WEEK 8 (class reflections)

March 6,

Discussion Questions

Knowledge Base

I don’t think it is necessary to know the subject our mentees teach in order to help them learn and implement technology. It certainly will help if the changes are going to be focused on the creation of an online or blended course. The knowledge about the subject will help us make them visualize what can be done and what cannot be done with technology. In my case I do not need to know about her subject because we are focusing on building a website. However, I do think that mentors need to know what are the pedagogical approaches, interests and expectations the mentees have this experience so we can better focus on providing the best support.

I think that depending on the purpose of the technology project, then we can start learning about their subject.

Pinar pointed out that if the professor needs help with technology they start explaining about the subject so the mentee can provide a suitable solution. However, I think that if we are going to help them in designing their courses, it is important to know about teaching, pedagogy and instructional design principles to be able to transport the traditional classroom content to the new environment in a way that best suits objectives and help students learn in a different learning domain.

Building trust

I think there is trust when we explain each other about our weaknesses and strengths. I had the idea that I needed to know everything and struggled with it at the beginning. When I work with Dr. Value I acknowledge that I don’t know and try to figure out answers somehow. She is very understanding and she tells me that I will be able to figure it out and she works in something else. I think that basics of this mentor-mentee experience is to trust each other on what we are capable of doing.

One-to-One or One-to-Many?

Build a community of faculty mentees? I think that is a good idea. However, we need to take into the account the purpose that we have. We as mentors want to help and support faculty who have a need in the use of technology. Their specific needs are individual and we need to address them in such a way. Probably a community of mentees will help to share their own experiences, expectations, feelings, etc so that faculty support each other at a different level.

I agree with Zina, every mentee may have their own projects and we need to focus on those needs.I also agree with Andrea upon the idea that time and schedule may be complex if we want to take a one-to-many approach.
An interesting proposal is to have it as an independent study. Multiple case studies? We may need to think more about it.