From: Marc Siegel - NASA K-12 IITA Program <marc@quest.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject: implementing LFM mentoring
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 17:14:35 -0700 (PDT)
Hello folks, I just cannot believe that the summer is over. For you, that means that youngsters are already in class. For me it means that the summer's relaxed "let's develop LFM" mode is giving way to a more hectic "let's operate LFM". Wah! I want it to be June again. Anyway, I am writing to follow up on your suggestions for organizing a PTK mentoring program to help folks who are new to the Electronic Field Trip / online teaching environment. I've got an idea on how to go forward with this. I'm hoping to articulate this proposed approach and then get feedback from ya'll on what seems best. Essentially I see the matchmaking between mentors and mentees happening manually. Ie someone from my group will read the incoming requests for mentors and offers to serve as mentors. We'll then match people up one by one. I'm concerned about trying to automate the process too much since I doubt we can fully describe a good matching algorithm enough to automate it, and I fear some automatic process that doesn't work perfectly will just alienate the very people who have raised their hand needing help. So we'll put info on the Web describing our need for mentors and our offer to find mentors. As well, people will read about the service when they first sign up for the updates-lfm list. And for those already subscribed, I'll include a write-up in an upcoming updates-lfm message. So that is the basic approach. Let people learn about the service in various ways. Then match them manually. The other question I have is what info should I be asking of mentors and mentees to help match them up. My guess is that the less the better, and if I ask for grade level taught and attempt to match folks with that as the main criteria, it will work best. Please set me straight if you see it otherwise. As alternatives to a manual one-to-one system, we could 1) have a form where people could register themselves as mentors and their info automatically goes online for the world to see. People wanting mentors could tap into the list and write to the individual who appeals to them. When mentors have accumulated enough people to help, they take their name offline themselves. In this way, the service is a bit more like self-service. This seems workable as well. 2) Invite people to use the discuss-lfm list as a place to air their specific concerns, where they can hopefully be addressed by a large group of experts. This doesn't sound so good to be because group mentoring doesn't sound like it meets the need I heard expressed in Washington. As well, it will further clog up discuss-lfm with mail that may become awfully specific and uninteresting to may folks. So if you have an opinion or idea, please shoot me an email so I can implement a system that best fits your needs. Thanks, Marc