Mentorship Building

Digital Mentorship…

A long, long time ago, I was a member of a listserv. My subscription to IT Forum (run by itech1.coe.uga.edu), delivered a regular digest of technology and education expertise.

ITFORUM was a mailing list for anyone who was interested in instructional technology. It was place to discuss theories, research, new paradigms, and practices in the field of Instructional Technology. IT Forum had an archive of discussion papers and members would publish and respond each others thoughts.

The Forum supported the mission of the University of Georgia which was to “teach, conduct research, and provide service related to the integration of all forms of technology into learning in a variety of settings.” The group was open to anyone, but only those with an interest in IT and education joined. I remember the “voices” that posted were funny, incredibly erudite and insightful.

People like Herman van der Merwe, George Veletsianos, George Siemens, Stephen Downes, Diana Laurillard, Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams and Johannes Cronjé The papers were varied. Some were above me, others quite funny and thought provoking. I felt like I knew these experts personally. They appeared in my in box at regular intervals and I could read them when I had time. Had we bumped into each other in the street, I would not have known what to say.

Us CAE newbies, who were doing our masters in Computer Assisted Education, were lurking on IT Forum. I was astonished at the continued generosity of this community and read the expertise. For me, a high school teacher who was just beginning to incorporate ICT into my teaching, there wasn’t a shortage of enthusiasm on our part. But there was a dire need for local expertise. I wasn’t brave enough to do a paper. But I think that I had found some of my teachers.

What has replaced the listserv?

Jump forward 25 or so years later, and our social feed has made sure that advice is available in abundance. Chat GPT will now also oblige. But are there meaningful, workable and ongoing conversations between learning designers, practitioners, academics, researchers, teachers and techies? Or has this become contested information territory between big tech and local experts. From my side, frankly, critical local expertise is in short supply. But this does not have to be the case.

Do we need to be thinking about another place for open thinking to be shared? An updated IT forum where relationships might offer

• direct assistance to address particular problems
• collegial support and career scaffolding
• a role model to emulate.

One of the great strengths of IT forum was that it offered informal conversations and formal a component. A practitioner would produce a paper and we would discuss the position, long before it was published. Yes, contributors came and went. But this commitment to growing a knowledge ecology was the glue that held everything together.

In this time of formal and bureaucratic organizational forms, I think that we need to be wary of creating another structures. Perhaps our critical thinking needs some “re-wilding”. I was wondering if we could use gardening as a metaphor to visualize the critical process.

Critcal ed techies are knowledge gardeners. They seem innately able to inject life and beauty into their their own back and front yards (or screens). Their work requires a shed of garden tools, and bookshelves with information about plants and horticulture techniques. But it also requires much more. Although this knowledge and skills are crucial to cultivating your garden and tools make the job easier. Good gardeners are able to think ecologically. Work practically. Impose their will on nature and let nature take it course. They see the whole life cycle experience, seeds, sprout, bloom, produce seed, and ultimately die. Breaking a gardener’s work down into disparate parts as gives a very shallow understanding of the overall work and effort required . Good gardening is often modeled by folk who are happy pottering around. These people show (rather than a read instructions from the packet). Gardeners talk through their experience with their patient friends, children or spouses. Even the experience of not growing what they were hoping for and how they learned from errors and mistakes makes them happy. Digging the hole and embedding the plant is only a small part of the whole experience. Gardeners also know that it is more important to induct others into the ecological way of thinking, so that others can successfully grow their plot. And perhaps, if necessary, also meet the greater needs of the village where they are located.

In my experience the conditions and practices for encouraging the ongoing improvement of individuals and organization have always been rooted in relationships. Platforms (whether list serves, blogs, social media, Zoom, Mastodon or now Wikipedia) have been the way in which we connect and grow our ideas. But just like gardeners in one part of the world don’t plant certain plants, because they don’t suit local conditions. We too need local gardeners, who can mentor other aspiring gardeners.

How will we do that? Stay tuned for Mentorship Building – Part 2

Footnote:

This blog post is in response to CSET 2025 – Critical studies of education and technology: an invitation to connect. Neil Selwyn asked us to look at four questions. This is my answer to Q 4

Question 4: What grounds for hope are there? Can we point to local instances of digital technology leading to genuine social benefits and empowerment?

PS Laura noticed that this post is dated 2021, and the dates for the CSET event was 2025. The 2021 is half complete. I ditched it and am going to use that work in Mentorship Building Part 2.