No one would doubt that today’s college students are “super-connected” and wired into learning far more than any prior generation. But how deeply are they embracing the spectrum of technology choices, from software to iPads to online classrooms?

Like me, you’ll probably be surprised at some of the stats. (Some of the data comes from “an Educase study” and some has no obvious source attribution.) Here are a few of the tidbits I found most interesting:

• Only 5% of learners would choose a lecture class that was completely online as their “preferred learning environment,” versus 36% that would prefer seminar-size classes with some online component.
• Only 43% of students agree their institution needs more technology. (I would’ve thought almost every student would want his or her school to have more technology – however much it already had.)
• Only 25% of students considered e-books to be among their most important software and applications, while 46% found content management systems (CMS) indispensible.
• Fully 81% of students list a laptop among their most important devices (and 87% own one), versus 53% owning desktop systems.
• 55% of students own a smartphone but only 33% consider it important for education.
• So far, only 8% of those surveyed owned an iPad.
• 90% of college students believe that wi-fi is as essential to their education as a classroom or computer.
• 60% of students say they wouldn’t attend a college that didn’t offer free wi-fi. (Good thing wi-fi is projected to reach 99% of campuse by 2013.)
• Only 3% of students consider Facebook to be “the one website or online resource they couldn’t live without.”
• 86% of students use social networking sites, but only 58% are comfortable communicating with other students about coursework via social networking sites.
• Education faculty reported a “high” use of technology more than instructors in any other discipline.
• By a narrow margin, most felt it wasn’t appropriate to “friend” their instructors on Facebook.

Check out the graphic and let us know what you think.

Featured image courtesy of Chiratan Patnaik.

Click the graphic to enlarge.

Via: Online Colleges Guide

Apps are available for many of the most widely taken standardized tests, including the SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, MCAT, LSAT and more. There are even apps for the CPA exam and to help you get your pilot’s license! I’ll focus here on just a few of the many that are available for the SAT.

Right now there seem to be three basic types of iPad SAT prep apps available:

• “Free” apps that essentially serve as content delivery portals for making in-app purchases to get the material you want.

• “Inclusive” apps that provide a wide range of useful practice content plus value-add features for a moderate price.

• “Focused” apps that provide generalized help on one key segment of a test, such as SAT vocabulary.

The most popular of the “free” type apps are from BenchPrep. They have versions for the GRE, GMAT, MCAT, LSAT, SAT, ACT, PCAT, CFA, Nursing, Pharmacy and more. The seller (formerly Watermelon Express) claims that “more than 150,000 users have used our test prep apps across iPhone, iPad and Android.” The Bench Prep apps let you take practice questions and tests, flip through flashcards and make notes. Scoring analysis features let you track your progress and pinpoint weak areas using graphs and other forms of reporting.

The idea behind the “content delivery” model is that learners can use the app to buy educational and test prep content from a variety of publishers from one central hub. While touted as affordable, many of the in-app purchases cost $100 or more.

Another free app that is also “focused,” Ace the SAT, is not a content portal but instead includes a wide range of SAT-like math questions for practice. New questions are added with every update, many with detailed explanations of how to arrive at the correct answer. A screen capture feature enables you to save tricky questions to your photos album for easy sharing with friends and tutors. You even get some scoring analytics like an expected approximate SAT score.

The “inclusive” style of app is exemplified by SAT Score Quest by the Princeton Review. For $9.99, this app lets you take a 45-question SAT assessment test to pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses (score report included). You also get 45 additional questions, which include “interactive problem solutions” – top Princeton Review tutors giving step-by-step solutions to the SAT problems. Also included are fifteen “SAT Core Concept” lessons that teach you The Princeton Review’s top SAT strategies.

Easel, the makers of SAT Score Quest, also offer SAT Prep Pro, which they compare to “a tutor on demand!” This highly rated app offers over 200 practice questions in nine sections. Questions are accompanied by instant “show me” lessons. If you get stuck on a problem, just tap “ShowMe” to see a step-by-step animation of the solution.

