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Virtual Volunteering Project Archive
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direct contact online
volunteers:
online mentors, tutors, advisors and others
working with clients (including students)
This information
was last updated on April 3, 2000
Direct contact online
volunteers work directly with a client / recipient of your
service. For example, a volunteer, via e-mail or a chat room, could:
- electronically "visit" with someone who is homebound, in a hospital
or a rest home
- provide online
mentoring and instruction via e-mail (helping students with
homework questions, helping an adult learn a skill or find a job,
or help prison inmates with studies or programs)
- help with language instruction (help people learning English)
- e-mail or chat room answer/support line, like a phone answer/support
line, where people write their questions and volunteers answer them
- advance "welcoming" of people about to enter the hospital, go
to summer camp, etc. from volunteers, and post-service follow up
of the same group
- volunteers and/or clients working together online to create a
project, such as writing about the news of their neighborhood, school,
special interest group, etc. to post on a web site or use in printed
material
- distance learning: training volunteers in a subject via the Internet
- support group members providing advice to each other via a chat
room or private e-mail discussion group or newsgroup
- volunteers who supervise any of the above activities via the Internet
and provide guidance, or ask for staff guidance, as appropriate
Setting
up this kind of "direct contact" component of a virtual volunteering
program presents many special challenges. What are appropriate assignments
for such volunteers? How will you screen these online volunteers?
How will you evaluate these volunteers and supervise their interactions
with clients? How will you protect confidentiality and prevent inappropriate
interactions between online volunteers and clients?
To answer these questions,
the Virtual Volunteering Project offers
- initial
first steps for those considering setting up a direct
contact service component involving online volunteers, including
online mentoring.
- information on monitoring/supervising online interactions between
volunteers and clients, screening and evaluating volunteers that
will work with clients virtually, guidelines for bringing together
youth and adult online volunteers, and other safety
guidelines for direct contact volunteering.
- an index of Resources
for Volunteer Moderators and Facilitators of Online Discussion Groups
. These resources -- some by the VV Project, many by other organizations
-- can help both volunteers (including online mentors) and staff
moderate (approve all posts) or facilitate (keeping the discussion
flowing) online discussion groups, either via e-mail or via a chat/real-time
platform.
Online Mentoring /
Teletutoring
The Virtual Volunteering
Project will focus primarily on online mentoring in Y2K. We already
provide, via our web site, these resources for those planning or already
managing online mentoring programs:
- initial
first steps for those considering setting up a direct
contact service component involving online volunteers, including
online mentoring .
- selected
resources for online mentoring/teletutoring programs ,
including example materials from other organizations, general mentoring
resources and detailed program suggestions that can help other agencies
engage in similar activities.
- the most comprehensive online listing available of online
mentoring and teletutoring programs involving volunteers ,
with profiles of more than 25 organizations.
- suggested
activities for online mentors and mentees. These activities
range from topics to discuss via e-mail, to web-based projects mentors
and mentees can do together.
- Telementoring:
a View From the Facilitator's Screen , by Laura Amill,
a telementoring facilitator/researcher in the Electronic Emissary
Project at the University of Texas at Austin. How does an online
tutoring program really work? What characterizes
successful online tutoring program? What role do classroom teachers
play in the success of such programs? This is a must-read essay
for anyone involved with an online mentoring or tutoring program,
or anyone interested in starting such a program.
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10/21/03
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