# Idea for LessWrong: Video Tutoring

Update 7/9/17: I propose that Learners individually reach out to Teachers, and set up meetings. It seems like the most practical way of getting started, but I am not sure and am definitely open to other ideas. Other notes:

*   There seems to be agreement that the best way to do this is individualized guidance, rather than lectures and curriculums. Eg. the Teacher "debugging" the Learner. Assuming that approach, it is probably best for the amount of Learners in a session to be small.
*   Consider that it may make sense for you to act as a Teacher, even if you don't have a super strong grasp of the topic. For example, I know a decent amount about computer science, but don't have a super strong grasp of it. Still, I believe it would be valuable for me to teach computer science to others. I can definitely offer value to people with no CS background. And for people who do have a CS background, there could be value in us taking turns teaching/learning, and debugging each other.
*   We may not be perfect at this in the beginning, but let's dive in and see what we can do! I think it'd be a good idea to comment on this post with what did/didn't work for you, so we as a group could learn and improve.
*   I pinned [http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/p69/idea\_for\_lesswrong\_video\_tutoring/](http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/p69/idea_for_lesswrong_video_tutoring/) to #productivity on the [LessWrongers Slack group](http://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_149963603566512&key=9f37ca02a1e3cbd4f3d0a3618a39fbca&libId=j4x8knrx010004xn000DAbkdqgxhn&loc=http://lesswrong.com/about/&v=1&out=https://lesswrongers.slack.com/messages/open/&ref=http://lesswrong.com/&title=About%20Less%20Wrong&txt=LessWrongers).

Update 6/28/17: With 14 people currently interested, it does seem that there's enough to get started. However, I'd like to give it a bit more time and see how much overall interest we get.

Idea: we coordinate to teach each other things via video chat.

*   We (mostly) all like learning. Whether it be for fun, curiosity, a stepping stone towards our goals.
*   My intuition is that there's a lot of us who also enjoy teaching. I do, personally.
*   Enjoyment aside, teaching is a good way of solidifying ones knowledge.
*   Perhaps there would be positive unintended consequences. Eg. socially.
*   Why video? a) I assume that medium is better for education than simply text. b) Social and motivational benefits, maybe. A downside to video is that some may find it intimidating.
*   It may be nice to evolve this into a group project where we iteratively figure out how to do a really good job teaching certain topics.
*   I see the main value in personalization, as opposed to passive lectures/seminars. Those already exist, and are plentiful for most topics. What isn't easily accessible is personalization. With that said, I figure it'd make sense to have about 5 learners per teacher.

So, this seems like something that would be mutually beneficial. To get started, we'd need:

1.  A place to do this. No problem: there's Hangouts, Skype, https://talky.io/, etc.
2.  To coordinate topics and times.

Personally, I'm not sure how much I can offer as far as doing the teaching. I worked as a web developer for 1.5 years and have been teaching myself computer science. I could be helpful to those unfamiliar with those fields, but probably not too much help for those already in the field and looking to grow. But I'm interested in learning about lots of things!

Perhaps a good place to start would be to record in some spreadsheet, a) people who want to teach, b) what topics, and c) who is interested in being a Learner. Getting more specific about who wants to learn what may be overkill, as we all seem to have roughly similar interests. Or maybe it isn't.

**If you're interested in being a Learner or a Teacher, please add yourself to [this spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-2M2zA-g_zSdPFxHM30-xq3kWK6peUGw9xIpaLNtjuw/edit?usp=sharing).**