Reflections+on+online+learning+and+mentoring

This quarter was an interesting one in which I learned a great deal of information. Although the actual mentoring did not take place in the first few weeks, by no means was this time wasted. We used this time to become familiar with the Ning site and look at portfolios that were create by the students and teachers at High Tech High. The [|Ning] site is a good way for teachers and students to communicate and shows how a social network can promote learning. The students seemed to put good thoughts into the comments and responses that they post on the site; they do not just chat with each other. I was most impressed with the portfolios put together by the teachers and students. The teachers created portfolios that contain their expectations for the course and descriptions of the projects that were to be completed. The projects forced the students to work hard and think critically about the subject at hand. The students’ portfolios had information and reflections on their projects and descriptions of their future plans. It was humbling to see the amount of work that was put into the project, as well as the difficulty of the work. The experiments that many of the science classes are completing involve procedure that I had not heard about until I got to college. Having done these projects will help the students feel more comfortable when starting college and give important experience for future employment. It was also impressive to see the prestigious internships that the students held or are holding. The students are learning the real-world applications of the classroom knowledge at a young age. I wish that I had been involved in the things that these students are.

Once we had a class join the Ning site, we were able to start working with the students on their project that delt with different water issues. The first thing that I did was briefly state what knowledge I had about water and read the comments from the students about what they knew. From these comments, I got the feeling that the students had given only a little thought about the topics, but had not gone deeper into the issues. Most knew the basics properties of water and the issues surrounding water, but I asked them to think about what implications these properties have and how these issues could be solved. After challenging the students to thing further about the subjects, I realized that most of them will think more critically if asked to. At this point I was greatly looking forward to helping the students and learning with them.

When the groups were formed, I thought that the communication with the students would pick up and the project would quickly progress. I immediately introduced myself and asked about their project in an attempt to get some conversations started. After a few days one of the groups responded while the others stayed out of contact. At this point I figured that the students were taking time to get use to the Ning site and research their topics. To help with this, I did some research and posted links to interesting articles on the group pages. I hoped that this would stimulate questions and comments about the material. Once again, however, only one group responded with questions. While helping the group find the answer I felt a sense of accomplishment and that I was really helping these students. At this point I was extremely ingaged in the work and wanted to help more of the students. I continued asking question about the topics and the progress of the project. I tried to get the students to give me any information that I could help them with. I looked for any little opening, but the same trend continued. Although there was limited discussion between my groups, I hoped the questions and information that I sent the groups helped them in their research. Although my hopes were high, I was very concerned that the students were not going to finish their projects on time. However, once the projects were finished I realized that the students created very impressive projects.