Saturday, May 23, 2009
The Final Word!
Answers to the Following Mentor Questions:
What challenges occurred in the process?
What successes occurred in the process?
What did you learn about the mentoring process?
What did you learn about yourself in the role of mentor.
Did your style of mentoring change over the course of the project?
Did you feel mentoring was worthwhile?
How would you have done things differently?
How did you feel you did overall in the relationship?
-----Challenges and successes abounded in this process. I feel I got a man who for all practical puroposes does not like technology that much or thinks that it is to hard for him or it takes to long to learn things to actually feel good about learning some new things on the computer. The letdowns came in the process of finding time, with our busy schedulesit was hard to find time to sit down for an hour. Another thing that was a struggle is that I tend to get impatient when I think that people are timid with things that they should't be. I know that this is not a good mentor but I really had to work on it. I think at times my mentor felt this from me, which caused them to not focus on the learning but to just make me happy.
I just kind of answered the next batch of questions I learned that the learing curve of a mentee is whatever it is going to be. I have to allow that process to happen. I am there to be encouraging and guide and reflect, not to push the learing curve to fit my expectations. In the final response I really think that my mentee liked the process and embraced his learing with my guidence. What I just described above was what was happening to me mentally. I think I for the most part worked with Jay well because he reponded that I did not make him feel uncomfortable like I have in the past when I have worked with him.
I would only change one thing and that is be more proactive of setting up a schedule and being committed on both ends about keeping that schedule. Jay and I worked well together. We have known each other as peers and friends for a long time and Jay has come to me many times for technology help. It was nice to work as peers to reach a learing goal.
I would like to wrap up this blog by stating that this was one of my favorite assignments. It actually gave me a chance to work with technology in a manner that I feel that I persued this degree for. I look forward to partially running a professional development program with leadership on my campus next year and this was a good test drive for that upcomming event.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Fianl Session Process Form
Mentee: Jay Lottes
Location: Room 82
Date: 5/9/09
Well it took long enough to get this post up!!!!! Jay and did this meeting nine days ago!!!! It took an e-mail from the prof. to get this thing up because i certainly do not want a "D" for this class! So here is the form questions and how Jay answered them. They are not the deepest of thoughts but they answer the questions. I couldn't really make him say things he didn't want to.
Following these questions are my end post for the class, answering the litany of questions that were posted for us on the Imet website.
1. How did you feel about the process as a whole?
" Great!" " I have learned a lot if things that will help me in the future."
This is all Jay said but to be specific I think he means the social networking that we did as well as the e-mail organization and embedding videos.
2. What did you learn about the mentor/mentoring process?
" He was more patient than I thought"
I think Jay is referring to other times I have helped him when he has asked question that I presumed everyone knew how to do on the computer (especially someone who has a masters in technology like Jay does)
3. What did you learn about yourself as a mentee?
" I can do anything with technology if someone spends time walking me through things."
This is the scary thing, what if Jay needs to explore on his own to find something out and there is no one there, is he just going to give up?
4. Do you feel the goals of the process were met? Why or Why Not?
"YES!"
I agree, he added no further comment on the paper.
Friday, May 1, 2009
The Final Session------Yeah Right.....He's Hooked
Mentee: Jay Lottes
Date: 5/1/09
Room: 82 & 83
1. What was our goal for the night?
For our final session the goal was to be get a YouTube video downloaded in to a PowerPoint video that can be used offline. This was supposed to happen yesterday, unfortunately this did not happen due to some mentor oversights of how unsimplified this process was going to be. I kinda rested on previous victories but yesterday proved that new issues can arise when situation are taken for granted. Left from yesterday, I still needed to find a file converter program that work work on our school machines. I did and once I was able to connect the dots between video, video down-loader, and file converter. I was ready to rock and roll.
2. Do you feel like we met the goal? Why or Why not?
Today the goal was met. Jay was able to see the whole process and he was not super overwhelmed. I cannot lie. He said he needs to run through it a few more time with me to truly feel comfortable. I can totally agree with him. This process took me a couple of time to do to really feel that I had the ability to do this process without reference to the video I watched the first time.
