Professional social networks as a mentoring tool

[Ken Messersmith]

Connie and I have been talking about using social networks like this one to help support future teacher and beginning teachers. I have created a social network on Ning for our current students both graduate and undergraduate but haven't found a good way to make sure everyone gets a connection.
Connie also found an article talking about involving retired teachers in a supporting role for new and future teachers.
Any ideas about how we might do something like this?

[Connie Weber]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for starting this forum. I figure it's something we'll evolve our way towards, adding in pieces as we go. I want to be very encouraging about having up-and-coming teachers joining in here. I want us to run forums that'll invite their participation--want to hear what people in education schools are thinking about, wondering, experiencing.

We have a number of people who have already indicated their willingness to join in as mentors. I'm thinking we can match people with mentors who will keep up a personal correspondence--in addition to sharing thoughts on forums and blogs.

I'll be meeting with some university people about this shortly, notably EMU and UM around here. If you have a university connection, please think about how we can support the growth of your students. Professors of Education (of which we have many), it's time for us to get this going in a very fruitful, inspiring, supportive manner. Seems to be one of the really positive things we can be doing.

What do you think? Ken and I and several others would love to have your ideas and thoughts about mentoring. How can participation on Fireside be integrated into class work, for instance? What topics should we be discussing that would be of particular interest to people coming into the field? Students, new educators: can you envision ways that this professional network could be helpful and meaningful to you?

Seeking input! Everyone, please share ideas. Let us know if you'd be willing to be a mentor.

[Kathryn L. Keene]

I would gladly give direction and/or support to any new or aspiring teacher. I have my students read an article by Anna Quindlen, entitled..."The Wages of Teaching". It is clear that we are losing too many too quickly. It would be comforting to have a space for new teachers to vent and discover...Although I am older, I am a relatively new teacher. I am not liking the lack of connection and camaraderie in my nest...does anyone know what I mean?....

[Mary Hricko]

At our university, we have learning communities in which faculty from across the eight campuses come together to work on projects, activities, teaching, and learning in an informal type of community. Since many people had difficulty making all of our meetings, we set up a ning site for our learning community. soon many people outside the university asked to join and the local learning community is now a much bigger network of mentors and mentees.

The ning environment makes it easy to interact on various teaching topics and issues and we find that several of our other LCs using ning are able to post meeting notes and other materials through the site.

[Connie Weber]

Hi Mary,

Can we interlink some of the networks and get several initiatives going? Also, please jump in and share your expertise with us, ok?

[Jennifer Lubke]

I explored this topic a lot as a master's student in instructional technology and wrote an inquiry about teacher mentoring and 21st century tools (including social networks). I'm attaching the PDF. It's long -- you might just want to jump to the last section, which is sort of a culmination of advice for engaged moderators and followers.

One of the most helpful articles I found with specific advice for network creators and moderators was Building Virtual Communities by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, who is herself a good resource on this topic. The original article appeared in the TechLearning blog, but I've had trouble retrieving my bookmarks since they overhauled their site recently. I hope the link I provide works.

[Connie Weber]

Jennifer--
Thank you so much. I have your PDF ready to print out; I'm eager to study it. I'll get going on Sheryl's article, too. Yes, the link works. Perfect!!!

[Connie Weber]

Hi Jennifer,

I read your paper and got a lot out of it--thanks very much. (Also read Sheryl's article that you linked to, and would like to see more of her stuff as well as more of yours.)

This is a big focus for me now--I'm convinced that we can make significant inroads in this here on Fireside. I love the idea of "eMentoring," and the definition you provided by Bierema and Merriam: "a computer mediated, mutually beneficial relationship between a mentor and a protege which provides learning, advising, encouraging, promoting and modeling, that is often boundaryless, egalitarian, and qualitatively different than traditional face-to-face mentoring."

Some parts of your paper that stand out to me:

"In cases of formal and informal, an electronic intervention can address a number of shortcomings in traditional face-to-face models." (Lubke)

"Virtual communities ensure flexible meeting times and more precise matches between mentors and protoges." (Lubke, paraphrasing Fulton et al)

"If teachers are going to prepare students for twenty-first century work, they have to understand twenty-first century work..." (Dede)

"...the Web 2.0 phenomenon as an 'avalanche of change'" (Folkestad)

"Today's teachers and learners must possess the 'survival skills' of collaboration and collective action." (Lubke, discussing Folkestad)

All this, and I'm basically just referencing your intro here. There's so much to discuss.

I see social networking as an extremely powerful tool for learning. Can we discuss your paper all the way through? So much to think through, so much to just GET GOING on. I'm very excited!

Please remind me that when we continue the conversation, I'm just coming up to the great quote by George Siemens, in which he's talking about his digitally-based learning theory... (Yes!! Do you have references to his stuff that you particularly like, in addition to "It's not about tools. It's about change"?--I haven't investigated that yet, but am eager to.)

Thanks so much for all the energy you put into this paper. It's very important work. Glad you're sharing your knowledge!

--Ken, thank you for getting this conversation going. There's so much to be learned from each other. Are you getting ideas for how we might use "eMentoring" to help a group of your students? Can you envision getting a pilot program going this fall?

[Jennifer Lubke]

Connie,

My apologies for the late reply. Thank you for the kind feedback. Some months (years?) ago, someone on my blog directed me to Siemens, who wrote an essay on his theory, "Connectivism." Since then I have been an occasional reader of Siemens' blog. He is a sometimes contrarian. I like that at times.

[Daniel Bassill]

I've followed George Siemens for several years through his email newsletter. There are always creative and useful ideas in his writing.

[Connie Weber]

Daniel,
You will be worth your weight in gold as we get a mentoring system going here on Fireside, a mentoring program for teachers. Please share your thoughts! Your numerous experiences, your passion, your wisdom... all much appreciated and valued.

[Connie Weber]

Jennifer,
Would you be willing to share some of your expertise with us on Fireside? We'd like to get a mentoring program going here. Thanks so much for your illuminating paper!

[scott smith]

Connie,

A little bit off topic, but....

George Siemans, along with Stephen Downes led a course in Connectivism last fall. Their term for the course was a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). I didn't have a lot of time for it, but I dropped in every now and again.

I believe it peaked at about 2500 participants (all creating blogs, and groups on Linkedin, Facebook, Second Life) Lot of great dialogue (and a few power-trolls spewing vitriol). It was quite a trip.

If you type keyword 'cck08' just about anywhere--Google, Facbook, etc. you'll see references to the course.