E-Mentoring: a Novel Approach in the Use of Technology in Education

E-Mentoring: a Novel Approach in the Use of Technology in Education

Introduction:

In the last two decades we have been observing very impressive changes in the way technology is used in education. These changes have been appearing parallel to the innovations made in our business life style: the customer is now at the centre of all activities. From an “instructor centred education system” approach,emphasis is now shifted so as to give priority to learning. As a consequence, today a “learner centred education system” has been developed that require instructors to be involved with motivation of the learners, rather than the transfer of information. In this paper we suggest that the next stage of development in education will be in the direction of a “mentoring centred education system”. The question is now: how to use technology to facilitate this new emphasis, where instructors should be more concerned with developing adequate life long strategies of the learners. We quote:

There is, therefore, every reason to place renewed emphasis on the moral and cultural dimensions of education, enabling each person to grasp the individuality of other people and to understand the world’s erratic progression towards a certain unity; but this process must begin with self-understanding through an inner voyage whose milestones are knowledge, meditation and the practice of self-criticism (UNESCO, 1996).

The paper covers a theoretical background to education, recent developments and case studies where the importance of mentoring is exposed. We conclude by suggesting that “strategic alliances” with all partners involved in education is now needed more than ever.

Theoretical Background:

Here we present an introductory theoretical background we feel is needed when preparing technology based education environments.

• Knowledge integration: Plato argued in favour of a holistic approach to knowledge acquisition by stating that “the sciences which they learned without any order in their early education will be brought together and they will be able to see the natural relationship of sciences to one another and to true being” (from Republic, VII 537).

Read/write/draw sequel:Comenius is quoted as having said that “what a child has read he must write; what he has seen he must draw” (Paterson, 1892). As in this case,learning about the qualities of the author helps in appreciating the values of the teaching of the masters. Others can be very good role models to guide us.

• Critical thinking: Another important thinker Kant (1960), argues that “character consists in the readiness to act in accordance to maxims”, suggesting that we need to develop clear set of rules to guide our lives. It is wise to develop a “knowledge based approach” to educational management based on facts and rules (Inelmen, 2002).

• Cognitive levels:Reading from Biggs (2001) excellent summary on styles that enhance learning, it is possible to develop a better understanding of “cognitive levels”. By tapping in our own teaching experience, we can point at some of the keywords we need: memorize, paraphrase, describe, argue, relate and reflect.

• Learners’ perception: According to Alderman (1999) motivation can be enhanced if we take into consideration the perception the learnershas of his own abilities, the effort needed, the task difficulty, the strategy choice, the role of past performance and the role of the teacher. Learners must be properly guided.

• Language syntax: Herman (1996) was interested in complex system and provided the artificial intelligence community with many new insights. By putting emphasis on language syntax, he opened a new important pathway. He is referring to I.A. Richards recent book “Language through Pictures”.

• Theory/Practice dichotomy: Although Delors in his 1996 report (UNESCO, 1998) argues that education should develop the abilities: to know, to be, to do and to share, with great sorrow we observe that university students lack these basic skills. We can blame the educational institutions that underestimate the importance of practice.

• Learning environment: The most recent insights in the field of education come from the “activity theory” research approach. The design of new learning environments (Akpinar, 1991) is now catching the interest of corporations, where the cost of education is a very pressing issue.

Recent developments

It was Kelly (2002) that saw all people as "personal scientists" in anticipating the world. His first corollary -the construction corollary- states "A person anticipates events by construing their replications”. Thus an education system should develop the ability of self- learning and applying various tools to problems that require the use of resources for the convenience of men. Unfortunately the fact that textbooks are written along disciplinary lines puts barriers between disciplines. When students are to be allowed to make their decisions regarding their education, fitting education to their abilities, counselling systems must be implemented (Yerlici, 1987).

