Second Life® is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe. Perhaps you can use it for ESL learning and teaching purposes...
By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn. - Latin Proverb
Perhaps you heard about virtual language classrooms and how the Internet has modernized distance teaching. Communication in a virtual classroom goes by means of electronic media like in an existent school. Students in a virtual classroom acquire language knowledge and skills by studying movies, texts, pictures, and by accomplishing various home assignments. Subsequent discussions help students to deepen their knowledge, develop their language and critical thinking skills. Discussion forums, chat rooms, voice mail and e-mail are often used for communication. Home assignments are usually submitted electronically as e-mail attachments. When assistance is needed, tutors are available like in a real educational institution. It is usually more difficult to apply online tutoring for children than for mature adult learners.
What Do You Need?
If you want to create a virtual classroom you need to do the following: 1. Familiarize yourself with more Internet opportunities. 2. Revise international copyright laws. 3. Choose a good host for your website (you will need a simple website for a virtual class). 4. Find software which would enable you to interact with your students through chat sessions or forums. 5. Study carefully all information below.
Opportunities Online tutoring is the process by which knowledge, skills and experience are passed on from a tutor to a student over the Internet. In the past two years online tutoring has grown at an amazing speed. Educational institutions worldwide turned the Internet into a training robot.
Here are the opportunities that will be open to you as an ESL online tutor:
1. Begin a brand new career from anywhere in the world and teach from your home. 2. Become a qualified online tutor and teach for one of the countless online schools and colleges worldwide. 3. Take advantage of being able to teach students of various cultural backgrounds around the world. 4. Teach whenever you want; choose the time that is convenient for you. 5. Become the first ESL online teacher in your school, i.e. the one who established a virtual classroom. 6. Run your own online school and become your own boss. 7. Expand your own teaching opportunities by offering the opportunity for your students to interact with you online.
Profitable Business with Little Capital Investment
Online tutoring is a good way of starting up your own ESL business without the need for a lot of capital investments. Home-based online tutoring allows you to work at home by investing with little capital risk. You do not need your own storefront to start a tutoring business and you do not need a great deal of experience to teach. Many of the resources that you need are available online. The most important quality is to understand the subject matter and to have an enthusiasm for giving out what you know.
Forms of Online Tutoring
Online tutoring exists in the form of tutoring by email and tutoring over the Internet.
1. Tutoring by email means that the tutor creates a programme of study and the student accesses information such as texts, tasks, quizzes, tests, exercises at their own time. Communication between the tutor and the student happens via email. Tests are taken and submitted by the student to the tutor. The tests are graded and returned with comments and remarks by the online tutor.
2. Tutoring over the Internet takes place when students and tutors engage online at the same time as in a physical classroom. Online chat and instant messaging are used as means of communication between the tutor and the student.
ESL Virtual Classroom Requirements
With the help of modern technology an ESL tutor can create his or her own virtual classroom and teach at the time that is convenient.
If you want to create your own virtual classroom you will need the following tools: 1. Broadband Internet access. 2. Audio microphone, speaker and a web cam. 3. A shared screen (‘the whiteboard’) on which both the student and you can write (there is a software called Whiteboard Software). 4. Digital pen mouse for writing, drawing and highlighting text. 5. Your own website.
If you are serious about online tutoring you need to have your own website to be able to promote your services as well as to communicate with your students. You will also need to get Whiteboard Software. Meanwhile, you can download an online course management system, a free software package Moodle which will give you a better idea how to create an effective online learning community. You might also want to recommend your students to install Babylon software. In any case, you will still need to design your own website.
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