The goal of having Jay work with the application on his own was still not accomplished. Jay sat back and watched me do the process. He took noted. He ended up with about 18 steps. I said that your steps are literal, click here and go there. I tried to ease his anxiety with the short explanation that you are really doing four steps. Finding a video, downloading a video and converting the file and then putting that file into PowerPoint. I think the more he plays with it the easier it will become.
3. If the goal was not met, what could be done to help to attain the goal?
Well, as for most goals, time was the main factor of not meeting the goal of having Jay embed his own video today. He got to see the process but did not get to become tactile in the operations of embedding a video. I am not going to leave Jay high and dry because we are on our fourth meeting. I will be working with Jay to have him put in a video on his own with my help as he needs it.
4. How do you feel about the process in general?
The first two sessions were very different than the last two session. The first two session were very much hands on for Jay and the last two were not. I felt that the more technical the sessions were the more Jay let me lead and the more I did lead. I think that I should have put Jay in the driver seat more with finding the programs and applications for file downloading and file converting. It would have been good for him. I think in the end the process was fine because he got his original goals met of multimedia in a PowerPoint, e-mail, and social networking in all about 4-5 hours.
5. What do you feel should happen at the next session?
Well, there is no official next session but Jay and I will be working together to get him to manually on his own download a video into PowerPoint.
Third Meeting----Something had to go Wrong
Mentee: Jay Lottes
Date: 4/30/09
Room(s): 82 and 83
1. What was our goal for the night?
The goal for session three was to bump the technology jargon and applications up a notch. Jay wanted his powerpoints to become multimedia. So, we were going to embed a Youtube video into a power point for offline use. I had taught myself from a Youtube video how to do this last year so I thought that this would be a cakewalk from the tech side. The part that I might need to have to worry about would be the mentoring side. Jay as much as he wants to do this gets lost pretty fast when the technology starts flying. This is not meant to be a put down. This is form eight years of knowing him. Jay even makes fun of the fact that he has a masters in technology but is very basic in his knowledge and application of technology.
2. Do you feel like we met the goal? Why or Why not?
Like the title reads....It just wasn't a cakewalk that day. I had an extended prep that day due to star testing so I was going to set Jay's computer up with everything so that after school I could shorten the learning curve and confusion if I had a file converter already downloaded and such. This was the dream. I was working on his school desktop MAC. I am not that comfortable on MAC's and it took me about an hour to realize that the file converter that I wanted to use was for PC's. (SUPER is the app.) The the file down-loader site would not "save target as" (like it does when I am at home and using it). So know I do not have a file down-loader or a file converter. I am at square one and my two hours of extra prep are almost up. So I switch to his school laptop which is a PC. I spend some time and find a file down loader that will take Youtube videos and "save target as" (KEEPVID). So two hours in and classes start. Fast forward after school and now working with Jay. I try to explain the problems and they are clearly going over his head, so I break down the fact the Youtube videos cannot be directly embedded into PowerPoint. It requires that the file be converted to a different format. After slowing down he grasped what has to be accomplished but seems a little apprehensive of what seems like a lot of steps just to put a video into a PowerPoint. I tell him that words are more complicated that the actual process. Look at the clock all of this is more than an hour and really I have spent over three hours that day and we didn't get a video into a PowerPoint. Mission failed.
3. If the goal was not met, what could be done to help to attain the goal?
I really should have taken his laptop and set up the pathway to get to the goal. I thought that really I could have everything set up and ready to go. Platform conflicts I did not really think anything about, they just were roadblocks for me. I never really thought that an application wouldn't work the same. So I really should have do some legwork before had to really lower his anxiety. Jay saw me getting frustrated bu not finding the right applications and this raised his anxiety level because for him I am the one that is supposed to know this stuff. Jay questioned whether he should be trying this or not and that did not make me feel good as a mentor.
4. How do you feel about the process in general?
The process is still overall very pleasant. Jay works well with me but this time I had to take a little more control over the process and I really feel that the process is meant foe the mentee. It wasn't real practical to have him navigating to find application that he knows nothing about, so he kinda watched me this session and that could not have been very fun.