Another popular test prep app in the “focused” family is SAT Vocabulary Practice for Dummies by Gwhiz. Priced at $3.99, this app focuses exclusively on “the vocabulary you need to know to get a good verbal score on the SAT exam.” The app features flash cards, practice tests, word lookup, and fun games that help you incorporate new vocabulary words into real-life situations.

Have you tried any of the SAT prep apps for iPad or other mobile devices? What are your impressions?

The arrival of social media, smart phones and growing connectivity to the internet changed all the rules for many marketers who were used to traditional methods of attracting business. Suddenly you didn’t need a huge marketing budget to make an impact and connect with prospective customers; you could make a pretty solid niche impact with patience and a grassroots, organic way of thinking.

It’s simply not enough to advertise to your prospective customers, many block those messages out and instead search through online recommendations and use Google searches to find what they’re looking for. For this reason, we created the Socrato blog. Though the core of our business is to help tutors prepare their students for standardized tests through our custom learning analytics, we also want to provide value to tutors beyond our products.

This blog has been our sounding board to discuss not only our special point of view of what is happening in the tutoring industry, but also a place where we could share our marketing expertise with the tutoring population and help them grow their business online. So far we’ve amassed quite a bit of content on this blog around the subject and I thought it would be helpful to put it all in one place as the ultimate marketing guide for tutors.

Enjoy!

Facebook Marketing for Tutors

5 Common Mistakes Tutors Make on Facebook and How to Fix Them

How to Add Color to Your Tutoring Brand Using Facebook [3 Examples]

3 Reasons Tutors Need a Facebook Page Today

FourSquare Marketing for Tutors

How Tutoring Companies Can Use FourSquare Specials to Attract Students

How to Build Your Local Tutoring Presence Using FourSquare

SEO and Local Marketing

5 Free Local Tools to Kick Start Your Tutoring Presence Online

4 Offsite Marketing Opportunities Every Tutor Should Embrace

How Tutors Can Use Long Tail Keywords to Get Found by Local Searchers

Marketing Strategy

Is Digital Darwinism Making Your Tutoring Business Obsolete?

Why Tutors Should Heed Google Experts Social Media Advice

How Tutors Can Build a Likeable Online Reputation

Blogging for Tutors

Transform Your Tutoring Blog from a Wall Flower into a Socialite

How to Build a Blog Your Tutoring Audience Loves

5 Simple WordPress Blog Tools Every Tutor Should Add Today

How Tutors Can Get More Leads from Existing Blog Content

Video Marketing for Tutors

Why Every Tutor is Ready to Start Publishing Video Tonight

6 Things Tutors Can Learn from Merriam-Webster’s Online Video Campaign

–

SAT vs ACT: Choosing the Right Test [NEW EBOOK]

Download this free 20-Page Ebook for Tutors Now!

Our free 20-page ebook is a step-by-step guide on how to select the right test for your student. Learn everything you need to know about using the PLAN and PSAT to improve student scores, how to leverage learning analytics to select one test over the other, and other tips on how to take the guesswork out of selecting the ACT vs the SAT.

Fortunately you don’t need to learn how to do Facebook right all alone. There are many businesses who have paved the way before you to creating engaging and creative Facebook business pages, should you take some time to look for them. Using these pages it’s easy to glean some proactive moves you can make to help build a Facebook business page that attracts your prospects, engages them and keeps them interested in the months to come.

To help teach you these tips, I point you to a few successful Facebook pages which articulate the value of getting creative and colorful on your Facebook page. Enjoy!

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online

We’ve already talked about some of the fantastic video content that Merriam-Webster has been putting together, but how they’re using it on Facebook is even better. They’re actually embedding the videos straight into Facebook for their fans to enjoy without leaving the Facebook platform!

If you’ve yet to create a piece of video content and share it on your Facebook wall with your followers you’re missing out on a fantastic opportunity to stimulate their minds and foster some engagement. Don’t worry if people don’t react right away to your change of place, keep the video content interesting and post it during times when your prospects might be at leisure to watch a piece of video content.

