The Plan | The Team | The Project | Links
The e-mentoring site on Think.com went live in November 2000. The aim is to provide a mentoring service on issues concerning ICT and building online education communities. The e-mentoring Think site is a closed site, open only to the mentoring team and the online participants. E-mentoring participants submit their question or contribution to the e-mentoring team via the Compaq Expert Mentoring page on MirandaNet, and once their contribution is posted on the Think site they will have access to the e-mentoring online community for 4-5 weeks.
The mentors receive face-to-face training about the role of the mentor and also work together during this session to consider how the online team can support other teachers. Six months into the programme the mentors met together again to review how effective online mentoring has been and whether it is possible to categorise those questions that can be addressed online (and those that cannot). The frameworks are also under regular review.
The mentoring team comprises ten mentors, with a wide range of relevant expertise. This team includes Primary and Secondary school teachers, a Head, a deputy-head, a special education needs coordinator, two people with LEA education and ICT experience, a teacher trainer, a lifelong learning consultant and a consultant from The Learning Circuit.
| Douglas Butler | Oundle School |
| Mara Christie | Hermitage Primary School |
| Robert Ellis | Leigh Technology College |
| Ben Franklin | Plume School |
| Terry Freedman | Newham LEA |
| Francis Howlett | The Learning Circuit |
| David Litchfield | Brierton School |
| Peter O’Hagan | Stoke LEA |
| John Potter | University of East London |
| John Sosna | Great Ormond Street Hospital School |
| Programme Manager: | |
| Jane Field | Education and Development |
The action research project addresses a number of areas of the use of ICT in primary and secondary teaching. These include:
- The effectiveness of an online community for professional development
- The constraints of online mentoring The development of frameworks
- The extent to which the frameworks can be transferable
In addition to the more pedagogical issues the project has also gained data about
- Frequently asked questions
- Who is seeking answers to questions concerning the use of ICT in schools
Traditionally a three-stage approach to mentoring has been used. This project builds on this with a four stage mentoring framework:
- Exploration and identifying need understanding and knowledge
- Action planning
- Implementation and impact
You can find out more about e-mentoring by following these links:Jane Field's
article on e-mentoring in Mentoring News
Notes on the Peer
Support in Action Conference
The Recent Contributions page has snapshots of
recent e-mentoring
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