The Telementoring Revolution:
Three Case Studies

Introduction

"I strongly believe that we will see hundreds of thousands of students participating in telementoring within the next ten years. It's an exciting time in education and technology."

- David Neils
Program Manager
Hewlett-Packard's HP E-mail Mentor Program
May 1997

Telementoring is a nascent revolution poised for take-off into cyberspace. The technology, interest and need (both real and perceived) are driving the growing alignment of businesses, schools and technology developers. The recent April 1997 Presidents' Summit for America's Future, convened by President Clinton with Retired General Colin Powell at the helm, re-directed the klieg lights from the government onto citizens, corporate citizens included, and highlighted the need for the private sector to assume responsibility to help solve this country's social ills. Newsweek described the primary goal behind the decision to hold the Summit as one aiming "to mobilize corporate America and a vast volunteer army to rescue 'at risk' youth with tutoring, mentoring and other citizen service that brings caring adults into their lives."(1)

According to telementoring teacher and NetPals program designer Steve Rothenberg, "Mentoring as a teaching method goes all the way back to biblical times and has a proven track record of success. Many studies say that it is the most effective way for a student to learn."(2) In the past, the time factor, combined with logistics, precluded mentors from being in two places at once (the workplace and schools) which are the reasons why Rothenberg believes "mentor relationships have not been a major component in the American educational model."(3)

While business leaders have protested that corporate America "isn't set up for charity or mentoring kids,"(4) telementoring may offer the solution to those structural and philosophical barriers that were thrown up in the past. As more schools get wired (albeit at a painfully slow pace), the "outside world" can now come into the classroom via cyberspace in the form of caring adults who want desperately to help a floundering education system, and more specifically, support teachers and students who are attempting to learn with limited resources under adverse conditions.

My research indicates a burgeoning interest among K-12 teachers, corporations and higher education in harnessing the rapidly expanding and advancing technology to connect adults with students through telementoring programs for a variety of different purposes. My study focused on three telementoring programs that have an academic emphasis-Hewlett-Packard's HP E-mail Mentor Program, Walker School's NetPals Program (New Hampshire), and Le Moyne College Graduate School of Education's NetPals Program (New York). Through case studies I will analyze the structural and philosophical framework underlying each of the programs to identify common denominators that could inform future telementoring program designers, thus helping to move the telementoring revolution forward.

Choosing Telementoring

Before a telementoring connection is made, at some level, consciously or unconsciously, stakeholders have made determinations about the following questions:

• Is it educational? What are its goals and educational approach?
• Is it feasible-technically, psychologically, organizationally, economically?
  Is it good-socially, politically, morally?(5)

With regard to determining the educational value of a telementoring program, each program will obviously vary depending on the designers' goals. In most cases, telementoring programs connect people from two different cultures together for the purpose of having the adult, or older person, provide academic and/or emotional support to an individual student. Connecting people working in businesses with students in schools is one type of program while higher education is experimenting with linking graduate students with younger students. (Another form of telementoring I did not include in this study is the type of model that links "experts" to the classroom, frequently referred to as "ask the expert" model.)

The underlying philosophical rationale for structuring the programs I investigated is the belief that using technology to bring more adults into a child's school experience will enhance that child's education by providing individualized academic, motivational and emotional support, thereby helping that particular child to experience academic success.

The question regarding feasibility is a sticky one. The technology being developed for two of the programs I studied is still in beta testing. These telementoring programs have had their share of problems. While this can be discouraging, it is also important to acknowledge that problems arise in the developmental phase in any new program, regardless if technology is involved. The point to remember is that technological advancements will soon render many of these problems obsolete.

Yet technical feasibility is only one of the factors to take into account when considering whether a telementoring program is workable. How the program is organized within each of the connecting cultures is key to the necessary access to computers? Are the teachers comfortable with having more adults "enter program's success. Is the school structured to provide students with the their classroom" through technology? Are the mentors sufficiently trained to critique students' work and/or provide academic guidance and/or emotional support? These are only some of the questions that must be considered within the design of the individual program.

Furthermore, the participants involved in the telementoring program need to be sufficiently prepared psychologically for the program's potential benefits and drawbacks. This may require teachers to prepare students for the disappointment of having a telementor who does not communicate. Or it may involve having teachers preparing adults for less-than-perfect student work and/or behavior. In many ways, teachers will have to serve as the liaison between the two cultures. This will require the teachers to have some degree of familiarity and understanding of both cultures, which is not always the case. Thus, training teachers to facilitate telementoring programs can be pivotal to the program's success.