Tutor.com Online Tutoring for Military Families

If you’re only posting text updates to try to engage your tutoring prospects on Facebook, try to stimulate them with photos instead as Tutor.com Online Tutoring for Military Families has done. Photos are a great way to break up the monotony of your Facebook page and draw attention to your brand in the prospect’s feed. In the past year, Facebook has put even more emphasis on highlighting photos on Facebook, so if you haven’t experimented with creating visual content, now is a great time to start. If you’d like a comment about the photos to appear, I recommend adding a brief summary of the photos in your photo album (this will appear in the feed). If you upload a single photo at a time, then be sure to make create a description of that photo as well so the context of your photo appears in the feed, too.

Vocab Videos

One way to create content for your Facebook page and involve your fans is to feature a contest or showcase of talent from your fans. One educational business on Facebook that does this well is Vocab Videos, a SAT prep service that creates humorous vocabulary videos to help students learn difficult SAT words easily. They often feature student created contests on their various social accounts which lead to a lot of repeat engagement from Facebook fans while getting word out about the contest through showcasing each individual submission.

featured photo by Capture Queen

SAT vs ACT: Choosing the Right Test [NEW EBOOK]

Download this free 20-Page Ebook for Tutors Now!

Our free 20-page ebook is a step-by-step guide on how to select the right test for your student. Learn everything you need to know about using the PLAN and PSAT to improve student scores, how to leverage learning analytics to select one test over the other, and other tips on how to take the guesswork out of selecting the ACT vs the SAT.

As a tutor who is dealing with a generation of students who grew up around computers, it’s your responsibility to break through the technological clutter of their daily lives and help them focus on the task in front of them. However, it sounds simpler than it actually is in practice, more often than not you may have to use the tools that are familiar to the student to help them connect with the study material. Instead of forbidding technology that distracts students, bring that technology in as a teaching tool.

There are a lot of teaching tools out there you could use during your tutoring sessions, but none is as portable, as powerful and useful as the iPad. Here are a few must-download iPad apps for tutors that you can use to make your tutoring sessions more stimulating for your student without losing site of the traditionalist inside you.

Graphing Calculator HD

With nearly all the functionality of a TI-82 (and 99% off the TI-82’s $80 sticker price) this little app is a great tool for students in algebra, calculus, trigonometry or other advanced mathematics.

Math Formulas

When your student is stumped on which mathematical formula to use this helpful app is a great studying tool to help get them back on the right track.

Flash-Me

Now you can use Cramberry (a stand-up online flashcard maker) on your iPad! With Flash-Me, you can create, edit and study your flash cards on your iPhone. You can also share these flashcards as studying tools with your student.

DropBox

Are you going a little crazy trying to keep track of all of your important tutoring tools, documents and important papers? Then you need DropBox. With DropBox you won’t waste precious time searching for a video or piece of content you need for your student, instead you can use DropBox to store all of your documents in one place, sync all of your computers and devices, and create public folders that you can share with your students to access.

Algebra Touch

If your student needs help visualizing Alegbra problems, this little tool could come in handy. The student can tap to simplify the equation, rearrange it, and draw lines to eliminate identical terms.

iAnnotate PDF

If you’re working on the SAT Essay portion of your tutoring sessions or doing a little comprehensive ACT prep, this tool could be helpful to you. Using this App your students can turn a PDF into a document that they can highlight, annotate, and scribble all over.

-

featured photo by jossfassbind.com

SAT vs ACT: Choosing the Right Test [NEW EBOOK]

Download this free 20-Page Ebook for Tutors Now!

Our free 20-page ebook is a step-by-step guide on how to select the right test for your student. Learn everything you need to know about using the PLAN and PSAT to improve student scores, how to leverage learning analytics to select one test over the other, and other tips on how to take the guesswork out of selecting the ACT vs the SAT.

Online video is a great way for tutors to connect and engage with students online and get their name out about their brand. Now that high quality video cameras are easily available to the public and online video software comes loaded onto our computers, creating video isn’t as difficult as it used to be. That means that a lot more teachers, tutors and students are creating helpful SAT preparation videos which millions of users can access 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

After spending a couple of hours on YouTube combing through some very bad and boring SAT preparation videos, I’ve unearthed 5 clever videos that really have the ability to engage and connect with students. You can use these videos to engage with your student, start a conversation about a new tutoring topic, or help your student relax before the big SAT test comes up.

