (R.I.P).

A premier Australian Brand, Wisekangaroo is an online English language coaching school that offers a revolutionary new approach to English language learning by allowing students to study conveniently from anywhere, anytime, be it home or office and to avoid long commute times, high tuition costs, and outdated books and CD-ROMs. Wisekangaroo was created in Sydney with a mission to reshape the global English language learning industry by harnessing the skills, experience and knowledge of the best English language teachers in the world and making it accessible to everyone from anywhere and at all times. Wisekangaroo serves a large and rapidly growing global market of non-native English speakers in becoming more fluent and confident in speaking English. Through live one-on-one instruction with native English speaking teachers provided over the Internet, Wisekangaroo empowers students on their customized path to English fluency as per their specific learning needs. For more information on English language courses please visit our website www.wisekangaroo.com.

We’ve discussed in recent weeks that online tutoring is a great option as it allows for flexibility and affordability. While online tutoring offers many advantages over traditional in-person tutoring, choosing the right online tutor can be a challenge.

There is no simple formula, no single set of questions to ask or guidelines to follow when searching for a new online tutor. But if you are thinking about choosing an online tutor or if you are wondering whether your current tutor is the right one, you can use the following suggestions about how to find a competent online tutor.

Understand your needs first: Always start with assessing your own situation. Ask yourself why do you need a tutor in the first place. Try to categorize your learning needs to understand if you want to have a deeper understanding of a concept or if you want exam specific help. Analyse your learning style and figure out the time of day that you are the most attentive. You will be able to get the most out of your tutor only when you understand your own needs and learning style.

Browse and compare multiple tutor profiles: Next step is to find a good online tutor. Go to a website that caters specifically to online tutoring such as Weisekangaroo.com. Browse profiles of online tutors in your subject area. Pay special attention to the level at which they teach. Do they only help high school students or are they able to help any year level? Read their bio and if they have listed a LinkedIn or Facebook profile then look at their educational background and other interests to make sure that they are not just bluffing. 

Read student feedback for the tutor and the tutoring website: Read the feedback left by other students for the tutor. Has the tutor consistently received 5-star ratings from students? Reviews also reveal a lot about the tutor’s teaching style. Look for reviews where students have said that the tutor is flexible with the lesson durations and teaches until the student has understood the concept. This indicated that the tutor is genuinely interested in teaching rather than just charging $$ per hour.  

Ask for a free lesson to judge their teaching style: Communicate with the tutor and ask for a free lesson. The free lesson will help you get a first hand look at the tutors teaching style. It will also help you make up your mind if online tutoring fits your learning style or not. At Wisekangaroo, we encourage our online tutors to offer the first lesson free. In this free online lesson our tutors assess the learning needs of students and take them through the various features of our online virtual classroom such as the video chat and virtual whiteboard. Since the lessons are conducted online no one needs to waste any time in travelling. 

Ask about offline Support: Find out if you can contact the tutor via email before or after the online lesson. Do they utilise social media such as Twitter and Facebook? How quick is their turnaround when answering questions? With online tutoring the biggest advantage is that you can communicate anytime and most online tutors are open about receiving emails and messages beyond tutoring hours.

Ask if the tutor has work with children checks and criminal background checks: If your child is under the age of 13 then it is very important to verify if the tutor has a valid work with children check. If the tutor does not have one then suggest that they get one before they start tutoring your child. Although, online tutoring is considerably safer than in-person tutoring when it comes to child safety, you still need to be cautious of any inappropriate activity on the part of the tutor. 

Finally, make sure that the tutor is value for money: Most students and parents mistakenly think that the tutor with the cheapest rates is the best value for money. Unfortunately they do not realize that when you pay peanuts you get monkeys! That is the reason why you should look at a tutor’s rate only after reviewing his/her teaching experience, qualifications, student feedback, criminal background and the free lesson trial. Good tutors spend a lot of time preparing for their tutoring sessions and their experience lets them tailor their lesson plans according to each students personal needs. This is the reason that they may charge a higher hourly rate. Online tutoring saves tutors time in travelling and so they may be able to offer competitive rates.

Wisekangaroo, clearly outlines all appropriate methods of payment on our website and accepts payments via PayPal and all major credit cards. We even have a refund policy where if a customer is not satisfied with a tutoring session then we refund 100% of the fees.

Before you choose an online tutor, make sure you do your research. All students should receive the best in educational expertise when it comes to an online tutor and Wisekangaroo can help you hire only the best!

By Bianca Bozzi
Wisekangaroo Communications Team 

We all want the perfect work/life balance, to fit work around our lives without having to sacrifice family or study or leisure time in the process.

We should be able to find a job that we enjoy and that allows for a routine that fits around our schedule without overwhelming us.