As time progresses, the economic feasibility issue is becoming increasingly moot. No longer are corporations being asked to "release" employees to physically go to schools which requires "windshield time," as the time involved for the employee to transport themselves to the school is sometimes called. Some corporations, such as Hewlett -Packard, have made this type of community service a requirement of employment where the employees are paid for the time they spend each week participating in the company's program.

The recently convened Presidents' Summit has also placed pressure on companies to conduct internal evaluations of their own role as a "corporate citizen" while, simultaneously, an external evaluation is conducted by the media. The April 28, 1997, issue of Newsweek listed ten major companies as "MIA" (missing in action) when publishing a story ranking the top twenty companies with exemplary commitments to the community. Continental Cablevision/U S West is one corporation that was motivated by the Summit to announce a new program called "WOW by One," a new initiative that seeks to match individual employees up with schools as volunteers providing "technology tool kits, counsel and cash" as part of a three-year, $150 million commitment to education. One form of volunteerism this company is promoting is the concept of having employees serve as "cybermentors," which attests to the growing attraction of using technology to connect businesses with schools.(6)

With corporate anxiety mounting about the quality of students coming out of America's existing education pipeline, companies are desperately looking for ways to intervene, and telementoring is proving to be one viable way. Hewlett-Packard (HP) is so convinced about the benefits of its telementoring program that the company has announced that it is working towards establishing a "national telementoring center, or international center" that will provide technical assistance and resources for companies and other interested organization seeking to develop a telementoring program of their own.(7) HP's intended goals are to make it easier for companies to connect their employees to schools through telementoring, offer proper training materials, and exchange best practices among organizations looking to structure programs for success. Hewlett-Packard has been conducting extensive evaluations of the impact of their own telementoring program which will provide valuable evidence for other companies looking to justify employee time and company expense.

The question regarding the "goodness" of the program-socially, politically, morally-must be asked in terms of: "Good for whom?" The decision of a company or higher education institution to get involved in a telementoring program with a school is a complicated one. Many factors contribute to such a decision. Social pressure from consumers, shareholders, politicians, and other corporate/higher education institutions can all influence the powers that be to make a commitment to telementoring. I would prefer not to judge those reasons. I would only stress that this kind of commitment should not be taken lightly, nor should it be fleeting. Rather, it should be entered into advisedly, like a marriage. Because it requires human interaction, mistakes will be made by both parties. The focus should remain on the individual child and the quality of the individual mentor/student relationship. The numbers of mentors, while important, should not the primary goal of any telementoring program. Nor should the public relations factor be the primary reason a company or organization decides to get involved. I submit that the crux of the "goodness question" should be: Is the individual student benefiting in a measurable way from the interaction with the adult mentor?

These days, companies and other organizations, including higher education institutions, for good reason, are loathe to support programs of any sort that do not seriously evaluate or measure the impact of that support, whether it be financial, human, or in-kind services. Thus, documenting the academic progress, the improvement in computer and/or communication skills, and, possibly, the emotional growth/maturity of students participating in telementoring programs needs to be a high priority for the coordinators on both sides of the telementoring partnership.

It is wonderful if teachers, employees, graduate students and/or the corporation benefit. But we must always remember that the program is for the child's benefit. Often, because adults feel they know more, we don't listen to the children. Children will tell us what they honestly think about anything if we are willing to listen.

This child-centered focus, however, is in no way intended to minimize the "goodness" of the telementoring program for the other stakeholders involved. For example, it is critical that the teacher finds this program "good" for his/her pedagogy. If teachers are not convinced the program has an academic benefit for students, or believe it is simply amounting to an additional burden upon them, it is doubtful that teachers will permit valuable class time taken up with students communicating with mentors via computer. The academic focus of the telementoring program also must be directly linked to the curriculum and teaching goals of the individual teacher and not an "add on." Likewise, graduate students or employees who are made to feel that participating in a telementoring program is a waste of their valuable time, the connection will die (and should die). Thus, telementoring programs should constantly be evaluated by all stakeholders involved so that they can adapt to the changing needs of the students, teachers, and mentors---in that order.