—-

1.    SAT Words in Real Life

by Knewton

Knewton SAT has a clever way to bring the SAT words which plague millions of high school students to life. Through these short less-than one minute clips students can learn how to apply the words they’re reading on flash cards to real life scenarios. It also teaches the student how to associate a story with a word as a memory device.

—-

2.     SAT Reading Prep: Long Passages

by Prep Interactive

You’ll find a lot of SAT tips and trick videos online but I thought this one was particularly good at summarizing a strategy for reading long passages on the SAT. I also thought the age and look of the speaker was appropriate for high school students who may connect more with the video if they feel that the speaker is young, hip and attractive. The speaker almost looks like he stepped of the set of an MTV show or the set of Twilight. On top of that, the videos are controlled, easy to digest and thanks to the trust-worthy quality of the source, your pupils will be easily engaged with the whole series by Prep Interactive.

——-

3.     Real SAT Stories: Living Up to Your Potential

by erpepper

If your student is having difficulty with staying relaxed and envisioning their potential, Karl Schellscheidt, CEO of ePrep, has a message for your student: stick it out.

Though Karl Schellscheidt admits that not every one is capable of getting a perfect test score, he does have a positive message for students who aren’t happy with the test scores they received after working so hard for them. It’s a positive message and an engaging store well worth sharing with your students.

——

4.    SAT Rap: “Relax” by Charter Squad

by Elka131

The week leading up the SAT can be a whirlwind mind suck for your pupil. When you spend so much time working with the student and trying to prepare them for test day it’s easy to forget to remind them to laugh, smile and do their best.

This awesome rap by the teachers at Believe High Schools gently reminds students of important SAT preparation tips and reminds them to get ready, but also to relax, too. This would be a great video to show your students as a “last tip” before test day.

—–

5.   Guessing on the SAT is Wrong

by MysteryTutorVideos

The Mystery Tutor is just the sort of distracting and useful education that students crave. This mysterious tutor donning Groucho Marx glasses and a full on ninja bunny suit has a lot of fantastic tips for students on his YouTube channel.

Students will enjoy the initial weird of the video, but with less emphasis on the looks of the instructor, it places much more emphasis on the quality SAT prep content.

featured photo by Cordey

-

SAT vs ACT: Choosing the Right Test [NEW EBOOK]

Download this free 20-Page Ebook for Tutors Now!

Our free 20-page ebook is a step-by-step guide on how to select the right test for your student. Learn everything you need to know about using the PLAN and PSAT to improve student scores, how to leverage learning analytics to select one test over the other, and other tips on how to take the guesswork out of selecting the ACT vs the SAT.

For those of you who want to take your tutoring company to the next level through the creation of a winning marketing strategy, this post was written with you in mind. Discover how to turn your business website from an online listing into a hub that prospective students (and their parents) are drawn to organically using the following tips.

Take a Step Back

Often the most difficult thing for businesses to do when setting up their online marketing strategy is looking at their online presense objectively. To get your planning off to the right foot, take a step back and look at the big picture.

It’s also important that you try not to mistake creating a marketing strategy with a design strategy. Try not to focus on the look of your website but how it operates at accomplishing your goals. To figure out how well your online marketing machine is currently working, you need to try to look at your website through your prospects shoes. Ask yourself: Is my website helpful to my prospects? How would a person who didn’t know about my brand find my website?

Run Your Website through Website Grader

HubSpot’s Website Grader is a great way to start looking at your website objectively. This free grader will give you a general assessment and give yourself a basic checklist to use to determine how likely your website can get found online by your prospects. After entering your email address and information you’ll be issued a free report which highlights weaknesses in your website.

Determine Your Current Reach

Hard numbers are great motivators in developing your marketing strategy. You need to determine how far your reach is currently before determining your goals. Start by creating a spreadsheet which lists all of the channels where you can communicate with prospects. These should be channels that you have built so include any Twitter accounts, Facebook pages for your brand, your email marketing list, and your blog subscribers. The sum of all these numbers is your current reach. Consider how long it took to create that reach and from there come up with a few goals on how much you want to grow that reach in a month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year. Try not to be too ambitious with your goals. Make them obtainable.