In a recent national survey, 75 per cent of tutors said that they would work more hours between study and other life responsibilities if they had the opportunity to do so. Flexibility was the most important aspect of what made for an ideal job for respondents.

At Wisekangaroo we offer all our tutors the flexibility they need to balance work with other life commitments such as family or studies.

• Be your own boss: As an online tutor on Wisekangaroo You decide when to work, at whatever rate you choose and teach from wherever you happen to be. In other words, Wisekangaroo lets YOU be your own boss. 

• Better use of downtime: Life rarely runs like clockwork. There are always times when we are super busy and times when we are relatively free. Wisekangaroo’s online tutoring model provides the best working experience for tutors as they can take up more online tutoring requests and work more during their downtimes and pass on one when they are unable to make the time.

• Flexible ways to interact with students: Our state of the art virtual classroom helps tutors interact with their students in more flexible ways from anywhere, any time. Working as an online tutor also means you don’t have to travel to and from appointments, saving on both time and money! 

• Monetize your knowledge: By becoming an online tutor on Wisekangaroo you get to share your educational skills, knowledge and experience by reaching any student in the world through our virtual classroom via live video. Whether you are a retired teacher or a stay at home parent, you can still monetize your knowledge without sacrificing your lifestyle.

• Never loose a student even when you move away: Tutors spend a lot of time building their client base through word of mouth and referrals. Imagine having to start all over again when you move to a new city or suburb. With Wisekangaroo online tutoring, you never loose a student even if you move houses or jobs and infact you can even teach students from beyond your local areas increasing your client base.

Really, what better reason can there be to become an online tutor than for the convenience it brings, as well as getting to be your own boss? Infact, online tutors can make as much as $5000 more than traditional tutors over a year. 

Wisekangaroo has a wide variety of tutors who are retired teachers, stay-at-home parents, students and job seekers who can relate to wanting flexibility of their own. Tutoring online has also proven to have fantastic advantages for those who are already tutoring or have tutored in the past in a more traditional environment.

So if you’re looking for an opportunity that has both the flexibility to work where you want, when you want to while also allowing you to set your own rate for the work you do, Wisekangaroo is perfect for you!

Enquire now by visiting our contact page on how you can become an online tutor or drop us a line on our Twitter or Facebook pages!

By Bianca Bozzi
Wisekangaroo Communications Team

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard recently released the Australia in the Asian Century white paper, which sets out 25 integral goals outlining plans to help introduce to Australian school students the opportunity to undertake study in one of four primary Asian languages: Japanese, Indonesian, Chinese (Mandarin) and Hindi. Study would last from primary school until the end of high school and at the moment 6 per cent of Australian students learn a foreign language.

Although the Australia in the Asian Century white paper still needs policy support and has had some pointing out the fact that a similar paper called for such measures over a decade ago, it has also been applauded by many for helping to improve relationship and business ties between Australia and Asia and exposes Australian students to new and interesting languages and cultures.

We at Wisekangaroo are excited by the Federal Government’s proposed goals to help students gain better opportunities in learning Asian languages in Australia. However, at the moment there is currently a shortage of tutors in Australia who are native speakers of such languages who are urgently needed.

Wisekangaroo is especially willing to help bridge that gap and to bring students together with native speakers. In the wake of such exciting news from the Federal Government, our aim is to provide the best educational experience possible with our excellent and highly-educated online tutors in delivering important skills and knowledge when it comes to learning a foreign language.

The online tutoring services we offer for those students who learn a foreign language include many of our tutors being native speakers in the language they teach, such as Italian, Spanish, French and even Asian languages like Hindi and Chinese. This is especially advantageous with our tutors having such great familiarity and knowledge, as well as all coming from diverse backgrounds. We also have tutors available who can help students currently studying English as a Second Language and IELTS test preparation, which can be especially great for international students and those who have recently arrived in Australia.

Even better, students get the help they needed from Wisekangaroo tutors all at the fraction of the cost online than they would with traditional tutors!

All of our foreign language and ESL/IELTS test preparation tutors are highly qualified and are available to book an appointment, and will happily take you through a session anytime via video chat using our fantastic virtual classroom. You may also reach them by sending them a personal message or ask a question through our Contact Us page  or email us directly. You can also leave us a message on our Twitter and Facebook pages!

The Federal Government may not have fully implemented their goals to help improve the presence of Asian languages in Australian schools just yet, but Wisekangaroo has and always will be committed to bringing the best for all students and hope many more will take up foreign languages in the future. Our tutors will definitely be ready to help wherever you are!

By Bianca Bozzi
Wisekangaroo Communication Team

Every week we shine the spotlight on one of our star tutors. Today we meet Kate Unsworth, an English Language Tutor on Wisekangaroo. Kate lives in Sydney and loves working with students who need some help with English.

How did you get started with tutoring?

