This week, I had an interesting conversation with one of the students in my coding club. He was having difficulty with a string of code and I wasn’t able to help him. In the end, he sought out an online community called, Discord which he couldn’t stop talking about. He described it as “basically a place where coders share strategy.” My inside voice pretty much panicked. I had read about Discord and how toxic it could be, and lots of questions swirled in my head: Wasn’t there inappropriate sharing happening there? What if it wasn’t actually a college student but a pedophile trying to lure my student?
Of course both of these are possibilities. But is it also possible that there are supportive communities online which exist out of a genuine passion or interest.
So I let my outside voice stay inquisitive and calm while the student shared. He told me that it was an incredible place to be mentored by game developers in real time. He excitedly shared that the college student was very knowledgeable and had helped him with his code which after much frustration and visiting many game forums, had finally worked.
So much of my thinking over the years around mentorship has been impacted by Dr. Henry Jenkins the Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts at University of Southern California, who was recently interviewed for The Technopanic podcast. (Thanks for the tag, Alanna King). In the podcast, Dr. Jenkins speaks about the importance of fostering a “culture of mentorship” in online spaces to which he suggests we don’t pay enough attention. Dr. Jenkins, for example, references Archive of Our Own, a Fan Fiction site which has incredible structures of mentorship within it: where there are adults and young people together in a space which focus on writing and making writing better, but also on other aspects of culture and community which naturally flourish when people come together around a common interest.
He also shared these ideas which resonated with me:
We know historically, it takes a village to raise a child, but right now we are protecting children from any exposure to the village.
We need to figure out how to bring more adults into the lives of our children.
The online world may be safer than the offline world in terms of exposure to strangers and in terms of adults who share their interests
Monitor of course, but also be supportive that other adults have much to teach your child that may be really valuable for their development.
Jenkins speaks to a “Connected learning environment where parents, teachers, other community members recognize and value a child’s passion and help them to connect to a broader body of knowledge and help them to mobilize it in school “(18:50 to 19:05).
My book, Social LEADia celebrated many student leaders who followed their passions and had mentors who supported them in online spaces and references Dr. Jenkin’s co-authored book, Participatory Cultures in a Networked Era. As well, in my Masters research, I focused on the Global Educational Students Chat (formerly the Ontario Education Students Chat), I discovered a positive correlation between digital citizenship, digital literacies, digital leadership, and mentorship. When I think back, the student leadership team only knew one (or sometimes none) of the chat mentors at all when they joined. Another aspect of the chat is that we often have an expert adult on panel who knows way more about the topics than we do. The chat allows students to connect with one another online around topics that are important to them. Students participate in the chat via Twitter and the YouTube comments where they can build upon the ideas of others.
Listen to the entire podcast here.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the topic!