Seeing The World Differently

When the teaching profession meets the internet, and a particular set of ideals and interests are pursued the outcome can often be unexpected and innovative.  Now a couple from England have combined their professional experience as teachers with their interest in foreign travel and the internet to form an internet based club for the benefit of its teaching members. The idea is a simple one based on members exchanging their homes in order to experience each other's culture and facilitate a holiday with a difference. The concept is called home exchange and for many it is the best way to take a family on holiday and experience the excitement of exploring another culture or country. It make vacations more affordable, more comfortable and exciting also. Advantages include huge financial savings but also the comfort and freedom of a home base, family orientated environment (if both families have children toys and videos can be a blessing!) and the opportunity to explore as part of a community. 

Gavin's enthusiasm for the prospects of home exchange is obvious. "We found that home exchange is particularly popular amongst working and retired members of the teaching profession. The internet offers the ideal medium for storing information securely but also in being flexible and able to operate in real time. The intended membership is primarily the teaching profession or friends and families of teachers. 

This has the added advantage of giving some quality control. We wanted to foster a club feel to the whole project encouraging members to feed back and be involved in the clubs development if they wish."
And the project has began well. "We have been delighted about the response we have received as well as the encouragement from experienced home exchanges who have joined us. We have a world wide membership. We do not simply enable people to find each other, but offer detailed advice on how to arrange an exchange and what to look out for. However, we were anxious to offer more than just a home exchange service, and as teachers felt it important to develop teaching links around the world. To that end we have developed some associations with teacher agencies whose aims we support, including most recently thecanadianteacher.com".

Their site, The Internet Home Exchange Club (or IHXC for short) can be found on the web at www.ihxc.com.