I first started teaching English at an orphanage in Cambodia 6 years ago. I taught both children and adults, and loved watching the delight on their faces as they learned to express themselves in English. I then taught English in a classroom to groups of adults at an English Language Academy in the city. Teaching in a classroom is lots of fun, but it doesn’t fit into my hectic lifestyle anymore (I have two children under 5 yrs). So I decided it would be a great idea to teach online from home. 

What do you enjoy about tutoring online on Wisekangaroo?

Online tutoring on Wisekangaroo works so well because I can share my knowledge without anyone having to travel. You can even make a cup of tea during the lesson! Or sit on the beach or in your favourite cafe. Teaching online may seem unusual at first but it actually works like any lesson. You can send the students information to read, play cds for them to listen too, and of course talk and laugh.

What are your favourite subjects to work with? 

I currently have a couple of students planning to sit their IELTS exam, so that’s a more specialised area. However I enjoy teaching all areas in English and at all levels, and find the rules of grammar fascinating. I also like introducing original material to my lessons, and can sit with a big bowl of fruits on the table whilst conducting a lesson on vocabulary for food!

What advice would you give to other tutors?

Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk about Changing education paradigms describes in great detail how the current education model was created in the image of the industrial revolution and specifically the Waterfall model of manufacturing. Here are some examples of the similarities between the two models:

1. Waterfall model enforces structure and discipline by dividing the process into stages. Schools enforce this structure by implementing separate facilities, compartmentalizing students by age and subjects. Discipline is enforced through ringing bells, timetables and uniforms.
2. In Waterfall model every phase has a defined start and end point, and progress can be conclusively identified by milestones. Schools achieve this by dividing students into batches based on “Manufacturing Date” (date of birth) of students. Each batch starts learning on the same date and ends on the same date with progress measured through standardized tests that are the same for all students in a batch.
3. Waterfall model maintains that one should move to a phase only when it’s preceding phase is completed and perfected. In schools, students learn a topic and move from one year to the next in a strictly sequential order with emphasis on completion and perfection of one topic before moving on to the next.
4. Waterfall model hypothesis states that collecting all requirements at the beginning of the project will reduce rework and redesign at later stages. The education system is based on a similar hypothesis that if you study hard for the first 15-20 years of your life, do well in school and get a college degree, you will get a good job.

Modern industries have realized the drawbacks of using waterfall model in the 21^st century economy. Today, market conditions change so rapidly that often customers don’t really know what they want up-front; rather, what they want emerges out of repeated two-way interactions over the course of the project. In this situation, the waterfall model, with its emphasis on up-front requirements capture and design, is seen as somewhat unrealistic and unsuitable for the vagaries of the real world. Further, given the uncertain nature of customer needs, estimating time and costs with any degree of accuracy (as the model suggests) is often extremely difficult. In order to cater to this dynamic environment, most innovative manufacturing and tech companies today have evolved an iterative Agile model.

The public education system based on the antiquated waterfall model worked well in the 20^th century industrial age because it helped produce the skills that were ideal to fit into the industrial culture such as following sequential manufacturing stages, starting and ending shifts on time, following detailed instructions, memorizing operational tasks and reproducing them repetitively as quickly as possible. All this changed with the advent of the digital information age and the widespread use of computers. Computers can automate repetitive tasks and perform them much faster than any human with much less error. 

I believe that it is time to reshape the education industry by introducing the technology, culture, methodologies and processes used by the most innovative and creative companies in the world and teaching them to students in schools today. Just as the manufacturing and tech industries moved away from the traditional Waterfall model to a more Agile and Lean model to keep up with changing market needs and expectations,  education systems too need to move towards an Agile pedagogical model globally for the new digital generation.

Atul Pandey
Founder Wisekangaroo

I frequently get asked about my motivation behind starting an online tutoring service that uses live video to connect tutors and students. It made me think that I need to do a better job at communicating the “WHY” for Wisekangaroo. 

I firmly believe that education is the foundation upon which societies build their future. Good education prepares young individuals to grow into responsible citizens thus creating a better community. Today more than ever before, tertiary education is considered a reliable predictor of workplace success and a college master’s degree is worth $1.3 million more in lifetime earnings than a high school diploma. 

With so many factors favoring education, it is alarming to see that school drop out rates have been rising for girls as well as boys across Australia. Every year in Australia around 50,000 young people aged from 15 to 19 drop out of education and training and are unemployed. Student attrition in Australia’s universities comes at a cost of more than $1.4 billion a year. In addition to dollar losses, there are also human costs. A student who drops out often sees the decision as indicative of failure and this can have long-lasting negative psychological and emotional costs. There may also be costs to students’ families in terms of the investments made in travel, accommodation, textbooks and other study materials.

A number of reasons contribute to student attrition from schools and universities, most of which are outside the control of the student themselves. These include

• Money,
• Learning environment at school,
• Family situation, and
• The community they live in.

