My final reflection on my online mentoring experience for EDS 137.

1. Sok 1
Linda Sok
EDS 137, Fall 2009
Professor Halter
Final Reflection
This quarter, I had the opportunity to mentor High Tech High students online through
the Ning site. Although the mentoring was supposed to span across the entire 11 weeks of
school this quarter, including finals week, contact with the students did not commence
until almost four weeks into the school year. This was due to the fairly new inception of the
course EDS 137: Teaching and Learning Through Technology. The process required a
connection to an online high school that was willing to collaborate on this level, which was,
as mentioned, not finalized until around Week 4. However, during the first weeks of school,
we were given assignments and resources that allowed us to take a dip into the concept of
online mentoring and schooling.
The assignment started off with researching various online schools such as:
Capistrano Connections Academy, Kaplan Academy of San Diego, University of CA College
Prep, iHigh Virtual Academy, and Online High School Directory. I learned some really
interesting including that most of these schools were free. Another advantage of online
schooling is that it creates a different type of student, who learns how to study
independently and needs the ability to manage time. After doing some more readings on
the topic, I concluded that online schooling will become a popular form of education. To
read my response to a blog regarding online school and its effect on the future of
education, click here: http://letsconsider.edublogs.org/2009/09/24/what-is-the-future-of-
education/. Afterward, we joined a group on the Ning site and began our pre-mentoring by

2. Sok 2
reviewing various online student portfolios, seen here:
http://www.hightechhigh.org/dc/Digital_Portfolios.php . The portfolios were quite
impressive and displayed a lot of skills and professionalism.
After some time, we established our mentoring groups with students from Chris
Oliva's Science Class in the Sewers Science Project. My three groups were Iron in Water
(Robin) [http://hightechhigh.ning.com/group/robinandbrian], Laura and Erica's Sewer
Science Group- Arsenic [http://hightechhigh.ning.com/group/CabandNony], and Plastic
Bottles [http://hightechhigh.ning.com/group/waterprojectjavonnegeoandbrendon]. I was
definitely in my working gear, ready to jump on board with their project. I spent a lot of
time looking up various resources regarding each group's topic, posting what I thought
would be helpful on their Ning groups. However, weeks went by with very little comment or
response as to whether or not the information I shared was helpful or being used at all. This
trend continued for the majority of the weeks after. I made it a goal to think of different
ways to get connected to the students. The list included individually messaging the
students, establishing a VoiceThread project, and creating an Etherpad. However, no one
responded. This problem became the wall in our online mentoring experience, thus
resulting in a lack of awareness in my students' progress. I persisted, hoping for any sign of
interaction. Out of my entire online mentoring experience this quarter, I got only two
responses from the students, both of which I initiated a follow up, but ended there.
A lot of times when I work students, I always question my purpose in our relationship
as mentor-mentee; I question my motive. For instance, am I tutoring these students to gain
a sense of self-accomplishment so that I can feel good about myself or am I genuinely
committed to helping these students so that they can accomplish a specific goal? I think I

3. Sok 3
was able to answer part of this during my online mentoring experiences this quarter and I
believe the answer is a little bit of both. In a way to not sound selfish, I do this so that I can
feel good about myself. That's not entirely true, however, because I truly enjoy helping
others and I think I am entitled to “feeling good about myself” if it means being able to
help someone overcome an obstacle, no matter how small. Therefore, no matter how little
the interaction was, I am grateful to be a part of this opportunity and I truly hope that the
little help that I did give them proved useful for this project. If not, that's okay, because I
know that I at least made an effort and that they did accomplish their goal, regardless of
how little interaction we made.