apcampbell

The merger of social networking technologies with internet telephony has spawned a new movement of teachers and students looking to supplement and, in some cases, bypass traditional language educational institutions for more personalized and direct tutor-learner relationships. Myngle, is one such upstart, which their founders describe as:

…the global language elearning marketplace, where teachers and students from all over the world myngle, understand each other better and have fun – as they learn new languages and cultures” Myngle offers a solution by providing both students and teachers in different locations with a complete online language instruction platform, containing all resources needed for synchronous e-learning.

So in other words, Myngle plays matchmaker in the midst of a free market exchange of language teaching services and products. Synchronous lessons are carried out via Skype and feedback mechanisms are structured into the site, including public ratings for teachers, freely available on their profiles. Institutions can also get a piece of the action by establishing a presence on Myngle and promoting their own teachers and educational products.

I’ve already seen instances of other sites attempting a similar model, such as xLingo and Osnavi - or even individuals starting up their own marketing sites, like A.J. Hoge and Steve Kaufmann - so I’m curious to see how Myngle will fare. They’re looking for beta testers at the moment.