Mentoring 2.0 – High tech/high touch approaches to Foster student support and development in higher education

Abstract

Web 2.0 technologies are resulting in great shifts: “from institutions to networks, from vertical structures to horizontal systems, from hierarchies to heterarchies, from bureaucracies to individuals, from centre to periphery, from bordered territories to virtual cyberspace” (Fraser & Dutta, 2008, p. 2). When we think about how these shifts apply to our experiences advising and mentoring our students in higher education, we do not think it is a stretch to say that when these technologies are employed thoughtfully, these eruptions likely do occur in particular ways that can, in fact, facilitate student support, development, and learning in new ways. Though we use a variety of social media applications to facilitate our practice as mentors and advisors, we acknowledge Daloz's (1999) concern about technology: “More, faster, and farther seem to be the driving values. Thus entangled in the Internet, spun about at hyperspeed, drowning in information, starved by virtual reality, should we wonder that we hunger for real reality? Can such technology nourish our need for community, intimacy, contemplative time, wisdom?” (p. xxv). Daloz sincerely questioned if technology could in fact support “good mentoring.” A mere eleven years later, we two advisors/mentors (one from a large public university in the East; one from a small private university in the West) answer with a resounding “Yes!” In fact, in our experiences, social media technologies can extend the possibilities of good educational mentoring and advising in higher education.

Citation

Booth, M. and Esposito, A. (2011), "Mentoring 2.0 – High tech/high touch approaches to Foster student support and development in higher education", Wankel, L.A. and Wankel, C. (Ed.) Higher Education Administration with Social Media (Cutting-Edge Technologies in Higher Education, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 85-103. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2044-9968(2011)0000002008