"What is it, exactly?

Anyone can be a part of /mentoring. All it takes is a few lines of text on the internet, expressing your openness to mentoring and offering a specific invitation to get in touch. You might create a dedicated page at 'yourdomain.com/mentoring', write an individual blog post, or even just mention it in a sidebar. Beginning, not formatting, is what matters."

[See also: http://revolution.is/diana-kimball/ AND https://github.com/dianakimball/mentoring AND http://www.twitter.com/mentoring ]

"One of the great assets of the digital, and what it encourages and enables is multiple voices entering into a dialogue and creating new knowledge out of conversation and discussion."

"I was lucky enough to be taught by some of the greatest international authorities yet it was never assumed that their voice in the conversation was necessarily more important than mine. Far more important than who was talking was the quality of thought expressed and the nature of knowledge that emerged from the dialogue, and I think that's quite right."

"DH is…a collaborative field. We have to learn to work together and understand the different languages that are spoken by different partners in the dialogue: geeks, humanities scholars, information professionals, technical support people & indeed the public. In that sense, therefore, the voice of the DH scholar is of use as an interpreter between different languages & cultures. But interpreters cannot, but the nature of their job, exist in isolation."

"Classroom skills may put you at an advantage in the formal market, but in the informal market, street-smart skills and real-world networking are infinitely more important.

Yet our children grow up amid an echo chamber of voices telling them to get good grades, do well on their SATs, and spend an average of $45,000 on tuition — after accounting for scholarships — while taking on $23,000 in debt to get a private four-year college education."

"There are studies showing that violence is more common when people are confined to one pecking order, and all of their social worth depends on where they are in that hierarchy, whereas if they belong to multiple overlapping groups, they can always seek affirmations of worth elsewhere. For example, if I do something stupid when I’m driving, and someone gives me the finger and calls me an asshole, it’s not the end of the world: I think to myself, I’m a tenured professor at Harvard. On the other hand, if status among men in the street was my only source of worth in life, I might have road rage and pull out a gun. Modernity comprises a lot of things, and it’s hard to tease them apart. But I suspect that when you’re not confined to a village or a clan, and you can seek your fortunes in a wide world, that is a pacifying force for exactly that reason."

"the opportunity to offer guidance from experience is a gift…"We don't describe ourselves as 'bursting with pride' over our own success, but we do for others…" … reward requires commitment: "to generate the emotional reward of naches, we have to throw ourselves into the act of mentoring."

As we live and work on this electric frontier, it's important to build and renew our own traditions. My goal with /mentoring is to encourage people to believe in one another, and to make it the easiest, most natural thing in the world to express and welcome that belief."

Examples:
http://blog.dianakimball.com/mentoring
http://revolution.is/diana-kimball/
http://geemus.com/mentoring
http://nickd.org/mentoring/
http://www.michaelgalpert.com/mentoring
http://kvans.squarespace.com/mentoring/
http://adambrault.com/mentoring
http://trash.davidcole.me/mentoring
http://patrickewing.info/mentoring

[Twitter @mentoring and Wiki at: https://github.com/dianakimball/mentoring/wiki ]

"Austin Bat Cave is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides children and teenagers (ages 6-18) with opportunities to develop their creative and expository writing skills. We connect a diverse population of young writers and learners with a vibrant community of adult volunteers in Austin. All of our programs are free.

At ABC, we understand that public school teachers are the hardest-working people in town. With all our programs, we strive to be a resource, mobilizing volunteers to help teachers accomplish what they might not be able to accomplish on their own."