Research Methods

My research involved some exciting high-tech connections that enhanced my final product in ways I could never have achieved through the "old-fashioned" methods. In addition to pulling off information from a variety of telementoring web sites, in my research capacity, I was given access as a "Facilitator" so I could examine the quality of exchanges between graduate students from Le Moyne College and their designated NetPals from Eagle Hill School. I am grateful to Professor Dan Lake of Le Moyne College, Elna Gordon, teacher at Eagle Hill School, and Howard Rafal at Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) for making this arrangement possible.

I also conducted a large amount of my research via email. Professor Lake at Le Moyne College kindly agreed to offer his graduate education students credit for an optional "authentic" assignment to respond to my research request for information to ascertain their opinions about the NetPals program. I received eight email responses from these graduate students that greatly informed my research.

The materials developed by David Neils and published on Hewlett-Packard's E-mail Mentor web site not only provided me with an overview of a well-conceived program but also offered me a glimpse into the future of telementoring.

I am also grateful to Steve Rothenberg for permitting me to visit his class at the Walker School in Concord, New Hampshire. There I was able to see with my own eyes, the students' excitement and interest in the NetPals program with a local law firm, Sulloway & Hollis. A "low-tech" tape recorder helped me capture the students' feelings towards the program. These are the words we need to listen carefully to as we attempt to structure effective telementoring programs.

Case Study #1: HP E-Mail Mentor Program

No serious discussion about telementoring can be conducted without including the model developed by Hewlett-Packard (HP). This program has been in operation since January 1995. The primary program designer at HP is David Neils.

Hewlett-Packard has structured the company's telementoring program to mesh with HP's three goals for improving K-12 education:

Goal 1: Ensure that all children are ready to learn when they start school.

Goal 2: Improve science and math proficiency significantly.

Goal 3: Increase the number of females and minorities studying and teaching science and mathematics.(8)

The company is in the process of conducting an extensive evaluation of the program that presently pairs 1546 Hewlett-Packard employees from around the world with 1508 5-12th grade students and 146 school contacts (mostly teachers) across the United States. The results of this study will be published in September 1997.(9)

The primary objective of the HP E-mail Mentor Program is to create "successful mentor relationships between HP employees and students" that foster the following:

• HP employees encourage students to strive for academic excellence, especially in the areas of math and science.
• Students perceive school as a resource for them to pursue their unique interests.
• Students are encouraged to take more responsibility for their education.

Strong, healthy relationships are formed between HP and participating schools.(10)

Hewlett-Packard envisions these telementoring relationships as an important force, one powerful enough to instigate a paradigm shift in the minds of the participants. The company views the mentor relationship as having the potential to make the student more personally responsible for his/her own learning, while making the participating mentor conscious that, not only are s/he performing a community service highly valued by the corporation, but s/he are also a valuable resource in a child's life.

The HP E-mail Mentor Program clearly delineates the responsibilities of each participant so there is minimal confusion about expectations. All participating HP mentors and students receive a specific list of responsibilities. HP has also designed the program to include an important role called a "School Contact." HP believes this school-based person plays a critical role in determining the success of the program. The responsibilities of the School Contact include:

• Determine how this program would be used as an integral part of the math and science curriculum at the school
• Provide information to recruit potential students and teachers
• Select no more than 10 students per school contact who are serious about the program
• Monitor all mentor relationships to ensure they are on track and successful

Encourage all students to use proper grammar and careful spelling in all messages (11)

When announcing upcoming program changes for the 1997-98 school year, David Neils, manager of the HP telementoring program, indicated that the company views the school contact role as so pivotal that the company plans to assign an HP mentor specifically to assist the school contact. Neils stated that the company's goal is to "provide more support for teachers who are willing to sign up for the school contact role."(12)

HP has designed the program to be extremely user-friendly. HP employees can sign up on-line to be mentors. A regular newsletter called HP Telementoring News is also published on-line with answers to frequently asked questions, updated information and shared success stories. Mentor, Student and School Contact Training Documents have also been developed by the company. E-mail communication is the means of communication between students and mentors which does not require highly sophisticated technology or Internet access.

Neils has announced the program will remain within HP for 1-2 more years for fine-tuning as the company simultaneously moves towards the creation of a "free franchise package and identifies or help sets up a central telementoring center to handle program administration and coordination."(13) HP wants to share lessons learned and materials it has created in the form of a free franchise telementoring program package that can be used by other companies and interested organizations. HP intends to collaborate with One-to-One, a national mentoring organization, to develop mentor training materials that would be included in the franchise package.(14) This important initiative, if successful, will go a long way toward the expansion of telementoring in the U.S. schools.

