World is getting Flatter for Educators

This is another proof of Mr. Friedman's Hypothesis that the world is flat. Will online classes be taught from India? why not?

Story--Courtesy Reuters
U.S. homework outsourced as "e-tutoring" grows

By Jason Szep Thu Sep 28, 10:43 AM ET

BOSTON (Reuters) - Private tutors are a luxury many American families cannot afford, costing anywhere between $25 to $100 an hour. But California mother Denise Robison found one online for $2.50 an hour -- in India.

"It's made the biggest difference. My daughter is literally at the top of every single one of her classes and she has never done that before," said Robison, a single mother from Modesto.

Her 13-year-old daughter, Taylor, is one of 1,100 Americans enrolled in Bangalore-based TutorVista, which launched U.S. services last November with a staff of 150 "e-tutors" mostly in India with a fee of $100 a month for unlimited hours.

Taylor took two-hour sessions each day for five days a week in math and English -- a cost that tallies to $2.50 an hour, a fraction of the $40 an hour charged by U.S.-based online tutors such as market leader Tutor.com that draw on North American teachers, or the usual $100 an hour for face-to-face sessions.

"I like to tell people I did private tutoring every day for the cost of a fast-food meal or a Starbucks' coffee," Robison said. "We did our own form of summer school all summer."

The outsourcing trend that fueled a boom in Asian call centers staffed by educated, low-paid workers manning phones around the clock for U.S. banks and other industries is moving fast into an area at the heart of U.S. culture: education.

It comes at a difficult time for the U.S. education system: only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school, a proportion that slides to 50 percent for black Americans and Hispanics, according to government statistics.

China and India, meanwhile, are producing the world's largest number of science and engineering graduates -- at least five times as many as in the United States, where the number has fallen since the early 1980s.

Parents using schools like Taylor's say they are doing whatever they can to give children an edge that can lead to better marks, better colleges and a better future, even if it comes with an Indian accent about 9,000 miles away.

SLANG & AMERICAN ACCENTS

"We've changed the paradigm of tutoring," said Krishnan Ganesh, founder and chairman of TutorVista, which offers subjects ranging from grammar to geometry for children as young as 6 years old to adults in college.

"It's not that the U.S. education system is not good. It's just that it's impossible to give personalized education at an affordable cost unless you use technology, unless you use the Internet and unless you can use lower-cost job centers like India," he said over a crackly Internet-phone line from Bangalore. "We can deliver that."

Many of the tutors have masters degrees in their subjects, said Ganesh. On average, they have taught for 10 years. Each undergoes 60 hours of training, including lessons on how to speak in a U.S. accent and how to decipher American slang.

They are schooled on U.S. history and state curricula, and work in mini-call centers or from their homes across India. One operates out of Hong Kong, teaching the Chinese language.

As with other Indian e-tutoring firms such as Growing Stars Inc., students log on to TutorVista's Web site and are assigned lessons by tutors who communicate using voice-over-Internet technology and an instant messaging window. They share a simulated whiteboard on their computers.

Denise Robison said Taylor had trouble understanding her tutor's accent at first. "Now that she is used to it, it doesn't bother her at all," she said.

TutorVista launched a British service in August and Ganesh said he plans to expand into China in December to tap demand for English lessons from China's booming middle class. In 2007, he plans to launch Spanish-language lessons and build on Chinese and French lessons already offered.

A New Delhi tutoring company, Educomp Solutions Ltd., estimates the U.S. tutoring market at $8 billion and growing. Online companies, both from the United States and India, are looking to tap millions of dollars available to firms under the U.S. No Child Left Behind Act for remedial tutoring.

Teachers unions hope to stop that from happening.

"Tutoring providers must keep in frequent touch with not only parents but classroom teachers and we believe there is greater difficulty in an offshore tutor doing that," said Nancy Van Meter, a director at the American Federation of Teachers.

But No Child Left Behind, a signature Bush administration policy, encourages competition among tutoring agencies and leaves the door open for offshore tutors, said Diane Stark Rentner of the Center on Education Policy in Washington.

"The big test is whether the kids are actually learning. Until you answer that, I don't know if you can pass judgment on whether this is a good or bad way to go," she said.
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Economics Roundtable: Robert Shiller

Yale economist Robert Shiller argues that the stock market is explained by investor psychology, not the internet or globalization as others claim. Shiller forecast the collapse of the last bubble in 2000 and offers insight here into assessing risk in the 21st century. Series: "Economics Roundtable" [Public Affairs]

Demand

This is my lecture on Demand based on Textbook by David Colander. Using Google to put up my lectures.

Blocked Sites On Campus

You Tube is blocked on our campus, so some of the video links are not visible on campus.
The school blocks My Space too. However, the students organization are using it and coming up with new groups all the time. A college trustee has a myspace account. He can be found in the Rio Hondo Past and Present Group.
The AGS Group post was interesting:
"... we have been having some technical difficulties with our normal Rio Hondo AGS website and so what the heck; why not create a myspace for AGS? Everyone has a myspace (well almost) and lets be frank; they check it constantly, forcing administrators at Rio Hondo to ban myspace entirely. Consequently, we figured this would be a great and quickest way to reach our members, discuss upcoming events, announce deadlines, and etc....!"

Myspace Groups

Oh I set up a MySpace account too. I am Economisto! And I found this Video there:Posted By:Econ311

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Fiscal Policy

Economics Video

This is a very creative way of teaching fiscal policy.
Somebody flagged it on Youtube but it is clean!

Fishball explained with Economics

Is this Mandarin or Cantonese? Is it accurate?

Basic Macro

My latest gadget/software is Camtasia by Techsmith corporation. I have started creating simple powerpoint on the basic Microeconomic subjects, such as supply and demand, Equilibrium etc.
I have learned that I do not like my own voice and that I have an accent.
I started with microeconomics because it is easy to break down into simple components.
What are the Basics in Macro? GDP, Aggregate Prices, .....
Next how can I keep it simple and yet fun?

My Micro MultiMedia Page Do I have an Accent or just imagining it?

It is Tarriff Plus Subsidies in the Land of Rising Sun

In previous post I wondered how do the japanese subsidize their farmers?
According to the WTO:Read the Article
The average Japanese tariff rate on agricultural imports is 20.1%, and the effective tariff rate on rice imports is the equivalent of 406%

Japanese farmers' output equals 1.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of roughly 500 trillion yen a year but the amount of farm subsidies paid by the Japanese government is equivalent to an even larger 1.4% of GDP.

I have lived in the Japanese countryside and I understand the inefficiencies of this system. But I am forgiving of this inefficiency. Look at my August 21 posting!

Why is the U.S. falling behind?

This article from bloomberg states 'U.S. spends more on primary and secondary education than most developed countries, yet has larger classes, lower test scores and higher dropout ratesU.S. spends more on primary and secondary education than most developed countries, yet has larger classes, lower test scores and higher dropout rates".
What could be the cause?
Is it a statistical distortion? where schools with small budget are lumped in with affluent school districts leading to these numbers!?
Or
Is this confirming the results of the coleman report? http://webapp.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR-STUDY/06389.xml
Or
Something else?

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