5. What do you feel should happen at the next session?
well the final session goal should be to get a video downloaded in a PowerPoint and step through the process with Jay and then have him do one all on his own.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Second Meeting
Mentee: JAy Lottes
Date: 4/27/09
Room: 82
I see Jay at lunch time...."Dude, my facebook is blowing up! I am not so sure that I like this because the wife see's my posts!" I said, "Why does she see your posts? Not that it is a bad thing, and you shouldn't hide stuff from your wife." He then proceeds to ask if i have some time after school to do a couple more things that we talked about and mentions that he is helping me out because my mentoring sessions are due by Friday. Well, not that he was going to guilt me into taking him up on my need to accomplish this mentoring task, I wanted to work with him because he was truly excited that he has a way to connect with old friends and wants to explore more. It was kinda neat, I guess you had to be there. SO COMMENCED SESSION NUMBER TWO.
1. What was our goal for the night? (facebbok, e-mail organization)
a. wall to wall
b. using advanced search
c. applications
a. deleted box
b. folders
Jay wanted to continue on with some more basics of Facebook. So the first thing that I asked him is what he has done in 24 hours. I just knew once we had set him up that he would not be able to not go on. He had been on it at school and had a conversation with his wife about it. Jay and I also discussed organizing his e-mail. At the official check, Jay had over 4,000 deleted e-mails in his box and over a 1,500 e-mails in his in-box. Something needed to be done about this. Jay also mentioned that if we had time that he would like to do something multimedia. I had a proposition for him. I have made some of my PPoint presentation that are embedded with video and if he would be interested in doing something like this. He said that would be perfect. I simply told him that this would be in our next session.
2. Do you feel like we met the goal? Why or Why not?
I think we met our goals for the day and we even added one. First, I asked Jay to wrote on someones wall. He said that so far in facebook, " I do not like the wall, I could care less what lame things people are doing!" I replied, " This is a part of social networking." So he indulged me and I asked him to pick a friend so he could write on his wall. He did. I think that in time it will grow on him. At first it is a little overwhelming. Jay used the advanced search feature to find Keith Dello Russo. He found me and added me as a friend. Finally, I went to my computer in my classroom and sent him a quiz request. I showed him where this request would show up on his homepage and what applications are. He took the quiz "Which historical figure are you?". After the quiz he found out that he was Sir Frances Drake. We then went to his profile page to see that it was posted on his profile.
We then turned our sites to his e-mail. Oh my!!!! He found the courage to, really, in one fell swoop delete all his e-mails out of his deleted box. I was actually impressed. He even looked at me in an inquisitive manner and said, "I deleted them right? why am I keeping them for? Now to the in-box. We are using an older version of Outlook. I went though the steps for creating a folder in the in-box. Jay repeated the process two more times on his own. I them instructed him on how to move e-mail. He caught on real quick and had deleted and/or placed in a box about 200 e-mails within 5 minutes. He said that he wanted to work on this later and he was going to show me a clean box by the end of the day tomorrow.
I asked him if he wanted to learn one quick thing before the end of the session and he was game. I instructed him on how to create a group e-mail for our social science department. This took about five minutes and he seemed really happy yo have this simple and easy function under his belt.
3. If the goal was not met, what could be done to help to attain the goal?
The goal was met. It was actually cool that he mentioned doing some multimedia stuff because I myself am only so proficient with e-mail and facebook. It is kinda like we reached a point that he kinda has to play with it.
4. How do you feel about the process in general?
The process was even better that the first day. Jay actually seemed ready to go today and eager to learn. He was like this yesterday but today, he was already on facebook when I came into his classroom. When we were doing the e-mail stuff he got the hang of it real quick and he even commented that this was going to keep his box more organized. Jay actually took initiative a couple of time when I had to think about where a button was. He started clicking on stuff not, feeling that he was in control. This is important because on day one he was pretty much waiting on my every instruction. Today he wanted to show me a couple of things.