Here we attempt to make an overview of how technology is currently used in education. A good example is given by Asan (2003), who describes the results obtained during the implementation of a multimedia environment based on the experience of the instructors to be used by pre-service instructors. In this case the educational environment was designed and implemented by computer experts. In contrast, we have suggested elsewhere (Inelmen, et al., 1999) that the instructors themselves should be developing the multimedia material for their own future consumption. Our approach takes into account the need to empower the instructor -trained in preparing educational material while in service- to be actively involved.

There is a drastic difference here: with this approach we assure that the instructors acts as the champions in the divulgation of “technology mediated education”. The role of the instructor is now to a) set new goals, b) evaluate results, c) praise efforts, d) warn mistakes, e) request views, f) seek support, g) assure autonomy, h) encourage reflective learning, i) develop program, course and lectures and j) expect the learners to be polite, reliable, assertive, confident, flexible, and dedicated. The instructor is the coach and the technology mediator where all parties were expected to participate actively (Eldem and İnelmen, 2000). As in the real working setting, people are required to collaborate with each other. The idea of “team work” is to be cherished (İnelmen, 2000).

Discussion

Mentoring should provide the mentee a life long planning, a general perspective in philosophy, arrange networking with people, give news about developments in the world. Although the mentor is not a counsellor we believe like in other personal services, s/he should receive supervision from senior experts. The mentor should be aware of the needs of the mentee at different stages –initiation, realization, maturation- of life.

As the world seeks to become a more integrated community, new polices of encouraging strategic alliances between technical partners are being promoted. No one single institution has all the necessary know how to work by its own: cooperation is inevitable. There is clear preference for proposals having short and long term effects on the social and economic life of the community. Positive effects of these new polices are becoming evident as agents –universities, industries and centres- start to submit new proposals for projects and centres

Conclusion

“Technology Mediated Communication” (TMC) is rapidly enhancing the way we do business and is also improving the way we learn. Technology can also be used to make the learning process more enjoyable both to the teacher and the student. The emerging technologies and “project centered learning” techniques can bridge the expectations of the teachers and students. In our opinion it is more important to upgrade the computer skills of teachers, than the enhancement of hardware and software. To make the necessary changes in the educational curriculum proposed here we encourage stakeholders to “join in” in this mission National and international organizations have the responsibility of creating the platforms where change can be initiated.

Mentoring is crucial as we seek to become a more integrated community. New polices of encouraging strategic alliances between technical partners are being promoted. No one single institution has all the necessary know how to work by its own: cooperation is inevitable. There is clear preference for proposals having short and long term effects on the social and economic life of the community. Positive effects of these new polices are becoming evident as agents –universities, industries and centres- start to submit new proposals for projects and centres.

There is clear dissatisfaction with how the education institutions work today. We strongly believe that learners need to relay more on themselves than on the support of others. As pointed out by activity theory, “the transformation is occurring when there is engagement with the object”. This is where e-mentoring becomes of relevance. As Sir Karl Popper (1999) -the widely acclaimed philosopher of our time- suggests, advice should be considered as “a signpost on [the] way to creative and happy life: however happy you may be with a solution, never think of it as final”.

We conclude with the story of a traveller that amazed with the beauties he saw in the construction site of a new building, asked an artisan what he was doing. The artisan answered reluctantly that he was laying bricks. The traveller moved on and asked a second artisan the same question. The artisan answered that he was building the wall of a new headquarters. Exactly the same question was repeated to a seemingly more experienced artisan. The third artisan answered enthusiastically: "I am proud of working on the wall of a building that will be in the future the pride of our nation".

