The future of teaching may well be online, despite the fact that face-to-face teaching has so many benefits.

Advantages of online teaching

Online teaching poses many challenges to the teacher who is comfortable and used to teaching 'live' but these are challenges which can be easily surmounted, as there are multiple advantages to being an online teacher.

• Flexibility of schedules
• Economy of time and money
• Independence and freedom to teach the way you believe is best
• Increasing your 'catchment' area to other markets
• Learning about other cultures by teaching students from other cultures
• Parents may appreciate the freedom this allows them
• A wider range or tools for learning are available to the online teacher

These are just a few of the advantages but there are also many challenges and possible pitfalls, which make it all the more important to be well prepared to take this important step into the 21st century!

Challenges and Pitfalls

Working online assumes a very high level of comfort with educational technology as well as a sound grounding on the principles of teaching and learning. You can be just as good or as bad online and technology is not a solution, it's just a tool that needs to be used wisely.

• Payments may not be made on time
• You may not be able to market yourself properly
• Students' attention cannot always be guaranteed but must be fought for every minute!
• Online teaching can be quite stressful
• Lack of security as well as health insurance and care

The answer?

There are no perfect recipes and answers to everyone's problems. A teacher who is paid 4 euros per hour but can get 12, 15 or 20 euros for an hour teaching from home will be at a great advantage but in order to have a steady and healthy flow of income teachers must learn to act as edupreneurs, not an easy step for everyone.

Are you Ready to Face that Challenge?

Here is a good way to find out.

Review this survey questionnaire and complete it if you plan to follow our workshops at the International Publishers' Exhibition in Thessaloniki on the last Saturday of August or Thessaloniki on the first Saturday of September.

All fields are required to help make this survey comprehensive - stay tuned for the results here and on my blog.

Survey: Are you ready to be an Online Teacher?

About the Author

Marisa Constantinides - Teacher Educator - Author - Conference Speaker

I am a TEFL Teacher Educator and run CELT Athens, a Teacher Development centre based in Athens, Greece. I train teachers face-to-face online; my courses include the Cambridge CELTA and DELTA (which we also offer online) and a new range of Moodle courses on ICT for ELT, ELT Management and Young Learners. You can read more about me on my website here.  I have written materials for young learners and for using literature in ELT and published my articles in a variety of print and online journals - some can be viewed here and I also maintain the following blogs:  TEFL Matters, Teaching & Learning Foreign Languages & the ELTchat Blog

I am a frequent conference presented and keynote speaker - some recent presentations can be viewed here I have presented at IATEFL International, TESOL France, Brazil TESOL, TESOL Greece as well as on numerous online Conferences and Events.  In 2012 I was on the shortlist of nominations for an ELTons Award in Innovation in Teacher Resources along with my fellow moderators on #ELTchat, a weekly discussion on Twitter.