"She [13 yo] listed four things that would help her be more creative and more helpful to those around her:<br />
<br />
1. A public studio where she could go work on projects. The place would be stocked with all the necessary resources/equipment, as well as ample space for her to work. It would be open whenever, and she could use it whenever she wanted.<br />
<br />
2. Essential: A private space. She needs a “room of her own” so to speak, where she can relax, chill-out, think, and be a kid.<br />
<br />
3. Her own computer with continuous internet. To be creative, she says she needs access whenever she wants, not just when it’s available or by appointment.<br />
<br />
4. A more stable and comfortable living space.<br />
<br />
She notes these would all be extremely valuable to becoming the person she wants to be.<br />
But you know what she said was more valuable?  Ears.<br />
Listen to her!  A. said, “I’m tired of people in general looking down on the future.  It gets on my nerves when they look down on us and say we can’t do anything”…"

"There are three concepts that frame the thinking in the development of Humanities High School (HHS): equity, leveraging learning everywhere, and rhizomatic learning…

At HHS, learners, teachers, and community-based mentors work collaboratively to provide students with the occasion to compose a cohesive liberal arts education that privileges the arts, humanities, problem solving and problem finding. HHS is committed to preparing students to be global citizens positioned for career and college choices."

"The technological power of the "cloud" as an aggregator of global knowledge & social network capital combines w/ natural tendency to learn through sharing & playing to create a multidimensional, interconnected network that solves complex problems. Simply put: Purpose & play drive learning.<br />
<br />
These students help us discern what is valuable about higher-ed learning & what needs to be shed to save it from complete ossification. The insular nature of academia could lead to its demise, but these students also see tremendous value in its ability to incubate. Unis become testing grounds where students can find mentors, receive funding, & iterate initiatives with real-world consequences. The design community can debate where innovation comes from, but we can no longer look to authoritarian, top-down dictation to drive societal change. If the blossoming of this pattern doesn’t point to a new trend in education, then it at least represents what these higher-ed institutions must become."

"…children learn even better if they have a “granny figure” supporting them…<br />
<br />
…good teachers is a bit like a granny: supports students, is interesting in their work and praise them. I think, however, even better teachers than a random granny is an expert of a domain acting the granny way. An excellent expert-teachers (can be a granny, too) is able to guide pupils in their inquiry by challenging their thinking and by providing new perspectives to the students inquiry. The point is to guide, not to instruct.<br />
<br />
The progressive inquiry learning, a pedagogical model that has been widely studied, experimented and partly took in use in Finland, is close to Mitra’s way of teaching (I call it teaching, although there is very little teaching in a traditional sense). In my talk in Ankra I explained how progressive inquiry learning works and how pupils and students in all levels of education—from kindergartens to universities—can be guided to do research."<br />
<br />
[Examples follow]

"The sway that the subject of technology has over discussions about education and learning, is giving me increasing cause for concern. Absent from the explanations of new understandings of knowledge and learning, and their arguments for change, is some balance to the largely utopian ideals. The sub headings in the 'entrepreneurial learning' article for example, read like evangelical slogans, without a single word for caution or circumspect (that I could see by scanning). What would one include to strike a balance? Most obvious would be Postman, in particular his warnings in Technonopoly, but their could and should be many others. Surely we agree that technology gives potential to all traits of humanity, not just the bits we'd like to pick out."

"Squishy Teaching =

Spontaneous - Unique - Particular - Tailored - Entangled - Mixed together - Woven - Patched - Organic - Rebel Forces - Poetic - Ambiguous - Emotional - Non-linear - Non-sequenced - Inquisitive - Inextricably-linked - Constructivist - Experiential - Holistic - Democratizing - Authentic - Collaborative - Adaptive - Complicated - Contextual - Relational

Slick Teaching =

Mass produced - Psychologically manipulative - Planned years in advance - Manufactured - Imperial - Hegemonic - Afraid - Spreadsheeted - Shallow - Narcotizing - Cauterizing - Anti-intellectual - Uncritical - Uncreative - Emotionless - Scripted - Juking the stats - Dropout factories - Assembly-lined"

"This is why, when PSCS is recruiting volunteers, we’re not necessarily looking for people to teach a particular academic discipline. We’re looking for people to be role models for kids. We’re looking for people of high character who are excited about life. We want to surround kids with people who pursue things they love, who step outside their comfort zone, and who take their passion and DO something with it.

We want kids to look at our volunteers and think, Am I willing to be that brave?"

