Maryann Brown

Lecturer, School of Education, University of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

Virtual Mentoring - A Story of a New Way of Learning

Abstract

Technological advances have generated changes in the way teachers teach and students learn. The use of the Internet has provided opportunities for students in remote areas to have access to more diverse information sources. Virtual mentoring is one way that school students and university students can learn from each other.

This paper will describe two different virtual mentoring programs that are being run by the School of Education at the University of Ballarat. The first program involves students who are undertaking their Victorian Certificate of Education, Units 1&2 English, being mentored by the Secondary English Curriculum students at the university.

In the second program, students from the Graduate Diploma of Education course mentor year 10 students from the Central Highlands and Wimmera region of Victoria. The scope of this program is broader and students, interests form the basis of the mentoring experience.

The paper will describe the two programs and will address some contemporary theoretical understandings of mentoring in general and virtual mentoring in particular.

Bionote

Maryann Brown has a background in secondary English teaching and Special Education. For the past six years she has taught part-time in schools and part-time at the University of Ballarat in the School of Education. She now coordinates the Graduate Diploma of Education and lectures in English Curriculum and pedagogical studies.

Presentation Type
30 min. Paper

Presentation Equipment and Other Requests
OHP

Speaking Date/Time Restrictions

Country
Australia