| Edited by Diane McGrath, Kansas State
University |
formerly Journal of Research on Computing in Education
JRTE, Volume 32, Number 1, Fall
1999
A Descriptive
Study of
Telementoring Among Students, Subject Matter Experts, and Teachers:
Message Flow
and Function Patterns
By Judith B. Harris and Greg Jones
University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
This descriptive study of the online
communications of
10 teams of subject matter experts (SMEs),
classroom teachers,
and K–12 students focused on the functions,
frequency,
and flow of e-mail messages exchanged in the
context of
curriculum-based projects. All correspondence
among team
members was automatically logged and then analyzed
over
time. Categories for message function were based
on a previously
published taxonomy but emerged as data analysis
progressed
into 21 specific classifications. Results
indicated that:
(1) SMEs and teachers “talked” more
online, respectively,
than students, even though students’ inquiry
was the
focus of each online project; (2)
participants’ roles
as expert, teacher, or student were associated
with greater
and lesser frequencies of certain message function
types;
(3) requests or reports directly related to
curriculum content
comprised a surprisingly small portion of total
message
functions identified; and (4) when viewed
longitudinally,
“reporting” and “requesting”
functions
followed very different frequency patterns.
Contributors
Judith Harris is an associate professor in
curriculum and
instruction at the University of Texas at Austin,
teaching
graduate-level courses in both instructional
technology
and nonpositivistic research methods. She directs
the Electronic
Emissary project
(www.tapr.org/emissary/)
mentioned in this study. Dr. Harris’ service
and research
focus on K–12 curriculum-based
telecollaboration and
teleresearch and professional development for
educators
in telecomputing. Greg Jones is a doctoral
candidate in
curriculum and instruction at the University of
Texas at
Austin. His research focuses on the telementoring
of individual
students and the development of wireless networks
for use
in K–12 schools. He is the president of the
Tucson
Amateur Packet Radio Association (www.tapr.org)
and the system developer and maintainer for the
Electronic
Emissary project. (Address: Dr. Judith B. Harris,
Department
of Curriculum and Instruction, 406 Sanchez
Building, University
of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1294; jbharris@tenet.edu.)
Web Links
Anaya, J. (1998). Statistics show 11 million
seniors now
on-line. Older and Wiser [Online
serial]. Available:
www.olderandwiser.com/articles/news/news992851.html.
Matrix Information and Directory Services.
(1998). State
of the Internet, July 1998 [Online document].
Available:
www.mids.org/mmq/503/pub/ed.html.
Murfin, B. (1994). An analysis of
computer-mediated communication
between middle school students and scientist role
models:
A pilot study. Interpersonal Computing
and Technology
[Online serial], 2(3), 57–81.
Available:
www.helsinki.fi/science/optek/1994/n3.txt.
NUA Internet Surveys. (1999). How many
online?
[Online document]. Available:
www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/index.html.
Note. These Web sites were
valid when
this issue of JRCE went to press. We
have no
control over these sites, though, and the Web is
very volatile.
Please let us know if you find a broken link, and
we’ll
do our best to update it.
A PDF file of the full article is available. Contact: jrte@iste.org. Please specifiy Volume
and Issue number and article name.
Copyright ©
1999, ISTE (International
Society for Technology in Education).
All rights reserved.
| e-mail, educational telecomputing, message flow and function, speech acts, subject matter experts, telementoring. |
|
