
Computers are virtual tutors from around U.S.
	By Christina Denardo Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Saturday, November 04,2006 DELRAY BEACH — Inside one of Village Academy's portable classrooms, 20 tutors work one-on-one with sixth- and seventh-grade students. Today's assignment: multiplying exponents. But the room is fairly quiet. Almost like a library. The tutors are virtual. At Village Academy and schools throughout Florida, students are getting tutored online by teachers spread across the country. The tutors talk to students over large headsets and write problems and messages on their computer screens using Smartboard technology. Students show their work on screen using an interactive pen and a pad. Bad handwriting? There's a chat function and students and teachers can type directly onto the screen. Studentnest.com, a California-based tutoring company, began offering tutoring to school districts in Florida this year to comply with the No Child Left Behind law. The company charges the district $50 per hour per student, a few dollars more than big outfits such as Sylvan. The company has been offering on-line tutoring in India for several years to students preparing for graduate school, but it's recently entered the K-12 fray, said Mohshe Raza, regional vice president. Their tutors work with students all over South Florida, including St. Lucie, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. It has applications for No Child Left Behind tutoring in 20 other states. All teachers are certified or retired. The company tries to keep students with the same tutors, but there are no guarantees. Of the 520 students that are getting after-school tutoring, 70 chose the on-line option. Parents, many of which live within walking distance of the school, like the convenience. "This gives us an opportunity to give our students individual attention," said Tammy Ferguson, principal at Village Academy, a K-8 school. "We know from research that one-on-one is sometimes enough to get them where we need to go."