Moreover, the mass education system in schools puts slow learners at a disadvantage and once a student starts to lag in class it is very difficult to catch up with the rest of the class.

Schools try to do their best to help all students and to retain those that may drop out due to the above issues but can only do so much with limited resources and budget cuts. This brings the focus on parents. In most urban families these days both parents go to work and find it difficult to spend personal one-on-one time educating their children. The problem is compounded for disadvantaged and underprivileged children in aboriginal families, families of refugees, single parent households and those living in isolated outer suburbs in Australia. It is no coincidence that children with learning disabilities and those belonging to disadvantaged families have the highest rates of school drop outs.

This has led to personal one-on-one tutors and group tutoring classes playing a major role in helping students grasp key concepts outside of schools so that they can keep up with the rest of their class. Although tutors are of great help to students, the tutoring industry in general is quite disorganized in terms of quality and trustworthiness of tutors, price per hour for a subject and availability and location of tutors in a particular suburb. Besides this, the in-person tuition delivery model itself is inefficient, expensive and inadequate for the current needs of students.

• In-person tutoring requires both the student and tutors to be physically co-located which restricts tutors and students to their local areas.   
• Precious time and money is wasted in travelling for both tutors as well as students.
• There are genuine safety concerns in scheduling tutoring sessions too early or too late in the day.
• Students benefit the most if they receive tutoring help when they are stuck on a problem which could be at any time of the day and at any place - home or school.  This means that they need a tutor who can be accessible anytime and anywhere.

Wisekangaroo’s online tutoring marketplace can help solve all the above problems. At Wisekangaroo, our mission is to reshape the education industry by harnessing the knowledge, skills and experience of the best teachers in the world and making it accessible to students from anywhere and at all times.

Wisekangaroo is a tutoring marketplace which means that students can compare several tutors based on their qualifications, hourly rates and past reviews before hiring them. Wisekangaroo’s online tutors offer personal one-on-one tutoring using live online video thus making the entire tutoring process convenient and efficient for both students and their tutors. No travel, no hassles. All you need is a laptop, web cam and microphone. 

We hope that students who can afford a tutor will save time and money in finding  online tutors on Wisekangaroo. We also realize that for every student who can afford a tutor there are 10 others who cannot. These students are the most vulnerable and most likely to drop out from schools and universities. In the coming days we will be launching a free online tutoring program that will connect volunteer tutors from around the world with underprivileged and disadvantaged students for unlimited free one-on-one tutoring sessions. With this program we hope to reach hundreds of disadvantaged and underprivileged students from remote areas who are in need of help but cannot afford a tutor because of monetary problems or lack of good tutors in their local areas. We hope to raise awareness about the issue of school drop outs and help to retain students in school by providing them free tutoring help in any subjects whenever they want, where ever they want.  

If you would like to get involved as a volunteer tutor please fill out our volunteer as an online tutor form or write to us at support@wisekangaroo.com with your name and contact details and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Also if you know a disadvantaged student who may need a tutor but cannot afford one please let us know too.

Atul Pandey
Founder Wisekangaroo

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TWITTER !!

Twitter just completed 6 years yesterday and what an incredible real time information platform it has become.  350 Million tweets are sent every day on Twitter. With its reach of 200 Million users most of whom are young and most probably students, I wanted to see if I could use Twitter as an educational platform.

A simple search on Twitter for “Maths Help” resulted in nearly a dozen desperate pleas for help with Maths that had been posted in the last 10 minutes:

My maths teacher is gonna shoot me tomorrow, anyone good at higher maths? Help ah :(

someone help me with my maths homework please ;A;

someone help me with Maths, I can do it just cba.

So I came up with the following plan to experiment with online tutoring on Twitter:

1. I Created a new Twitter account called @wktutor so that I did not spam the Timelines of my existing @wisekangaroo followers. 
2. I launched a new initiative from Wisekangaroo called #AskWisekangaroo.
3. I replied to a few of the “Maths Help” tweets saying “Send me your questions with a hashtag AskWisekangaroo and I will help you.” and just waited to see what happened next.

In a matter of minutes I started getting several requests for help with #AskWisekangaroo. The message itself was retweeted by several students to all their friends.  I tried to answer as many questions as I could and was actually a bit embarrassed that I had forgotten most of the trigonometry and calculus that I had studied in school.

The entire experiment was a great eye opener for me.

1. I realized that students these days are looking to engage with educators on platforms that they are comfortable with.
2. Students look for live tutoring help rather than searching on Google or other forums that may have answers to their questions.
3. Educators have not yet realized the potential of Twitter as a real time educational platform. 

In the coming weeks I will continue to experiment with Twitter as an Educational platform along with using online live video tutoring through Wisekangaroo. I would love to hear if other educators have done anything similar.

Atul Pandey

(Founder Wisekangaroo)