Another initiative HP has announced is the company's plan to create a web site featuring more on-line mentoring project ideas to link to curriculum. Neils stated, "These projects will serve as templates for focused mentor relationship projects."(15) This should provide an important forum for the exchange of ideas among mentors, educators and students that will ultimately help develop a stronger academic focus for the program.

Program evaluation is central to shaping the design of the HP E-mail Mentoring Program. The results from an on-line survey conducted in February 1997 by David Neils are still being processed. This was the second of a series of three participant surveys planned for the 1996-97 school year. One of HP's primary objectives in obtaining survey information is "to identify the effects and benefits of telementoring relationships." Partial results from the School Contact Status Report were published on the HP web site in April (see Appendix A). (Note: Partial survey findings are included below.)

The School Contact Survey asked the persons designated "school contacts" to evaluate the following items to help determine whether they are "being impacted by the mentoring relationships." Preliminary results showing that "approximately 95% of the school contacts perceive benefits for their students and teachers who are participating in the program."(16)

For Students For Teachers

1. increase interest - math/science 46%
2. better use of e-mail 73%
3. registration - math science courses 100%
4. access to on-line classroom materials 32%
5. improve grades 14%
6. communications with HP 48%
7. enhance career choices 35%
8. awareness of other HP
9. K-12 programs 29%
10. increase motivation at school 49%
11. integrate technology 55%
12. increase self-confidence 57%
13. School contact requested HP mentor 27%
14. increase involvement at school 31%
15. increase use of technology 100%
16. increase attendance 8%
    Results from this and other surveys conducted by HP, when shared with other companies and educators, will provide important data to companies looking to adopt programs that produce measurable results. It is important for companies to do their research before entering into telementoring relationships. Neils stated that the HP plans to publish the results on the company's web site by September 1, 1997.
    Anecdotal information is also being culled by HP to help understand how telementoring benefits education. In a recent telementoring conference held by BBN in January 1997, Scott Durkin, a teacher who serves as an HP School Contact and who works closely with David Neils, discussed the following outcomes HP has identified as central to how telementoring can change classroom learning:(17)

    • Increases one to one attention
    • Increases feedback
    • Allows for greater individualization
    • Increases authenticity
    • Creates personal relationships
    • Increases accountability
    • Infuses the classroom with more knowledge/resources/volunteer time
    • Accountability to the mentor can be much higher
    • Technology skills are honed via tangible projects
    • Increases the sense of relevance of what is learned in school
    • Increases motivation to excel in math and science
    • Increases understanding of the working world and career opportunities

Durkin fleshes out each of these points to help explain the sometimes obvious, sometimes complicated ways telementoring can enhance classroom learning. This is clearly one of the most comprehensive lists of telementoring benefits that has been published to date. However, further documentation and research is needed in order to convince skeptics, both in and out of schools, about the educational value of undertaking a telementoring program.

Examining the quality of the exchanges between students and their adult mentors is one way to evaluate a program. In the April 13, 1997, edition of HP Telementoring News, teacher Ann Foster submitted a copy of an email correspondence from an HP mentor to his student (See Appendix B). In the email message, HP mentor Bill Wear provides a detailed explanation, complete with algebraic equations, to help his student Seth Murphy, learn about statistics. The mentor conveys his passion for the subject to his student, presenting complicated math formulas in an understandable way, capitalizing on the boy's passion for baseball by using an example about the Atlanta Braves. This mentor's exchange represents more time than most individual teachers could spend one-on-one with a particular student, and demonstrate the educational possibilities of a positive telementoring relationship.

HP is moving forward with ambitious plans to expand their program to involve 2000 mentors from the company in the next school year. The company is mounting an active recruitment drive for students/school contacts. When Neils was asked whether the recruitment drive was necessary and/or if the company's requirements might be difficult for schools to meet, Neils stated,

This is a new program for everyone, including HP. Although the concept is straightforward, the implementation is not. Teachers are very busy with year-end activities and we may see more signing up after the school year has ended. I don't believe it is the requirements that keep teachers from signing up but rather finding those teachers who are willing and excited to participate.(18)

Neils reports that plans to expand the program and move toward the creation of a "national telementoring center" are moving forward. Neils envisions that "each company will have their own mentoring program that could be administered out of this center," with each company having "legal control" over their mentors which Neils deems important.(19) Committed funding for these tasks has been secured through October 1998.(20) The national mentoring organization One-to-One has plans to honor HP as an "example of a new and innovative approach to mentoring."(21) The wealth of expertise Hewlett-Packard has gained over the last several years will be of great value to other companies and organizations interested in structuring effective telementoring programs.

