Letter from the Editor

Sharing new challenges in e-Learning.

By KAREN MOBLEY  &  CHRISTY CAPPS
Managing Editor & Assistant Editor of Hyperviews:Online
Carolina Chapter

Just Click That Button

This issue of Hyperviews:Online has two contributions centered around e-Learning and the goal of ensuring successful learners. The article and column really struck home as I helped Christy Capps be a successful learner. Christy has been an assistant editor on Hyperviews:Online for more than a year. She's spent a year graciously editing columns so I could focus on technically involved articles, and now she's learning to construct and push the issue.

As she quickly learns the ins and outs of the Hyperviews:Online Web site architecture, I am learning to let go.

Recently, I've read many articles in other STC newsletters about mentoring. I'm a great believer in mentoring. I wouldn't have made my transition from programmer to technical communicator without the help of a gifted mentor. I don't know how successful the mentoring programs are in STC chapters. I have no data on the success or failure of organized mentoring. However, the successful mentoring in my life paralleled the blossoming of a deep friendship. Would my mentor have been as successful in helping me if we hadn't developed this friendship? I don't think so. I haven't done any research or even a literature review on mentoring, but I wonder if friendship must be an an integral ingredient.

As we sit in an office with our laptops hooked up to our respective Internet access, I hear myself saying to Christy the same things that my mentor said to me. While trying to understand the cascading style sheet, I comment on a noisy child and a helpful husband. After successfully pushing a Web page, we laugh about how easy something Christy feared turned out to be.

As a mentor, I had to come to grips with no longer being the only one that knows how. I'm no longer indespensible. I'm no longer alone. I've done a lot of letting go, letting loose, and outright mentoring in the past six months, since September.

That's been my e-Learning.

You Want Me to Click That Button?

Yes, as Karen detailed above, she has had an interesting time teaching me something that’s become second nature to her. I had no idea when we first met in graduate school (and I bet she didn’t either) that she would not only provide an understanding ear to the woes of a fellow student, but also become a gracious resource for someone heavy on theory, but light on practice.

They say that you only truly learn by doing — and that’s something that I can vouch for firsthand. I have sometimes entered into Hyperviews: Online assignments not knowing enough to be afraid. Perhaps that’s for the best. Our mistakes can teach us the most.

A collaborative endeavor — while no doubt logistically challenging — rewards all participants. Mentors are forced to become more conscious of their own knowledge and practices, while mentees learn “that wasn’t such a dumb question after all.”

While it helps to have a motivated learner, the most important thing that you can do as a mentor (or technical communicator!) is to empathize with the needs of your audience. (No surprise.) Thanks for the empathy Karen :-)

Let Others Learn from You

Hyperviews:Online is looking for articles, tutorials (Hint: If you know how to do something, write it up and submit it!), and columns on any facet of technical communication in online information. If you have an idea, contact us. It's a great way to mentor once and touch many!