Virtual Mentoring

Reverse mentoring is an innovative way to encourage learning and facilitate cross-generational relationships. It involves the pairing of a younger, junior employee acting as mentor to share expertise with an older, senior colleague as mentee. The purpose is knowledge sharing, with the mentee focused on learning from the mentor's updated subject or technological expertise and generational perspective. In addition, there is an emphasis on the leadership development of the mentors. Reverse mentoring is situated in the mentor-ing literature as an alternative form of mentoring, with unique characteristics and support functions exchanged that distinguish it from other developmental relationships. A model is developed that focuses on key variables to consider and how reverse mentoring may benefi t individuals and organizations. Generational differences are also presented, and the ways in which reverse mentoring capitalizes on millennial capabilities and preferences are highlighted throughout. Finally, theoretical and practical contributions are discussed, including essential components for creating a reverse mentor-ing program.

Foreign language teaching in distance education is administratively and pedagogically challenging; research on the perspectives of novice practitioners' online teaching is also relatively scarce. This study explores how a novice Japanese teacher navigated and negotiated her professional development in a two-way virtual practitionership during her first online teaching. Data were collected from ongoing dialogue journals between the novice and her mentor followed by a semi-structured interview. Qualitative results indicate that pedagogically-sound and personalized digital tools can not only reduce the psychological distance between the teachers and students, but facilitate online teaching and learning via a performance-driven, standard-based curriculum. Informed by Action Research, the study reveals how both practitioners de/reconstructed their teacher identities and achieved professional empowerment through robust supervision and reciprocal teacher evaluation in a virtual environment. It further demonstrates the extent to which this evidence-driven and research-oriented approach can better address the genuine concerns of a foreign language program in distance education. Specifically, this context-responsive study indicates the improvement of online course delivery, teacher training and program sustainability in its own right.

CAMP (Collegiate Achievement Mentoring Program) Gator is a leadership-mentoring program in which collegiate student leaders serve as mentors to at-risk K-12 students. In addition, partnerships with Cisco and Franklin Covey Education have provided the program with the technology resources to conduct “virtual leadership mentoring” sessions with students throughout the state and nation. Participants in the pilot program experienced increased GPA’s, increased attendance and decreased school suspensions.

The University of Florida has developed a unique mentoring program partnering collegiate student leaders with at-risk middle school students. One of the hallmarks of the program is a web-based discussion board where participants can communicate and learn together. This e-learning tool has increased collaboration and allowed for enriched discussions between mentor and mentee.

We examine the educational benefits of a virtual mentor program used to supplement classroom teaching of ethics, by connecting students with business practitioners through computermediated communications. Virtual mentoring can be a valuable and inexpensive way to extend the classroom lectures and discussion with real-world perspectives. In addition, it can serve additional purposes for students, such as learning how to develop a relationship with a mentor, and improving application of ethical concepts in practical situations. Is this potential realistic for business ethics education? Based on a cross-case comparison of several virtual mentoring application and student satisfaction ratings, our findings establish that perspective and confidence increased in students' transfer of ethical concepts and applying ethical judgment to business situations. Based on these experiences we suggest guidelines to individuals who teach business ethics, regarding the value of using a virtual mentor program, including practical lessons about implementing virtual mentors programs.