Case Study #2: Walker School NetPals Program

Unlike the large-scale Hewlett-Packard telementoring program, Walker School's NetPals program launch this year pairs twenty fifth and sixth grade students with attorneys, paralegals and legal secretaries from the local 175-member law firm of Sulloway & Hollis. The public school, located in Concord, New Hampshire, was intended to be one of the first schools in the nation to formally pilot the new NetPals software now in beta testing by a design team at BBN. However, due to a series of technical problems, the program is essentially being conducted through the use of email, much like the Hewlett-Packard program.

NetPals software is designed to enable students to post writing assignments to a web site with a comment form attached. Adult NetPals, matched with individual students, are asked to review the student's work and respond to the specific questions posted along with the assignment. These questions, usually generated by the teacher, require mentors to comment on the grammar, spelling and punctuation, as well as review the student's submission for style and content. The feedback students receive from the NetPals is intended to improve writing skills by giving the students an outside audience for their work.

Because the NetPals software is web-based, this requires both the school and the law firm to have Internet access. Interestingly, the Walker School has more Internet capacity than the law firm. Sulloway & Hollis only has one computer with Internet access and many of the lawyers were unfamiliar with using the 'Net, according to attorney Jennifer Shea Moekle, Netpals coordinator at the law firm.(22) While Walker School teacher Steve Rothenberg provided some training for law firm employees, the mechanics of using the sole computer at the law firm greatly restricted the access for participating employees. Attorney Moekle also noted that, with the web-based design, the lawyers had no way to save their comments, so if they were interrupted during the writing of their critique, they were forced to lose whatever comments they had typed.(23) Moekle stated, "Our lives are not our own...The phone rings and we have to go, or a partner calls and you have to go."(24)

To bypass this major technical problem, the school and the law firm opted to use email to accomplish the telementoring task. According to Walker teacher Steve Rothenberg, using email is not the method he prefers to structure the program. In the NetPals software design, the teacher "facilitator" can view the entire program, including monitoring all of the exchanges, as well as determining the status of the student submissions and adult responses (i.e. monitoring whether or not the adults and/or students are keeping up with the assignments). In the current email design, adult NetPals are required to c.c. Rothenberg and Moekle with a copy of their feedback they send to the student. While Rothenberg accepts this compromise for now, he notes that it is much more difficult for him to keep track of the responses.(25)

Sulloway & Hollis originally connected with the Walker School through Concord School Superintendent Curt Sokness. (Note: All direct quotes attributed to Superintendent Sokness were recorded during a telephone interview on May 2, 1997). According to Superintendent Sokness, Sulloway & Hollis is the Concord school system's legal counsel. Attorneys from the firm had participated in a community education forum and had also helped out by participating in the strategic planning process the system had recently undertaken. Sokness related a brief conversation he had with Jennifer Shea Moekle, an associate with the firm, following the conclusion of the education forum when Ms. Moekle expressed her interest in "becoming more involved with the schools." A few days later, the Superintendent was visiting the Walker School when Steve Rothenberg approached him and asked Sokness if he knew of any local businesses that might be interested in forming a telementoring partnership. Without hesitation, Sokness told Rothenberg to call Moekle. Moekle originally thought she might be able to recruit ten people to be mentors. When the responses came back, she had double that number.

Superintendent Sokness is quick to stress that the Concord school system views technology as a tool. In an interview, Sokness stated:

Our vision regards technology as a tool to enhance learning, including technological literacy. Technology is a source of wonderful information that can serve to increase the knowledge base of students and offer different instructional methods for teachers and students alike. However, whatever we do with a business or with technology must be directly connected with our own academic standards. The Concord Superintendent is unequivocal in his insistence that the primary job of educators is to "raise children's academic levels, but this cannot be done by the schools alone." Sokness continued:

One of the primary skills we must develop in children is the skill of writing. It is critical that children learn to put clear thoughts down on paper. The community can help us teach writing through a telementoring program such as NetPals. Students can receive input from outside professionals, not just educators. I expect many children will be more excited about writing through this type of program.

