Bringing the Outside In:
Critical Issues in Designing Educational Mentoring & Telementoring Experiences

Abstract:

Increasingly, educators are asked to juggle the complex agendas of educational reform: to create instruction that is student-centered, that engages young people on their own level about their own interests, while at the same time keeping pace with technology and adhering to assessment standards. In this ever-changing environment, teachers and educational reformers are looking outside the classroom for ideas and assistance.

This panel session addresses the following questions related to bringing the outside in:

• What do we perceive as the role of outside mentor/experts in our classes?
• How are these roles different in on-line vs. in-person contexts?
• How do we best prepare students and mentor/experts for these experiences?
• How do we manage and assess such mentoring experiences?

These issues are explored in the context of three educational initiatives with substantial mentoring components: Adventures in Supercomputing; Telementoring Young Women in Science, Mathematics & Computing; and TechCorps.

Keywords:

Mentoring, Telementoring, Computational science, Career development, Projects, Education