http://www.sophia.org/home-teacher
This site allows a teacher to create and upload tutorials and package them into a class. It can be used as a learning management system. There are videos suitable for flipping or as reteaching/reinforcement.
There are many sites like this. Evidently education is seen as ripe for "disruption" so venture capital has poured money into these startups.
The problem is, there are so many sites and they are so similar there is nothing to differentiate them for the average teacher looking at them for the first time.
Sophia sent me a "badge" called "The Seed of Knowledge" when I confirmed my membership. Unfortunately the "badge" is virtual so I can't pin it to my shirt or anything. If it were an actual badge I could put it with all the Cracker Jack prizes I've won over the years...oh wait my mom threw those out when we moved during my middle school years. I guess the heads of Sophia think badges will help their brand beat the dozens of cookie cutter sites doing the same thing but without badges.
I'm not picking on Sophia but I have some questions. What happens to all these sites when the VC runs out? What happens when VC realizes there is no cash flow? What happens to all the classes and all the teachers and all the students when VC pulls the plug? Are the teachers supposed to pressure their site/district to pay up when, inevitably, the "free" membership becomes for pay? Are the teachers expected to pay their own money? How much can a teacher be held hostage for when it's March and tests are approaching and their "free" online learning management system has to pay the piper? How much could one of these sites make from ads that the kids are forced to look at when they do their homework? Is that even ethical? What makes any of these sites think they can compete with Khan as a brand?
I don't particularly like any of these sites and I hesitate to use them. I've signed up for a dozen or more and I get warm sounding emails that appear to be written by actual people telling me how much they want me to be a member of their community after I sign up and never use it. However, when the rubber hits the road and I need my kids to learn, I only link to established universities and publishers for text or tutorials. I only link to Khan Academy or Youtube or teacher personal pages for videos I need for my site. I just can't trust that any of this new stuff will still be there when the education startup bubble bursts and it's time for some people to take a haircut.
