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Supporting Peer-Peer and Mentor-Protege Relationships on the Internet
By Burgstahler. S., & Cronheim, D.
(2001)
Summary and Review | Profile and Features | Complete Study | Related Studies
 Print Version of Review
APA Reference:
Burgstahler, S., & Cronheim, D. (2001). Supporting peer-peer and mentor-protégé relationships on the Internet. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34(1), 59-74.
Summary:
This study explores the use of computer-mediated communications (defined as the use of networked computers to communicate with others) to address social issues common to youth with disabilities. Such problems as social isolation, lack of peer acceptance and limited access to positive role models with disabilities have far-reaching negative affects on the personal well being and academic success of the youth. Low expectations and lack of encouragement can impede their progress in challenging fields such as engineering, science and technology (Seymour & Hunter, 1998; The Task force on Women, Minorities, and the Handicapped in Science and Technology, 1989).
Two research questions are addressed:
1) Can computer-mediated communication be used to initiate and sustain peer-peer and mentor-protégé relationship and lower barriers to traditional communication related to disabilities, physical distances, and time and schedule limitations?
2) How do the functions of peer-peer and mentor-protégé electronic communications on the Internet compare in psychosocial, academic, and career areas?
The study was conducted with 49 high school students and 35 mentors of the DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) program funded at the University of Washington by the National Science Foundation. The DO-IT program provides outreach programs to high school students with specific learning disabilities and hearing, mobility, vision and health impairments, through peer-peer and mentor-protégé email interactions. Results suggest that peer-peer relationships tended to be more personal than mentor-protégé relationships, which tended to provide more academic and career-related guidance. Also, email and the Internet can provide youth with disabilities an electronic community in which peer-peer and mentor-protégé relationships may lower barriers to communication and social support, affecting the youth’s personal well-being and academic success.
Major implications for educators/decision makers:
- Computer-mediated communication (like email and the Internet) can provide an electronic community to disabled youth, helping them deal with social isolation, lack of peer acceptance, low expectations, and lack of encouragement, which affect the youth’s personal well-being and academic success.
- Email, the Internet and adaptive technologies can lower barriers of time, schedule, transportation, and distance for people with disabilities. Autonomy and level of communication can increase.
- Email and the Internet can help initiate and sustain peer and mentor support for youth with disabilities.
- Mentors of youth with disabilities can use email and the Internet to provide role modeling and job shadowing, and to help the youths strengthen interpersonal skills, develop social and professional contacts and develop a sense of identity and competence.
- Peers with disabilities can use email and the Internet to reduce social isolation and share strategies for overcoming disability-related barriers to personal, academic, and career development.
- The Internet and adaptive technologies (e.g.. speech to text and text to speech applications, track balls, headsticks, alternative keyboards, and enlarged screens) can provide youth with disabilities access to information resources related to academic and career interests. These resources are generally not available to the youth without these tools.
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Major implications for educational researchers/evaluators:
The researchers call for additional research to address the following questions related to the results of this study:
1. Is the level of online interaction of a participant related to the degree to which his or her disability limits other social interactions?
2. What variables (e.g. age, gender, academic interest, or disability type) influence the level and content of peer-peer and mentor-protégé interactions?
3. How does meeting face-to-face affect peer-peer and mentor-protégé relationships?
4. How does the content of peer-peer and mentor-protégé email messages change over time?
Major intervention(s) or variables studied:
The study explores the use of computer-mediated communications (email and the Internet) to initiate and sustain peer-peer and mentor-protégé relationships and to alleviate barriers to in-person communication for youth with disabilities.
Major questions addressed:
Sources of evidence identified:
The three sources of data were e-mail messages, written surveys, and focus groups.
Replicable strategies, practices, and/or products:
Besides the DO-IT curriculum itself, several potentially replicable strategies are suggested by this paper:
- Training in adaptive technologies, computers, and the Internet -- sufficient to undertake the activities described by Burgstahler and Cronheim -- can be incorporated into a two-week program such as the summer DO-IT meeting.
- Adult volunteers with disabilities enrolled in postsecondary programs or employed in curriculum-related fields can be effective mentors in a program such as DO-IT.
- Email can be an effective data collection tool. Email systems were configured to transmit a copy of messages to the research staff automatically. Students were shown how to turn off the automatic copy function to send a private message. Mentors manually sent copies of emails to the research staff for content analysis. Students and mentors were also surveyed using email.
- Email is an effective tool when mentors use it to communicate with students at least twice a month.
Strengths and limitations of the study:
Limitations of this study result from differences in methods used to collect the email messages from participants, the mixing of volunteer and staff mentor responses, and possibly incomplete or inaccurate focus group recordings.
Suggested related studies or resources to consider:
Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Retrieved March 5, 2003, from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/
Seymour, E., & Hunter, A. (1998). Talking about disability: The education and work experience of graduates and undergraduates with disabilities in science, mathematics and engineering majors. (AAAS Publication No. 98-02S). Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Task Force on Women, Minorities, and the Handicapped in Science and Technology. (1989). Changing America: The new face of science and engineering [Final report]. Washington, DC: National Science Foundation.
* = Reviewed in CARET
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