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Dr. Gerald Maring, professor of literacy education, has been a member of the Washington State University College of Education faculty since 1977. Over the years he has conducted research, directed dissertations and theses, published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, and directed extra mural grants. In 1999, he was one of five professors who initiated and secured the COTEACH grant, the second-largest grant in WSU’s history. In 2003, the WSU Cybermentoring Project earned the Outstanding National University Telecommunications Network/NUTN “Distance Education Innovation Award.” Under Dr. Maring’s leadership, numerous WSU faculty; teachers, and administrators in the state; state department of education staff; and personnel from corporations such as Microsoft and Polycom have become involved in the vision and educational practicalities of Cybermentoring. |
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Teaching and Learning
Gerald Maring
Cybermentoring and Its Potential for Future Learning
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Cyber Learning Communities use technology to flexibly connect people for enhanced social learning of content and skills. For educational applications, high-end videoconferencing enables interactions between school sites with television-like clarity and premium sound quality. These capabilities, when properly designed and utilized, make possible the creation of partnerships and collaborations between sites while still maintaining many of the personal nuances of face-to-face communication crucial for quality educational experiences. These experiences create a learning environment that benefits everyone: pupils, parents and families, pre-service teachers, practicing teachers, administrators, and college faculty.
Expertise/Introduction to Research in Cybermentoring
The statewide WSU Cybermentoring Project has developed in four distinct stages: Web pages with response-link emails, desktop video, high-end video, and high-end video focused on quantitative literacy and engineering application in middle school mathematics.
Implications for the General Public
Cybermentoring projects have been established at the “proof of concept” or pilot study level. Although current research is not extensive or strong enough to recommend taking Cybermentoring to a national scale, Dr. Maring and his colleagues are poised to expand, strengthen, and more rigorously research and evaluate the Cybermentoring concept in general and in terms of a series of statewide applications. In this stage and with extra-mural support, the research team intends to investigate more rigorously the impact Cybermentoring has on student learning and upon teacher development. In this latter regard, Dr. Maring’s team wants to research how practicing teachers mentor pre-service teachers and how this leads to improved learning for pupils. Although the projected work and research includes numerous letters of support and encouragement from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, from private corporations, and from public school administrators and teachers, the research team’s vision for Cybermentoring involves research and development plans related to private and home school contexts. Educators, parents, and employers are curious about whether Cybermentoring can lead to improved student scores in state-mandated assessments and whether it will lead to more effective teaching by pre-service, new, and experienced teachers. Although the current focus is upon mathematics education and how this can lead to the recruitment into colleges and universities of more students majoring in engineering, the Cybermentoring Project model can be adapted to other content and vocational/career areas (e.g., business majors, pharmacy, medicine, science).
Contact Information
Gerald H. Maring, Ph.D.
Professor
PI NSF BEE Planning Grant
Co-PI COTEACH Grant
Teaching and Learning
Washington State University
PO Box 642132
Pullman, WA 99164-2132
Telephone: 509-335-5651
Fax: 509-335-5046
E-mail: maring@wsu.edu |
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