mentor, mentoring

Thank Your Mentor Day!

Happy THANK YOUR MENTOR Day! January, with January 17, 2016 being International Mentoring Day, was proclaimed National Mentoring Month by President Obama. This mentoring campaign is targeted at supporting youth and mentoring IRL (#MentoringIRL).

miyagi_mentorAlthough my youth is behind me, I can definitely say a number of people helped to get me where I am today. A mentor can listen, teach, guide, and coach. Can you think about the mentor(s) in your life? Where would you be today had it not been for their support?

Here are a few simple ways the National Mentor Campaign suggests to THANK your mentor:

  1. Contact your mentor directly to express your appreciation;
  2. Express your gratitude on social media; (#MentorIRL)
  3. Pass on what you received by becoming a mentor to a young person in your community;
  4. Make a financial contribution to a local mentoring program in your mentor’s honor; and,
  5. Write a tribute to your mentor for posting on the Who Mentored You? website.

You can download a Thank you card from the Campaign Marketing Materials page.

As a thank you to all the mentors who have supported me and the mentees I have learned from, it would be only fitting to introduce this research study on this topic; however now I am interested learning how mentoring supports professionals and the field they work in:

Exploring Mentoring Programs in Professional Learning Organizations

Have you been part of a mentoring experience? Tell us about it. I am grateful for the informal and formal mentoring experiences, and I would not be interested in this study if it weren’t for the formal mentoring programs I have been a part of (shout out to ACPAgrow & NACADA ELP).  If you have any formal or informal mentoring experiences, please take a few minutes to share by filling out this survey:

http://bit.ly/ExploringMentoring

More about the research study: https://techknowtools.wordpress.com/mentoring/

Learning Community, Learning Technologies, Professional Development

Exploring the Future of Courses

Exploring the Future of Courses: From Course to Dis/Course is a short, online (FREE) conference May 14 & 15, 2009. Anyone is able to join in the session presentations & discussions that delve into the topic of online learning and course content that is shared in Elluminate & in Moodle.

Current course models of development, creation and sharing is in question for our learners. Many challenges and changes to digital technologies will impact how to best design course content.

Today’s presentations included:

Most of the sessions discussed how educators are managing the challenges new technology presents and its effect on current course models, data-driven material and learner needs in a digital.

For those of you who could not attend today, be sure to join in online tomorrow OR catch up with the conversation online. If are not able to tune in live, be sure to follow along in Twitter, Delicious or blogs with the hash tag – #disc09

[The sessions in Elluminate will be recorded and archived shortly.]

Great question posed by George Siemens, towards the end of his presentation, to further ponder:

“What is the vital currency of education in a world where the information cycle is no longer controllable?”