5. What do you feel should happen at the next session?
We are going to make sure he has his in-box straightened up. Then we are going to tackle embedding a youtube video into powerpoint. This has steps and is technical. I am afriad he is going to shrink up. We are just going to press forward. He can do it but he has to believe that the first time is usually difficult but that the more you do it it becomes second nature.
Mentor Notes:
I need to take video slow. There are steps and downloads for him. This will be out of his comfort zone. I can already see him, getting out a pen and writing down steps.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
First Meeting
Mentee: Jay
Date: 4/23/09
Location: Rm. 82
The first official mentoring meeting went well. Jay is an easy person to work with. The only thing that I have to be mindful of is that Jay has apprehension of things that he is not familiar with. In other words he is not a risk taker. So even though he has a technology masters. The masters was a means to an end. It was not because he has a budding interest in technology. Jay though has seen his friends joining facebook and he feels left out but is unwilling to venture on his own in a world that he is unfamiliar with. The clashes with me that like to investigate and find out how new applications work. Nobody helped me make a facebook account, in fact it was quite easy. I have to remember that everyone is not me.
1. What was our goal for the night?
The first session was to set up a facebook account with profile information and profile picture with security settings. If we had more time to download pictures that he brought and send out some friends requests.
2. Do you feel like we met the goal? Why or Why not?
Yes, Like I said, Jay is a smart educated person. It almost felt more like he just wanted reassurance that he was typing the write material or pressing the correct button. It was also a success because we accomplished the goals we set out for in session one.
3. If the goal was not met, what could be done to help to attain the goal?
Setting up the initial site, profile, profile pic, and privacy setting were done. This was the main part we wanted to do. We were able to download some pictures which gave us an opportunity to investigate how to view pics and upload them (which he was not sure how to do either). I felt that we may have spent to much time on creating the photo albums. This was of concern to him as to which picture was on the cover or organizing the pictures in a certain order. I thought that this could have been done on his own time. I would have liked to show him some applications within facebook bu this was his time and he seemed happy to get it just the way he wanted. I guess next time I could ask him is this is the most important thing that he wants to learn or if he could do it on his time so he could learn more functions within facebook.
4. How do you feel about the process in general?
Now I sound like a broken record. Jay is a real easy person to work with. The process is great because Jay was truly happy to have "come to the 21st" century with his first steps into social networking. His questions were not really on the technical side. They were most inquisitive. For example, "do I press this button if I want to do this?" He is mostly afraid that is he does something wrong that he is going to mess everything up. He just needs reassurance. It reminds me of an example of this meeting. Jay accidentally closed the window and he started freaking out. He thought he lost everything we had worked on. I just had to reassure him that nothing was lost, once you save or download that the information is there.
5. What do you feel should happen at the next session?
I would like to wrap up facebook with showing him some applications, and sending out friends request, writing on someones wall and having him join a couple of networks.
Mentor/Mentee intial meeting
As explained in the first post, there really was no apprehension of Jay and I meeting together. The only thing that was of concern is if I can get all my meetings in on time. Thursdays seem to be a good time for us to meet because they are on a modified schedule for us. School lets out early and we have time to meet. If we counted the Thursdays I would not make the required number of entries. This was the first thing that we talked about. Jay said that no matter how our schedules worked out that that he would help me accomplish this task, so that if it took 4 one hour sessions in row that he would do it. With that worked out I was able to move forward with him (writing these sessions up right now, you can see that I am going to have to hold him to this promise).
Here is the results of our first initial meeting. Please not that all answers are Jay's
1. What are your goals for growth in using technology?
I would like to be involved in social networking (i.e facebook) and I would also like some organize my e-mail boxes,
2. How do you feel you best learn?
hands-on and face to face
3. What concerns do you have?
Privacy issues with social networking
4. How will we communicate if a session needs to be delayed or re-scheduled?
we work together, so we will talk or e-mail if need be
5. What do you feel should happen at the next session?
I would like to have a facebook account and have some pictures on it
6. Other Questions:
None
Mentor notes:
Jay is a very easy going person and picks up on things quick. What seems uncomplicated to me may not be to him so I need to be patient, one of my short-comings. I do not want to make Jay feel dumb because he is unsure if he is pressing the correct button or not for example.