Case Study

Table 1. recent cases of mentoring where the author is involved

case / Aim / stage / period / remark
N / Master / Follow-up / 6 / Possible acceptance in the usa
E / Master / Follow-up / 7 / Need more encouragement
L / Job / In progress / 3 / Need for a life long perspective
H / master / Promising / 18 / Need to be guided for doctorate
D / Master / In progress / 8 / Started thesis preparation
B / Job / Waiting / 5 / Aim not clear yet
S / Undergraduate /

In progress

/ 3 / Need to focus the aim

The author has been fortunate enough to receive help from the late prof.adnan halet taşpınar during the earlier period of his career. We feel now the need to share with others the experiences gained since, both in the industry and academia. The possibilities of the free use of “computer mediated communication” has encouraged the author to keep in touch with some of the relations as summarized in table 1. the case of H has been a long lasting relation an promises to continue in the future. Several publications in the local media were accomplished.

We have now realized -after more than 25 years of teaching- that encouragement is the most important ingredient in education. Help in this direction can only be given after mutual understanding and confidence –preferably face to face- is assured. It is important to understand that “mentoring” –the personal relation between the mentor and the mentee- requires patience and tact. Feeling the pulse of the mentee is possible in an informal environment. The mentor –by providing relevant information an enabling networking- should be concerned with a life long education program suited for the mentee.

After 20 months of experience with more than 20 mentees we are reading to present here a “protocol” to be followed in mentoring relations. A mentoring relation begins when the prospect mentee asks for advice on an issue s/he is facing. It is necessary to keep the dialogue and understand the facts and provide relevant guidance. In most cases the dialogue is broken and is necessary to make follow-up contacts. Sometimes a very brief message can help in reviving the relation. The mentor must know hen is the proper time to terminate the relation.

In the university where the author is affiliated, a doctorate thesis has been conducted recently on the benefits of mentoring in educational environments. In this work a classification of different mentoring relations is given. We take the “secondary mentor” (page 10) as the most appropriate for our case. Although the importance of role modelling is stressed in this work, our experience shows that a more “humble” approach is need when communicating with the mentee. The mentee should not be overwhelmed by the experiences of others. We have been in most cases encouraging mentees to write “position letters” or other paper fomats. To encourage mentees to be active, we have created an “electronic pool” where this publications can be stored.

Acknowledgment

The help of my students in developing a new approach to learning is acknowledged.

References

Özen, R, Mentoring, gender and ideological perspectives: a case study phd thesis unpublished bogaziçi university, 1998.

Kelly (2002) (

UNESCO (1996) UNESCO “Learning: The Treasure Within”, UNESCO Publication, Paris.

Yerlici, V. (1987) “The Same Degree for All Engineering Students”, Proceeding of the European Society of Engineering Education Conference 1987, Helsinki, pp. 365-370.

İnelmen, E., Egeli, B. and Özturan, M., (1999) “Training School Teachers Using Project Based Learning Techniques: Case Study”, 5th International Problem Based Learning Conference, Montreal, 7-10 July 1999, pp 113-117.

Kant, I. (1999) Education, The University of Michigan, Michigan, pp.6.

Eldem, E. and İnelmen, E., (2000) “Encouraging Students to Prepare ‘Technological Mediated Learning’ Material”, International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training, Istanbul, (Turkey), 3-5 July 2000, pp.198-200.

İnelmen, E. (1999) “Experience Gained in Implementing a Virtual School as a Student Initiative”, Technology in Learning Environments Conference, Tel-Aviv, (Israel), 25-27 October 1999 (presented).

İnelmen, E. (2000) “Training Teachers for Open Classroom Collaborative Work” 4th Open Classroom Conference, Barcelona, (Spain), 20-21 November 2000, pp. 220-225.

İnelmen, E. (2000) “Using Technology to Enhance Understanding Across Cultures”, InternationalConference Technology Impact on Cultural Tourism, Istanbul, (Turkey), 27-29 June 2000, pp. 523-532. ISBN 975-518-154-7.

İnelmen, E. (2001) “Encouraging Learners to Prepare Oral Presentations Using Computers”, 7th World Conference on Computers in Education, Copenhagen, (Denmark), 29 July- 3 August 2001 (to be printed –Kluwer)