Sunday, September 23, 2012

Using iPads/iPods to Provide College Mentorship

Recently, I wrote a funding proposal to purchase iPads and iPods for the purpose of delivering intrusive peer mentoring support to a special population of college students. I titled this project the "Mobile2Mobile Learning Community" as it is my hope Peer Mentors (PM), who are academically successful BSW and/or MSW students with an interest in technology will engage their Mentees using mobile technology.

I recruited confident, self assured, respectfully aggressive PMs that are comfortable being "persistent" and sometimes intrusive in their approach to mentoring. The PMs will each be assigned a caseload of 4-5 Mentees they will work with October 2012 through August 2013. The PMs will be responsible for monitoring their Mentee's progress at the university and will be given an iPad in exchange for their service in lieu of a cash stipend. Each Mentee will be given an iPod Touch to help them engage their PMs and administrative program staff.

PMs are expected to engage their Mentees once per week using FaceTime in addition to texting and "IMing" their Mentees to ensure they are progressing socially and emotionally at the college. The PMs record notes of their meetings with their Mentees using the iPad "Notes" function. These general session notes are then forwarded directly from the iPad to the M2M LC administrator's email for record keeping and follow-up as needed. Given potential confidentiality concerns, only general information is transmitted electronically.

While iPads/iPods will be used heavily to facilitate communication between PMs and their Mentees, the mobile technology will also aid participants academically as these devices have internet access, the ability to load college e-textbooks, conduct research, check email, and much, much more. I am hopeful using iPads/iPods to provide college mentorship will prove to be an effective tool and will also enhance college student retention, while delivering key support services to potentially at risk student populations.





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5 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 11, 2012 at 7:34 AM

    Sounds like an excellent idea! With the advancement of technology and having the convenient benefit of Ipad/ipod. I think this is a good idea for the students.

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  2. Cyber Social WorkerDecember 11, 2012 at 9:53 AM

    Thank you for your comment Ms. Sandberg. We have been learning so much from our Mobile2Mobile Learning Community about tech based communications and virtual interactions :-)

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  3. nixonO4January 10, 2013 at 12:51 PM

    LOVE this idea. Would you be willing to provide a bit more information as to how you went about identifying the funds for such (grant $, I assume?).

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  4. Cyber Social WorkerJanuary 20, 2013 at 8:26 AM

    Thank you so much for your interest and inquiry. Our university has a major commitment to Learning Communities and enhancing the quality of student life and student retention. I am very interested in teaching social work students how to infuse technology in direct practice, while providing hands-on experience.

    As a result, I submitted a Proposal to our university to develop a new Learning Community aimed at former foster care youth attending the university. I requested nearly $8,000 to be used toward the purchase of iPads/iPods. I also recently received a Detroit-area community-based grant in the form of Hotspot devices (grant valued at approximately $15,000). Students, faculty, and staff in our School of Social Work assigned these devices agree to deliver free wifi to their communities, field placement sites, work sites, etc. These activities and grant projects are designed to build awareness of the practice of cyber social work.

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  5. Ellen Belluomini PhDJanuary 21, 2013 at 6:01 PM

    Excellent! I hope one day MSW programs will see the advantage of utilizing iPads with students so they in turn can use them with vulnerable populations.

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