Hi everyone!
I'm a newbee here, registered yesterday and now learning how things work here.
When watching video-presentation of professional teachers I noticed that many people do not pay enough attention to technical aspects of tuition: audio and (less important) video quality.
Internal microphone of a noisy laptop can ruin your excellent pronounciation. Incorrect arrangement of mic and speakers can also induce severe echo and make Skype to alter the voice trying to reduce echo.
Using a headset in such case would be a better option (don't buy the cheapest one, adding another $10-20 can make huge difference for the quality).
Nevertheless some teachers have excellent setup and they sound as if would seat in the same room. Their investments in technical side of the process will definitely be covered by deservedly higher hour rate :)
I'll tell you what happens: teachers are actually advised by italki to use a webcam to record their video on a webpage with instructions about it. I tried it as well and I hated the result because of the microphone, so I decided to use another camera. I think the problem is that if you quickly listen to your presentation on the same laptop with poor speakers you are unlikely to notice that something is wrong.
I agree, for teachers that requires money, they need to pay attention to the quality of their hardware.
As a website creator need to check their pages with differents browsers, teachers need to check if they have good sound quality (for me sound is more important than video).
But the problem could also lies in the learner's hardware. The teacher can have the best quality in the world, if the learner have bad audio... :)
Good observation and suggestions, Petr.
