Originally posted by derek doherty on September 29, 2019
An area of mobile education that particularly interests me is the use of mobile technology to facilitate mentoring. There are a lot of companies offering apps and technology that promise to improve how businesses and individuals facilitate mentoring (e.g., Ellen,iMentor). Based on my limited research I have not come across a product that stands out significantly from the crowd. I think that they are still figuring out what value they really add. Is it simply in connecting mentors to mentees, and providing lots of options, a la dating apps? Is it about how they might help foster the relationship between mentor and mentee? Is it a just in time service or a committed relationship? Mobile seems like the perfect platform to meet most of what good mentoring demands. When wondering what evidence there is to back this view I came across the following case study regarding how mobile phones are helping to facilitate mentoring relationships for trainee teachers in the UK: https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=a+case+study+of+mobile+learning+in+teacher+training&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3Dxp5eOI09DnMJ
It is common for schools, especially in higher education, to incorporate mentoring programs for their first year students. The main purpose of mentoring is to build personal connection, which is a critical point for new student retention. Establishing trust between mentors and mentees is required before a meaningful personal connection can take place. Some ways to build trust include a clear understanding of the purpose and the goals of the mentoring program and a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous communication. For instance, email and text message would allow communication of more complex issues, while video calls can clarify any potential misunderstanding caused by different writing styles.
The same principles also apply to online learning :
– Instructors need to be clear about their expectations
– Both instructors and students understand their tasks in the course
– Communication is open and available in different methods (weekly announcement, regular Zoom meeting)
This discussion goes back to what we discussed last week about mobile culture – some students feel frustrated when courses are moving online because they are unsure how and whether there’s any change to the course expectation.