Assess Your Current Content Strategy

If you’re not blogging or creating regular amounts of content for your tutoring website, you’re missing out on an opportunity to develop even more pathways that people can find your site. Every blog post you create is a new page on your website. Think of them like tickets to the SEO and Social Media lottery. Every new piece of content you create has the ability to attract a prospect through it – whether through your Twitter account, Facebook account or through organic search. You want more tickets to that lottery because the more tickets you have the more chances you have to win new business through your website. Take some time to determine how you can add more content to your website easily.

Create More Calls to Action

Website pages are the highways that lead to your website’s front door. Just like roads and highways, we want those pathways to be clean of debris and easy to follow. However, you should ask yourself where your pathways are leading your website visitors. Are you enticing them with compelling calls to action at the end of every blog post or are all your blog posts dead ends for your visitor. If you want to connect with more visitors try tying your content and website pages with some kind of call to action which would entice them to give a little information about themselves (such as their email) or follow you on Facebook or Twitter. Develop a few calls to action that you can sprinkle throughout your website pages to drive your visitors to opt into your communications, sign up for classes, or make an appointment to meet with a tutor.

featured photo by Martin Gommel

-

SAT vs ACT: Choosing the Right Test [NEW EBOOK]

Download this free 20-Page Ebook for Tutors Now!

Our free 20-page ebook is a step-by-step guide on how to select the right test for your student. Learn everything you need to know about using the PLAN and PSAT to improve student scores, how to leverage learning analytics to select one test over the other, and other tips on how to take the guesswork out of selecting the ACT vs the SAT.

After doing a little research online I was able to discover 10 gorgeous infographics on education that do more than simply show information, they relay it in a really potent and amazing way.

Edit: If you liked this post, you might also like our 22 Mind-Blowing Infographics on Education, too!

—-

1.  Education 2.0 – Social Networking & Education

——

2.  The ABCs of the SAT Infographic

—–

3.  Education’s Effect on Income

—–

4. Top 5 Reasons a Student Selects a College

—–

5.  Technology Enhances Learning

——

6.    How Apple is Revolutionizing Education

——

7.   Lessons in Education: Shocking Education Statistics

—–

8.   The Non-Tuition Costs of College Education

——

9.  US Education vs The World: Education Spending

Credit: MAT@USC: Master’s of Arts in Teaching Online

—–

10.  Staggering – 10 Shocking U.S. Education Statistics

——

featured image by pfaff

——

SAT vs ACT: Choosing the Right Test [NEW EBOOK]

Download this free 20-Page Ebook for Tutors Now!

Our free 20-page ebook is a step-by-step guide on how to select the right test for your student. Learn everything you need to know about using the PLAN and PSAT to improve student scores, how to leverage learning analytics to select one test over the other, and other tips on how to take the guesswork out of selecting the ACT vs the SAT.

But what if you could change the way math learning is done?

What if a teacher was no longer responsible for teaching the lesson, but for monitoring that each student understands the lesson as it’s being taught?

A New Look on an Old Idea

In many ways the School of One is simply trying to combine resources and focus efforts to help students learn math more in a more strategic way.

Instead of having 4 math classes running during the same period of time, New York’s School of One combines teacher’s forces in a style that is reminiscent of some of the new classroom designs that gained popularity in the 1960’s and 1970’s but died out due to organizational issues. Still, School of One is optimistic that their program (which currently reaches 2,000 students in grades 6-8) will be able to change the way that students learn.

For one thing, in the 60′s and 70′s teachers didn’t have access to computers to make their experiments with one large learning environment seamless, measurable and consistent across the classroom. Perhaps the lack of technology is why those experiments failed and also why the School of One plan is succeeding.

Learning “Playlists”, Not Lectures

Inside a project one classroom you’ll find students are able to access over 5,000 online lessons from over 50 content providers. Students are able to access their lessons via a “playlist” loaded onto their Netbook. This playlist also includes metrics on where the student is at with the material so that teachers are easily able to intercede when a student becomes lost or confused with the material.  Instead of teachers being responsible for managing every student’s learning and pace as a group, they act more like a mediator for students when they are in need of learning assistance.

