Introduction
My Mentoring project involves helping a friend improve her creative writing skills. We’ve used AOL Instant Message, email, and phone calls to communicate, but I thought that creating a Web Journal or Log (BLOG) with her would be the most appropriate way, using technology, to work with her (she lives 50 miles away).

Process
As many with many of my cadremates, I began this project by looking for online resources using the Google Search Engine. Alas, finding a succinct way to describe what I was looking for became a large part of the task. I started with just a general “mentoring” search, then “telementoring.” Eventually I just started looking at sources that I was familiar with. The problem was that I was looking for something related to learning the writing process, but I also needed something on conducting “training” at a distance. Eventually I stumbled onto the USDLA Journal, “A Refereed Journal of the United States Distance Learning Association.” (see below for a list of journals/web sites consulted). From the current issue of USDLA Journal I selected an article called “Experiencing the Online Environment” by Denise L. Land.

Article Summary: “Experiencing the Online Environment”
Ms. Land begins with a quotation from Neo and Eng on how distance learning will enable students anywhere and at any time to have access to educational opportunities and learning communities without boundaries.
The crisis facing traditional institutions, she continues, is that online institutions such as University of Phoenix-Online are pushing their programs like correspondences courses but with the access to learning opportunities and the accreditation of a traditional school. She then lists fourteen specific benefits. The benefits listed are the standard online learning tokens: convenience, instant access, minimal disruption of family and work life. Unlike the previous generation of correspondence education Ms. Land notes that “learning is a social activity” and to that end online learn afford student more than just convenient access to information but to other learners.

Ms. Land also briefly notes several difficulties or “challenges” to online learning:
1. The total reliance on technology, which can fail.
2. Increased time commitment because the work and discussions are not limited to set hours (and time it takes to respond to messages).
3. Possible miscommunications because of the loss of visual cues.
4. Out of sequence or disjointed flow of communication.

Analysis/Response
Ms. Land does an admirable job spelling out the benefits and challenges of online learning (especially in regards to the importance of “community”). I was hoping, however, for something less PR and more “how to” with regards to conducting online learning. After searching through numerous journals and online resources I was hoping for something that could help me a bit more conduct my “learning environment” with my mentee. For someone interested in learning more about what online learning is, this is an excellent presentation. Some someone looking for more “under the hood” explorations . . . I’m still looking for that resource. JBB

Resources/URLs

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