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MENTORING THE ONLINE K-12 STUDENT. BEST PRACTICES FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS. TRADITIONAL STUDENT POPULATION. Education used to based on “knowledge about”; in other words, students were asked to locate and report on information. Pedagogue focused on lower-order skills Memorization
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MENTORING THE ONLINE K-12 STUDENT BEST PRACTICES FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
TRADITIONAL STUDENT POPULATION Education used to based on “knowledge about”; in other words, students were asked to locate and report on information. Pedagogue focused on lower-order skills • Memorization • Repetition • Basic comprehension (Gunn & Hollingsworth, 2007, p. 2).
21ST CENTURY POPULATION • “Today’s students have vastly different interests, skills, and brain functions that are not always recognized or attended to within contemporary school systems”(Gunn & Hollingsworth, 2010, p. 2) • Today’s students are digital natives taught by digital immigrants (teachers) (p. 1-2) • “Knowledge of” pedagogue (knowledge, application and critical thinking) is needed to build higher order skills (p. 2)
ONLINE MENTORING • Three elements are essential for online teaching, and can be applied to mentoring: • 1. Social Presence • 2. Cognitive Presence • 3. Teaching Presence • (Bair & Bair, 2011, p.2)
SOCIAL PRESENCE • Three definitions: • “Shin (2002). . . feeling intimacy or togetherness in terms of sharing time and place” • “. . . the ability of learners to project themselves socially and emotionally in a community of inquiry (Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, & Archer, 1999, para. 3)” • “. . . Degree to which a person is perceived as a ‘real person’ in mediated communication (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997, p. 9)” • (Bair & Bair, 2011, p. 3)
SOCIAL PRESENCE (CONT.) • Like adult, online students, elementary students can feel isolated. • Instructors/mentors should avail themselves both physically and digitally to alleviate this isolation. • Instructors should also build activities that promote community building to emphasize social presence.
COGNITIVE PRESENCE • Two Definitions: • “Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2001): . . . the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse in a critical community of inquiry (p. 11) . . . • . . . the degree of inquiry and critical thinking that learners engage in during the class”(p. 3)
TEACHING PRESENCE • To promote teaching presence, instructors should: • Establish curriculum content, learning activities and course timelines • Have a well-structured and organized online course • Facilitate the dialogue and reflection • Diagnose learner needs and provide timely assistance (Bair & Bair, 2011, p. 3)
SUMMATION • Online mentoring is primarily the responsibility of the instructor, who must combine social, cognitive and teaching presence to ensure a successful online experience.
REFERENCES Gunn, T. and Hollingsworth, M. (2010). Preparing students, teachers and administrators for the knowledge through district and school based initiatives. The International Journal of Learning, 17(5), 1-10. Bair, D. and Bair, M. (2011). Paradoxes of online teaching. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 5(2), 1-13.