Big+Shift+Thoughts

**Alessandra's Reflections on HTH Online Mentoring**

 Main Page  > Reflections on Online Mentoring This quarter I was able to delve into the completely unexplored territory of online mentoring with students from High Tech High. Although I had tutored students in the past in pre-calculus math, this experience was completely different regarding subject matter and communication. I spent the majority of the beginning of the class getting familiar with Ning, a new Web 2.0 tool that allows one to create social networks. As an avid user of Facebook and past user of MySpace, I observed the way students used the space. The familiar interface was utilized much in the same but slightly more censored way. Students’ use of Ning varied widely from creating complete detailed profiles, to those which lacked a picture or kept the default profile template. As a mentor, I was intrigued to see the way personality was transcribed from the real life individual to one’s online portfolio. I was somewhat surprised by the openness of some student members who posted their webcam pictures with friends onto the site’s main page.

Largely from my experience I was very impressed in the overall computer literacy demonstrated by the student populations. The profiles we browsed from older students at a High Tech High appeared as professional personal websites. Although I have a vague familiarity with web languages and online tools, I better understood what Professor Halter meant by “online natives”. Advanced photoshopping and familiarity with web languages of the students made me feel behind in the running with computers. In understanding the students’ place in the online world, I was able to then personally interact with them.

Throughout my mentor experience I had a very difficult time receiving any feedback or interaction with my mentees. I tried and offered a variety of means for online communication however did not receive any relevant responses. I researched appropriate websites carefully for information and then posted it on the group pages with questions. I friended all of my mentees and looked at the activity of their personal profiles. Mostly all of my attempts to connect and interact with my students were met with very limited responses of a few words or none at all. I significantly missed the satisfaction face to face communication grants in knowing if students understand the material. I tried to appear as approachable, willing to help and friendly as possible but was still was unable to form a solid online relationship with my mentees. Even my friend requests to my mentees were never approved as the course ended. Even if my social interactions were not met with enthusiasm, I did enjoy seeing how their schools social community interacted online. Groups for clubs and events for school dances were posted on the Ning site and I assume have an entirely different culture of interaction. Having a comparative experience of the school’s classroom sessions would largely help to supplement understanding of our one sided online experience.

One thing the mentoring experience did grant was a better appreciation and understanding of the internet. I was able to view changes to group activity immediately by just clicking on a link in my inbox. Online tutoring largely opens up personal tutoring and more attention to students with one teacher in a large classroom. The ability to integrate Web 2.0 tools was another useful tool for understanding.

 The ambiguity surrounding the mentoring experience I found was part of the learning process. The use of Ning could have been more productive with more clear cut guidelines about how it is used and the type of interaction that is expected to occur with mentors. While Ning is created as a social network, the features have much room to grow as a more effective tool for academic networking. Converging tools made available such as Google Docs or Scholar could Ning a more powerful tool and encourage a different kind of thoughtful student interaction and feedback. The online mentoring experience provided a valuable look in understanding the big shifts as they are happening right now and my role in the every changing digital classroom.