Research and Results

Thus far the program appears to have been successful in helping students achieve higher scores. When you compare Project One students scores with the scores of unenrolled students, Project One students averaged a testing gain in math that is nearly approximate to having 1 extra year of study in the subject. Researches also found that when they controlled for the programs’ after school study program, Project One still showed significant gains of a quarter or half year’s amount of learning.

What’s exciting about these findings is that it indicates that students are thriving in a collaborative school environment. It also demonstrates that this type of collaborative and group learning environment only grows more effective when an after-school program is implemented. This is great news for tutors and learning centers that specialize in giving students customized learning experiences outside of the classroom day.

featured photo by school of one

SAT vs ACT: Choosing the Right Test [NEW EBOOK]

Download this free 20-Page Ebook for Tutors Now!

Our free 20-page ebook is a step-by-step guide on how to select the right test for your student. Learn everything you need to know about using the PLAN and PSAT to improve student scores, how to leverage learning analytics to select one test over the other, and other tips on how to take the guesswork out of selecting the ACT vs the SAT.

Last Friday, I launched the new version of the round-up thus moving away from featuring general education blogs and articles and shining the light on tutors and education consultants who blog.

As always, if you have a recommendation of at tutoring blog I should be following, leave me a note in the comments!

1.   Mental Training Tips from an Olympian

by Elizabeth King, Tutors for Test Prep

Elizabeth King is one amazing woman. Not only is she the president of Elizabeth King Coaching, a boutique online SAT and ACT prep company, but she also takes the time to interview Olympic Gold Medalists, too?

In a series of captivating interviews, Elizabeth interviews Olympic Gold Medalist Skier Barbara Ann Cochran to get her perspective on mental training tips. Though the interview is from 2009 I can still glean a lot of wisdom from the takeaways.

2.    Success in tutoring math

by Matthew J., WyzAnt.com

When he opened his first tutoring review, Matt was stunned to find that after only 2 tutoring sessions he was already getting rave reviews as an “excellent tutor.”

Though pleasantly surprised, he wanted to share some of his theories about why he was such a natural success at tutoring in his blog, and it’s a good thing he did. Matt has some fantastic level-headed insights into how tutors can assess student needs, connect with that student and how to maintain a professionalism with the student.

3.    Getting the Most out of Your Day

by eTutor.com

We may not know which of the three educators behind eTutor is responsible for this blog post, but either way, we do know their schedule. Using the book “Getting Things Don” by David Allen, this educator uses daily and weekly checklists to accomplish her goals. He discusses how he sets up his day with a schedule of goals and how students can set a schedule to help them accomplish tasks with efficiency.

4.   Tutoring tips for the first day

by Kelly, KellyTeaches.com

If you’re tutoring younger children, Kelly of KellyTeaches.com has some great tips on how you can start your first day of tutoring off on the right foot. Her method is to keep things simple and connect with the child based on his interests. She also suggests ice-breaker games that won’t frustrate the child and writing activities that involve movement so that your pupil doesn’t notice the length of the session as acutely.

4.    SAT Critical Reading is About Critical Reading

by Anthony Green, NewYorksBestSATTutor.com

How does one teach a student not to just read the content, but to apply meaning to what they’re reading? That’s a tough question that faces many tutors just starting out with working with students to improve their SAT scores.

While the SAT Critical reading session is difficult for many tutors to teach, Anthony Green believes that students who practice critical reading regularly are the most likely to perform well on the SAT. Believing that schools teach students to read for memory and regurgitate what they’ve learned, he challenges students to read non-SAT material on a regular basis which challenges them to think critically and ask important questions about the text.

-

featured photo by krischall

Free e-Book: 5 Tips to Improve Your Reporting for Standardized Test Reporting
Download this eBook from Socrato to learn how to optimize and improve your reports to help students improve their scores on standardize tests such as the SAT, ACT, LSAT or others.
Download the eBook >>