Algebra tutor online? Is it worth the $ and time?

: Hello,: I have a tenth grader struggling through Algebra. I have been
: considering an online tutor for him, but have no experience with
: online tutoring. Does anyone know anything about this? Does it
: work? Given my son is LD, I’m even more concerned about the
: effectiveness of this type of tutoring. However, he really needs
: help. He already has a spanish tutor and he also runs track, which
: limits the amount of time he has available for extra help or
: tutoring. (Giving up track is not an option as it has helped his
: concentration more than any medication ever did!): If anyone has experience with online tutoring please let me know.: Thank you,: JulieAbsolutely with you on not giving up track! I have met students who could not get help from Disability Support Services at their college, because all DSS would tell them was to give up everything they are good at and enjoy in order to spend even more time on what they are failing. Would any of us do that? And why?As far as online tutoring: I do tutoring in person. I’ve tried to figure out how to do tutoring online, but there are certain difficulties I haven’t yet seen my way around. One of these is response time. A student with multiple questions about the same assignment or often on the same problem can’t wait days or even hours to get each answer; the thread of the problem’s logic is lost, and nothing will ever get finished in time to hand in. A second problem is typing math, especially algebra and geometry, a *&^&^%$ of a job at the best of times. A third problem is support and rapport; students get very defeatist about math and it takes a lot of pushing and providing a complaint target to make them realize they can succeed.If your online tutor has managed to create a quick-reacting website with included graphics to get the algebra into it, it might work. I would look very closely at what is offered. As technology matures, there may be wonderfu; new developments.By the way, there are several programs on disk and CD that offer algebra tutoring/practice with computer interaction, available at reasonable cost. I have a couple kicking around the house here which I picked up around $40.00 each for my algebra classes. If the online tutor is offering mechanical practice, one of these might be a better deal for you. Try to get one — for example, I have here a version of MathPro from around 1995 that does this — that requires the student to actually work the problem and type in the answer. This is much more likely to actually teach math than just guessing which letter ot box to checkmark.

So after saying this, I just signed up for an online tutoring listing that requires you to sign up for on-line as well as in person referrals. We’ll see how it goes and report back if anything comes of it.