And the same scenario holds true for IT employment as well. Fast technological advancement always puts across a challenge for experienced IT professionals to keep on updating their skillset and knowledge for sustaining themselves in the industry. And if that’s the situation of experienced professionals, entry-level IT technicians are bound to face even tougher competition and need to have Industry endorsed credentials to stand apart in a crowd & prove their worth in this lucrative industry.

As a starter in the field of IT, for validating and leveraging your IT skills, you need certifications that hold market value and can get you a job you might be struggling for. In case, you are looking to start your career in IT, the most preferred and industry endorsed Entry level certifications are CCNA, MCSE and CompTIA‘s  A+ certifications and it certainly requires a foundational IT training to pass any of these Entry level IT certification exams. This is exactly where Preplogic can play a critical role for you.

Preplogic is an online training source for A+ certifications, CCNA, MCSE and other IT related certifications. The training material mainly comprises of Audio training, video lectures and e-books related to specific topics to be covered. When we got a chance to review the detailed study material provided by Preplogic for CompTIA’s A+ Certification Training , we were pleasantly surprised by the ease & content quality of audio/visuals along with the textual training material provided.

After hearing a couple of audio lectures provided to us for review, we could easily realize its value for an entry-level trainee, who’s looking to build a strong foundation with relevant IT skills & knowledge and wants to kickstart his career as an IT technician.

We would recommend you to grab a Free A+ Study guide , which will help you make a wise decision in choosing your training source for CompTIA’s A+ certification. On their site, you can also catch up some introductory videos to take a sneak peak into Preplogic’s offerings and quality standards.

Summing it up, Preplogic stands firm on its Content quality. If you’re looking for a training source for getting skilled enough and earning industry endorsed certifications, you can trust on Preplogic !

But if there are plenty of positives then there has to be some limitations of Online learning as well. One such limitation is the ‘time duration’ that it takes for a learner to grip over the concepts taught online.

Sometimes, it takes months for slow learners to get through online certifications, which are usually taught in a timespan of only couple of weeks. Another limitation of learning remotely is that it doesn’t prove to be a great approach when ‘hardware learning and operations’ are a substantial part of the course or certification involved.

In any of such possible cases, its better to opt for ‘regular education’ over ‘e-education’. In case of IT training and certifications, especially those where ‘hardware training’ plays the most significant role, rigorous IT boot camps have been proven to be the most effective way of learning technical things, in a quick & fast paced mode.

Such boot camps are agressive in approach(your study continues for really long sessions) but the output will make you feel satisfied for the time and efforts you invest into such camps.

In brief, Virtual Classroom learning is an evolving way of learning where the learner attends LIVE lectures remotely on his/her computer terminal, given by the subject matter experts or instructors at other end, using Internet as the medium between the learner and instructor. As lectures are given LIVE on internet, the student gets to have the opportunity of asking his/her queries to the instructor at any instant.

Most of the distance learning degree and training courses heavily rely on the concept of ‘Virtual Classroom’. As the learner is no more required to attend the lectures/sessions in person, this new method of learning helps keeping the lecture costs much lower than conventional classroom teaching without compromising on the quality of learning. This makes Distance learning much affordable compared to regular training courses.

There are plenty of IT training service providers on web that facilitate Virtual Classrooms. For instance, ‘Countrywide Training’ provides Virtual instructor-led training and a whole bunch of IT traininig & certification courses, in various disciplines such as Cisco, Oracle, UNIX, Microsoft, Wireless, Security, A+ certification and many others.

The courses are good enough for anybody who wants IT certifications or virtual classroom teaching from subject experts.

In the end, we can assume that the concept of ‘Virtual Classroom’ is truely the way towards ‘Global learning’ on web.

The title of this post is not at all an over-exaggeration or a biased opinion towards ziizoo(An online tutoring portal).It also does not symbolize ziizoo‘s current status(ex. market share) in its native sector(online tutoring industry).

What we mean by comparing ziizoo with Google is the ‘Awkwardness’ that Google debued with(in 1998) in Search industry and the same sort of behaviour by ziizoo in Online tutoring industry(debued in 2007).

If we talk about the internet age when websites such as Yahoo!,Excite and AltaVista were fighting for the top spot in Search Industry,the focus actually shifted from solving a core issue(which was effective and relevant search results) to glossy looks,bulk of (irrelevant) services and packaging the websites like a Glossy Casino with everything at one place(sort of horizontal portal).

That time,Google debued with an “Awkward”(Yeah!,that time it was called awkward by many) looking search engine serving just one single purpose…”Relevant Search Results“.

