Clever Turtles

"The next day my mother went out and bought one."

NY Times is running a story on South Korea's biggest tutoring website, Megastudy. I haven't heard of it before, but I have heard mention of online study systems while I was teaching both adults and children.

The article gives a very good overview. What is not really addressed, however, is the quality or pedagogy of the online courses. They appear to be run pretty much like typical hagwon courses.

For a fraction of what they would pay at traditional private “cram schools,” students can watch video-on-demand tutorials on home computers or download them into hand-held devices for viewing in the subway or parks. They can skip or fast-forward through some parts of a lecture and bookmark or repeat the rest.

...

“At Megastudy, a subject, for instance English, is split into many different classes, such as different levels of grammar, so that it becomes a financial burden for low-income families if their children subscribe to multiple classes,” Mr. Yang said.

...

To compete with the free online schools, Megastudy hires teachers with followings that rival those of pop stars. Some teachers lose their contracts if their popularity ratings drop.

...

Teachers are under pressure to hold onto their audiences.

“This is an intensely competitive market,” said Kang Su-hyun, 36, a Megastudy teacher who offers 50 courses on Korean language and literature. “Some teachers undergo cosmetic surgery and hire makeup artists.”

Not exactly a big change from the regular hagwon routines.

However, this sort of distance learning could address the geographic disparities in education quality. What is not addressed in the article is the fact that tutoring schools are clustered around population centers, with the "better" (or so they claim) schools based in Kangnam, and little educational opportunity in the countryside. With distance learning making the typical middle-class educational options in Seoul available to students anywhere on the peninsula, perhaps we can see a revival of the Korean suburbs and rural villages.

I would also be interested to see if the courses on Korean language and literature would be available outside of Korea. These courses could be of very real benefit to ethnic Koreans who live abroad, who often receive little formal education in their national culture.

Of course, these guys only have Korea's best interests at heart.

Critics say online cramming adds to a student’s already intense schedule. But Mr. Son [founder of Megastudy] dismisses such views, saying that the energy demonstrated by South Koreans who “study like crazy” is what keeps the country’s economy going.

Right. Obviously there is no conflict of interest in that statement.

With the country pouring billions of dollars into making its Internet 10 times faster by 2014, Mr. Son suggested that the world turn to South Korea for a glimpse of what education might look like in the future.

“Offline schools will become supplemental to online education,” he predicted. “Students will go to school, perhaps once a week, for group activities like sports.”

I couldn't make up shit this good if I tried. (And I do try.)