"learning & production collective engaged in action research, publishing, media display & community service. Concerned w/ public education as much as education in public, Factory School emphasizes social & cultural reproductive function of multiple media arts. As a network of audio & video presentations, books, artwork, web-based installations, posters & pamphlets, we encourage use of all distributed materials for purposes of education in the broadest sense: in or out of the classroom, as prompts or models, as means or ends. We also sponsor research & design studios, provide teaching resources, & offer community-based mentoring & consulting. Factory School seeks to engage with others operating in the areas of education, publication, distribution, & civic action. We consider today's artists, educators & activists to be the vanguard of a new generation of culture workers striving to transcend borders of nation, language, class, race, gender, institutional status, & other divides."

"So how do the birds get so crafty at crafting? New reports in the journals Animal Behaviour and Learning and Behavior by researchers at the University of Auckland suggest that the formula for crow success may not be terribly different from the nostrums commonly served up to people: Let your offspring have an extended childhood in a stable and loving home; lead by example; offer positive reinforcement; be patient and persistent; indulge even a near-adult offspring by occasionally popping a fresh cockroach into its mouth; and realize that at any moment a goshawk might swoop down and put an end to the entire pedagogical program."

"The 21st century is a world in constant change. In A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown take up the challenge of understanding how the forces of change can not only be managed, but how they inspire and invite us to imagine a future of learning that is as powerful as it is optimistic. This is a book that looks at the challenges that our education and learning environment face in a fresh way.<br />
<br />
By exploring play, innovation, and the cultivation of the imagination as cornerstones of learning, Thomas and Brown create a vision of learning for the future that is easily achievable and that grows along with the technology that fosters it and the people that engage with it. It is a guide book for arc of life learning that shows us why we neither need to fear nor resist change, but how we can learn to embrace change as a way to follow our passions and make sense of a world that is constantly growing, evolving and changing."

"John Seely Brown…has a new book coming out soon, The New Culture of Learning…download first 3 chapters from the site.<br />
<br />
He talks a lot about one of my pet subjects, Community Mentoring, the apprenticeship model of education:<br />
<br />
"Where traditionally mentoring was a means of enculturating members into a community, mentoring in the collective relies more on the sense of learning and developing temporary, peer-to-peer relationships that are fluid and impermanent. Expertise is shared openly and willingly, without regard to an institutional mission. Instead, expertise is shared conditionally and situationally, as a way to enable the agency of other members of the collective."<br />
<br />
as well as a dozen other favorite topics of mine: play as a means of learning, constraints as a stimulus for, rather than an inhibition of, creativity, and so on. I wish I could figure out how to get my hands on the whole book. There is a great page of resources on the site as well, for further exploration."

"p:ear builds positive relationships w/ homeless & transitional youth through education, art & recreation…<br />
To truly exit homelessness, kids must develop the internal strength, skills & foresight to make healthy choices. p:ear provides a safe, non-judgmental environment in which youth are trusted to outgrow unproductive & harmful behaviors. We offer individualized mentoring & education programs in a safe, reliable setting designed to foster trust, build self-esteem & to teach…kids – who all too often are regarded by society as disposable, "hopeless cases" – that they are valuable individuals w/ a future who have something vital to contribute to this community.<br />
p:ear staff & volunteers serve as mentors, friends, & role models, while p:ear's unique programs create opportunities for young people to grow intellectually, express themselves constructively, communicate in positive ways & engage in meaningful interactions w/ the larger community of Portland."

"Our vision of the perfect learning environment is a library, but like none we have ever encountered. The library would have books and videos and tapes and computers, but that would be just the beginning. There would be lots of librarians, or more accurately “docents” — guides to the trails of knowledge. Primary docents would provide instruction in the technologies necessary to utilize the available resources. … There would be a vast learning exchange of skills, from basic mathematics to auto mechanics. There would be lending libraries of tools and materials, from carpenter’s saws and hammers, to biologists’ microscopes, to astronomers’ telescopes. There would be organized classes, learning support groups, and lectures. Self-evaluation tools would be available for learners to measure their own progress.

