Bitcoin Forum

Hi folks,

Distance learning has been around for centuries, but is experiencing a renaissance these days, with entire libraries available online. Universities and individual researchers all over the world are making their course materials and other publications freely available, and the only things between you and mastering any subject you want are time and perseverance.

I am offering private tutoring over the Internet, in any university-level mathematics-related subject (e.g. calculus, algebra, probability, discrete mathematics, etc.) This would be great for independent learning, brushing up on skills, or to complement a regular course, get help with homework, and so forth. I see a lot of people here asking casual questions about Bitcoins — technology is wonderful, but if you want to learn in depth what makes it work, here is your chance!

Cost is 0.5 BTC / hour (contact me for an estimate of how long it will take to prepare and get through the material).

Anyone interested, PM me for details!

radio isn't even 2 centuries old

Plain radio does not seem like it ever would have been a hot medium for this, anyway. People made use of the postal service: you would get books/notes/assignments in the mail, you would have to read something in lieu of attending a lecture, and you would send back your homework to be corrected. Worked just as well in the 18th or 19th century as now.

You are correct that radio (and television) represent a significant development, because educational programmes could be broadcast to the masses. Now I would argue that contemporary communications technology, more precisely its cheap and easy availability, is a real evolutionary leap. You have at your fingertips access to an array of material that puts any physical library to shame, and you can pick out what you need when you need it. Even better, if you want to ask somebody a question, getting in touch is usually quick and instant. In short, something in the nature of scholarship itself is changing, like Bitcoin is a change in the nature of money...

What are your qualifications? BMath? MMath? PhD?

all of the above :) and teaching experience. If someone is interested in advanced modules that is fine.

still available

Can I join you as an additional educator? I am knowledgeable in mathematics.

You shouldn't lie. If you really do have these credentials, I highly doubt you would be freelancing, let alone hold $60 tutoring sessions extensive enough to cover a week's worth of post-secondary material. I'll let you speculate on the hourly rate. I recommend that you make an ad on Craigslist or your city's classifieds to guarantee a stable rate of $30-45/hour.

maybe he has the skills and is advertising here because he wants to get some bitcoins?

Even if that were so, this isn't an efficient method to obtain them.

Hi Mitchow

I never agreed to do a week's worth of work for the equivalent of $60, that would be absurd. Thank you for bringing to my attention that my advertisement was badly phrased. In any case each person's needs are different; one might need help with homework (or would like me to assign my own) while another wants lecture notes, and so on. If you are interested in tutoring, we should agree how much material we have to get through and work out the compensation accordingly.

I have been approached about creating some sort of "Bitcoin University" but am not sure I understood what exactly was proposed. Though I suppose if someone were sitting on a huge pile of otherwise-idle Bitcoins and wanted to donate them they could be used to set up some sort of Bitcoin Research Foundation that would be in a position to offer grants, scholarships, and various bounties in the form of Bitcoins. For example, I have some work that might be done to develop Bitcoin itself and it would be nice to be able to offer people coins for their work on it. And wouldn't it be interesting to put a kid through Harvard on a Bitcoin scholarship?

Have you seen https://bitcoinfoundation.org/blog/?p=58 (https://bitcoinfoundation.org/blog/?p=58)?

The semester is now in full swing! [Except for quite a bit of regional variation...]

Sign up for some tutoring now, before you fall behind!

bump for finals!

Consultation (research projects, industry, academic): $500 / day (bitcoin equivalent)

There is already coursera, udacity etc, I doubt this is needed.

We have books, so physical schools aren't really needed; having a personal instructor to talk to, however, is something different.

Having some new things available does not necessarily obviate older or other things. Interestingly, right now many of the largest universities in the world (in terms of enrollment) are in fact Open, distance-learning institutions.

I think one needs all of the above (including some physical schools, physical books, physical industry, etc.) We need the "virtual" equivalents, too; each complements the other. The same goes for instruction, in fact: as you note there is no substitute for talking to an actual (competent) instructor, but you also need to spend an equal number of hours by yourself reading / doing homework.

We have books, so physical schools aren't really needed; having a personal instructor to talk to :-[

agree