What do you guys think about starting a mentoring group on SFN, which would help children and adults with there current learning subject(s), i.e. G.C.S.E. A-level ect…

 

We could have user(s), defined to a particular subject, which they have studied or excel in, i.e. Chemistry, Mathematics ect…

 

And also amalgamate that with a revision programme?

 

Any views?

 

well, it really depends on what you mean by 'mentoring', if it means answering questions, SF already has that facility. I, for example, ask questions relating to my GCSE course. If it means teaching, then, it would be really difficult for the two, or more members to meet at the same time over here, because of the fact that SF is very wide-spread among people in different countries.

 

This is just my opinion on this, but, its a great idea. The thing that may stop this from happening maybe the difficulty in putting it all together

Well the idea came from another science forum site that already runs the same kind of system that i mentioned, it does involve the teaching and explaining part yes, and also the revision organisation part as well.

Isn't that kind of the point of the hw help section?

Wolfson, explain more how you envision the system working

I think this may confuse some people. What if a yr12 kid heres some explanation of why everything is made of four quarks. Wouldnt this just confuse the matter further?

 

But i quite like the idea wolfson, i reckon its worth a try

I think it's a good idea too, although I'm not sure what a "revision program" is. Is it a British term?

Revision as in "systematically looking over everything studied as part of the syllabus and condensing it into the important bits".

Whos syllabus? The UK one or the American one? Or better yet the NZ one

It doesn't matter which syllabus you apply it to; it's just a name for a process.

Thought you were talking about the high school syllabus, NZ's one varys alot from the Yanky one.

How indepth will this thing go?

Splendid idea!

I wouldn`t mind having a look myself, Maths is hardly my strongest quality!

At Warwick we have a mentoring scheme for A-level students who study maths, and it basically involves a student asking a question about some sort of topic (by e-mail), and then an undergraduate - their mentor - would respond with either a hint to help them, or a fully fledged answer. This is a bit different from the normal forums, as mentoring only involves the two people involved - when a person posts a question on the forums, anyone can answer.

 

I daresay we could use private messages instead of e-mail (and take advantage of the latex system that will hopefully be put in place either today or tomorrow, whenever blike's free ).

Latex System ))

sounds kinda,, well, you know

 

 

seriously though, what is it and what will it do?

Basically, it's a replacement for our current mimeTeX system that I've made for handling the math we put on the forum. You put in a piece of LaTeX code, then it takes it and renders it and displays a pretty picture. Works pretty well so far, and I've made quite a few nice images with it, I just need to get one little bit of code updated on this vB server and it'll work fine. I've already written a how-to guide for when it's up (similar to the mimeTeX one I've already done).

Excellent!, you`re a Star

It would have been up sooner, but the server SFN runs on is being a pain.

Sorry for the delay, me broadband connection failed yesterday.

 

I envision a site that offers many critical methods, to improve and help the learning process, not only for students but also to parent(s) and adults, who have been “out” of education for a long period.

 

A real goal would enable SFN to offer a vital interactive role, unlike the “homework” section, which offers only primary learning methods, such as answers with NO interactive interface. The perfect idea would be a structured network, which allows a mentor/tutor to have One 2 One learning with a user (student/parent/adult). With many users on this site who have great skills in scientific subjects, the idea would incorporate a mentor/tutor and an assistant mentor/tutor, and I don’t just mean one mentor for each subject.

 

We could have learning on specific areas of science subjects, such as algebra in Mathematics, the circulatory system in Biology, motion and forces in physics and electronic configuration in Chemistry. Another part of this network would offer Online exams, so the mentor/tutor could assess the level of help needed, and to help in planning revision guides. This would have to be done in a private part of the site, to ensure One 2 One learning.

 

I could go on and on but please tell me what you think it will be appreciated.

 

<Wolfson>

Would mentors be 'screened'? If so, how would that work?

Perhaps some sort of test (made by someone who basically knows what they're talking about) to check the mentors know what they're talking about in a particular field of study.

The problem with using PMs or e-mail for mentoring is that -- unless it goes through a time-consuming checking system -- the content being distributed is not open to peer review, and could be horribly wrong.

Precisely, and where does accountability lie should some hapless student be wildly misled?

Some kind of open forum or public discussion software would be the ideal solution.

 

Hey, maybe it could even go on the inter-network!

I have an idea, what about if you use a special chat room for that. Won't that work, the only thing is that the conversation won't be recorded. Or can it?

The problem with using PMs or e-mail for mentoring is that -- unless it goes through a time-consuming checking system -- the content being distributed is not open to peer review, and could be horribly wrong.

 

I'm fairly sure you can create groups of people using vB; perhaps we could start something of a mailing list on here where it's overseen by mentors.