Rest is all history folks !

ziizoo is an online tutoring marketplace that acts(and looks) like a search engine for your tutoring related queries.You put a keyword thinking of your tutoring need and you get a list of all the tutors(either professional teachers or knowledgable peers) that are listed in ziizoo and are relevant to your query.

For instance,if you are looking for a Physics teacher who’s graduated from Stanford Univ. then you just need to punch “Physics” and “Stanford” as the keywords in ziizoo’s search box and rest is their job.You can then see the options available and select the RIGHT tutor for yourself.

This San Francisco based bootstrapped startup led by Robert Einspruch & Egon Vanderhoeven also lets learners ask for a trial session(first 30 min or 1 hr for FREE ) before committing any money to the tutors.

For Tutors,it’s a destination where they can encash their knowledge sitting at home using some handy technologies provided by ziizoo(IM and whiteboard,Audio & Video chat are on the way).

In their own words

ziizoo provides students and tutors with a centralized marketplace where they can interact via a  simple web-browser-no special software is required.Teaching, communication and  collaboration has never been easier! Here at ziizoo,we are working hard everyday to revolutionize the tutoring industry

At ziizoo,tutors have all the rights to set their own rates and session duration.Second, it is the first marketplace that emphasizes on peer-to-peer tutoring(unlike tutor-to-learner tutoring).In other words,its about students(or recent graduates) tutoring other students.

It’s in their scope to provide coursework for high school,college and returning/continuing education students,as well as standardized test preparation paraphernelia at all levels of education.

But the toughest challenge for ziizoo will be to get itself globally promoted in short span as competition is getting fierce in this sector.The inventory(in ziizoo’s case,it’s the tutors) doesn’t look sufficient for many country specific searches(ex. if “indian” +”Statistics” is searched to find an indian statistics tutor then results disappoint).Hence more inventory is one of their urgent needs.

Although the hompage is very innovative and looks focussed,it may not create enough curiosity for a tutor to create an account at the very first visit of ziizoo.Few lines describing their service and some tutor/learner testimonials on hompage will help visitors understand their system much better. 

As online education is seamless so majority of users will find a tutor for their needs from some place or the other.We have recently featured few websites which are also performing really well in the field of Online education.

An area which has been typecasted as an “offline only” facet in education sector is “Foreign language learning”.There have been very limited attempts to create a intelligent online marketplace for foreign language learning till date.One of such attempts is Myngle(another is edufire,which we covered recently).

Related Article: LangOver: Freeware To Keep You Free From Multi-lingual Hassles

Freeware: LangOver

Myngle,an Amsterdam based startup,which is led by Marina Tognetti started its operations in december 2007 with an angel funding of $1.1 Mn.So far,it appears that they have made a smart utilization of the money they fed into the system.The website is easy to use and the tools provided for language learning look intelligent enough.

In their own words,

“Myngle is the global language marketplace, where teachers and students from all over the world myngle, understand each other better and have fun,as they learn new languages and cultures. Myngle offers a solution by providing students and teachers in different locations with a complete online language instruction platform, containing all the tools needed for synchronous e-learning”

A student on Myngle is provided with a system,which takes basic information(ex. language to learn,lesson fees,tutor’s experience etc ) from the user about the kind of language learning he/she is looking for and then suggests the available options to the student.The student can then select the appropriate teacher and contact him to proceed further.

A student can also ask for a trial class before committing to any teacher on Myngle.This lets the student decide,if the teacher is apt for him/her or not.

After a formal commitment,both students and teachers use Myngle’s tools to let the things take off.Myngle tools seem quite appropriate for foreign language learning.

By far,a number of teachers from all over the world have successfully utilized the system and are generating appreciable amount for themselves through the system.

If a student could see a demo lesson,pre-recorded by a teacher on Myngle then the procedure for trial class could be skipped by the student(if he/she feels satisfied) and both the parties could save some time in early procedures.Another problem seems with those developing countries where the appropriate customers(learners) for Myngle aren’t able to pay even upto EUR 15 for a lesson.

For instance,an indian willing to learn ‘german language’ won’t find it a smart move to shell out EUR 15(Rs.950) per lecture to a german teacher.It’s far too high compared to any local fees for german language learning in India.

Now,here is a possible solution : If an indian teacher(who knows german) is already on Myngle then his price range should be much low(~EUR 4) per lecture which can serve as a feasible solution for a learner from India.

Overall,Myngle looks a promising service in the field of ‘foreign language online learning’.

This video outlines simple classroom activities to help educators take practical steps to keep pupils safe online.

It also suggests various methods to increase awareness of the potential dangers of internet usage.

The practices suggested in this video are very simple and effective.

You can watch the video here