There would be large gardens and orchards, staffed by botanists and farmers, where students would learn to grow fruits and vegetables, and home economists who would teach their preparation and storage. There would be apprenticeships for virtually everything kind of employment the community requires.

There would be rites of passage and celebration of subject or skill mastery. There would be storytellers and community historians, drawn from the community’s older members. Seniors would play a vital role in preparing young children to make use of all the library has to offer.

The library would be the community’s hub and its heart. It would be supported the usual ways we support schools, through public taxation, but all users, both children and adults, would be required to contribute time to the library’s success."

via: http://jorgebarahona.posterous.com/the-need-for-connection-engagement-in-educati

"...implementation of apprenticeship model. Grade levels where EVERY student has to move up at end of 9-10 month cycle do not exist. Not to mention fact that if student isn't able to move up at end of cycle he has to wait another 12 months for opportunity to move up again. Instead of grade levels, students just move to next topic/skill.

"Knowledge management is not really about content, it is about creating an environment where learning takes place. Maybe we spend too much time trying to create an environment where teaching takes place, rather than focus on learning."

[This + part 6 + http://bit.ly/b04OaH have me thinking about Tumblr and other online tools at TCSNMY, and how we use it to learn, model, and observe.]

"we expect students to be "on time" not because it is educationally important [NBIIEI]...but because we are training workers to be on time. We create "standards" for each grade level NBIIEI...but because we are teaching single-tasking & work conformity. We test individually, blocking collaboration (which we call "cheating") NBIIEI...but because we are manufacturing workers for assembly line.

Will Richardson needs to get out a little more: "So this might totally fall flat on its face, but I’m wondering how all you out there who are deeply invested in social learning spaces might respond to this unlikely but hopefully compelling scenario:

"Because out there, in the world, no one will helpfully tell them what chapter of the book they're looking at, no one will helpfully reference the relevant sample problem.

"A Bennington College student's education has curiosity at its core. What are you passionate about? What do you want to know? How will you act on your ideas?

"The Citizen Schools after-school program turns educational basics into real-world purpose."

"informal learning, at least of the sort we see in today’s popular culture, does involve teaching in a major way. It is just that the teaching it involves is not like what we see in school. Teaching in informal learning, in much of today’s popular culture, involves three things: design, resources & what we will call “affinity spaces.”" ... "When a word is associated with a verbal definition, we say it has a verbal meaning. When it is associated with an image, action, goal, experience, or dialogue, we say it has a situated meaning. Situated meanings are crucial for understandings that lead to being able to apply one's knowledge to problem solving." ... "Affinity spaces are well-designed spaces that resource and mentor learners, old and new, beginners and masters alike. They are the "learning system" built around a popular culture practice." ... "We believe that learning how to produce and not just consume in popular culture, as Jade did, is one good way to start the critical process."

"Online spaces and in-person gatherings also provided opportunities for youth to interact with adults as peers, moving out of the age-segregated contexts of school. Engagement in specialized domains enabled kids and youth to explore new creative genres, experiment with kid-adult peer relationships, and interrogate cultural forms rather than reproducing existing ones. Their engagement with creative production demonstrated how media literacies change as youth shift from being consumers to media producers in social contexts that encourage their individual voices, creativity, and agency."

"If Hartmann’s research is correct...bad smell of grading comes from rotten historical roots...invented by William Farish, lazy teacher...in order to increase class size, decrease necessity for teachers to have real relationships with students & fatten

"In a role reversal, students provide the tech support, creating a 'culture of respect' between teachers and teens."

"has always been compelling, but terribly naive and awkward. Getting everyone together in one room...spend time together...a start. I think it’s absolutely vital — a requirement — that you practice the other disciplines that contribute to the projec

"Suppose...you had the kind of society you wanted. How would you live...in that society? Start living that way now! Whatever you would do then, do it now. When you run up against obstacles, people, or things that won’t let you live that way, then begin

"someone who is active in reading blogs, contributing to wikis, engaged in online communities, follows trends through Google Alerts, del.icio.us, Digg, etc. receives equivalent of any certificate program...with the side skills of critical thinking and pat

George Siemens prensentation