Mentors

1
Mentors MashDesigning Learning with Social
Software

• Anne Bartlett-Bragg
• May, 2007

2
The Program

• AusIndustry SBEP program
• Young women entrepreneurs
• National
• Structured business skills
• Mentoring sessions
• Peer group collaboration
• 6 months duration
• 9 programs January 2007
• March 2008

3
The Mentorees

• Women - under 35 (or not)
• Been in business for 6 months
• - 2 years
• Business is located in Australia

4
The Mentors

• Women or men
• Owned or operated a business in
• Australia for 5 years
• Support 5 mentorees
• Can be located nationally or globally

5
Mentoring Philosophy

• Mentor as
• Role model - wise counsel or advice based
• on their experiences in similar situations
• Guiding - persuading and coaching to apply
  suggestions
• Collaborating - brainstorming
• Empathetic listening and clarification
• Sounding board
• Networking of mentorees/mentors

6
Parameters

• Not tied to specific locations

7
Parameters

• Dispersed participantsHow do we bring them to
  us?

8
Parameters

• Connectivity access
• Ease of use must be seamless
• Where technology is the enabler
• not the focus!!

9
Parameters

• Digital literacy

10
Generation Y Who are they?

• Baby Boomers 1940s - 1960
• Gen X 1960 - 1980
• Gen Y 1970 - 1990
• (Millennials) 1982 - 2000
• Net Gen 1994 - 2000

11
Generation Y Who are they?
Digitally fluent
Communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime
High self-esteem
Work hard but guard personal time
Want immediate results
Success oriented
Like mentoring
Hate criticism
Like collaboration
12
Designing Learning for the Ys

• Pragmatic
• Real
• Fun (their sort - not mine!)
• Engaging
• Short, sharp
• User generated
• Rewarded

13
Educational Philosophy

• People primarily think, learn,
• and problem solve through their
• experiences.
• James Paul Gee, 2006

14
Educational Philosophy

• Content must be
• Pragmatic
• Practical
• Applicable
• Transferable
• Adaptable
• Participants will be
• Creating
• Publishing
• Distributing
• NOT just consuming information

15
Educational Philosophy

• Social Learning Theories
• Learning is
• social
• contextual but situated
• individual
• observation, practice feedback
• Learning from the interpreted experience and
  explanations of other people, including both
  peers and more expert people

16
Which pathway???

• Synchronous sessions webinars?
• Collaboration wikis?
• File repository databases?
• Group communication forums?
• Mentoring spaces - ??
• Small group spaces - ??
• Individual spaces weblogs?

17
Social Software
Subscribe
Create
Flickr
Re-create
Collaborate Share
RSS
Publish
Read
Bookmarking
Blogs
Wikis
18
Mash-up
A mashup is a website or application that
combines content from more than one source into
an integrated experience.
19
Personal Spaces
20
Pod spaces
21
Program Spaces
22
Partnerships
23
Mentoring before mash?
24
Mentoring with mash

• A fast track to success..

ABN MentorNet http//www.abn.org.au