Superintendent Sokness stressed that, before engaging in using technology, educators must create a vision. He related the fact that the Concord school system wrestled with two main questions: 1.) How will students use technology to enhance their learning? 2.) How will teachers use technology to assist them to maximize their instructional time but also to enhance the quality of that instruction? It was from this starting point that teachers in Concord are approaching integrating technology in the public schools.

Interviews were conducted with participating NetPal students, teachers and one lawyer to help determine the program's impact to date. It is important to remember that the program was only launched less than six months ago and participants have had to endure several technical glitches.

Two groups of students were interviewed, one group of three fifth grade boys and another group of three sixth grade girls. Both sets of interviews were conducted during the school day at the Walker School. The students were all in advanced work groups. Although some students with special needs were mainstreamed in their class, these students were not participating in the NetPals program. (Note: All direct quotes were transcribed from audio-taped interviews conducted on April 15, 1997, with Harry, Matt and Billy in the boys' group and Jessica, Erin and Angela in the girls' group.)

The boys all agreed that they liked the program mainly because "it helps us to get higher grades." They explain that in the process of having their writing go through peer review and corrections, then sending it to the NetPals to review and correct, they were able to edit the paper several times before they had to turn it in for a grade from Mr. Rothenberg. They regarded this as an opportunity to give themselves several chances to improve their grade. The boys all said that they used spellcheck a lot before sending the work to their NetPals, mainly because "you don't want your NetPal to have a big list to correct." The boys also liked the fact that it was so easy to send a writing sample to their NetPal. Harry stated, "It's a lot easier than having to put a stamp on a letter and having to write a whole letter out. With this [NetPals] it takes three seconds to send." Matt concurred stating, "You don't have to write your story again. All you do is go to your story, copy it, and paste it and then send it."

The boys said that, in addition to the standard questions developed by their teacher to attach to their story, they also included questions of their own. Billy stated, "I always ask them what they liked the best and why?"

The boys were very keen to get feedback from their NetPals. Billy said, "My NetPal told me once that he likes commas. He thinks they are important and he wrote that in the comment section."

These students liked having an audience for their writing. (It is important to note that the three boys are involved in publishing the school paper which is put together by students in Mr. Rothenberg's class, so they are use to writing for an audience.) Matt said, "If only one grown-up reads it (say, that's your teacher) they can miss an easy mistake, but if your NetPal reads it, he could pick it up."

The boys all seemed unfazed by outside criticism, in fact, they welcomed it. According to Matt, "Writing for the teacher, the teacher knows you and they won't go as hard on you. But, with someone else far away and they read it and they don't know you personally, so they'll just correct it they way they think is right." Harry concurred saying, "They push it. It's helpful. We're use to it as editors [of the school paper] because we have to correct someone else and they'll be really mad at us for doing it but then they realize that it's better because we helped they make their story better for the Walker Talker (the school paper)."

While the boys did not seem terribly interested in meeting their NetPals, Harry stated, "I want to meet them because all we know about them is what they type." When asked if they were bothered that the program did not include any chance to exchange personal information, Harry said, "The way it was set up on the Internet it was more personal. Now, Mr. R. [the teacher], he changed it. It's for our work."

When the boys were asked if they thought writing an autobiography for their NetPal was a good idea, they said they had already written one for their individual web pages that they could send. Harry said, "Sending an autobiography would be a good idea so NetPals would know who they are and what they like to do and their NetPals should write back."

The girls, in their interview, seemed much more focused on the "personal aspect" of the mentoring relationship. For example, Jessica stated that, before the writing program began, "I wrote her [my NetPal] a letter just saying how old I was and what I like to do in school." This was not a required assignment. Angela seemed uncomfortable not knowing anything about her NetPal: "It's kinda weird having someone you don't know reading your work."

The girls were excited about the upcoming pizza luncheon scheduled with their NetPals. Jessica seemed to speak for the group when she said, "I think it would be kinda helpful to meet them because you would not be writing to a stranger."

The girls also found the technical problems that caused a delay in responses from their NetPals much more frustrating. Jessica stated, "It's really frustrating when it takes two weeks to get a response because you don't know if they actually read your story and if they really cared, or, you don't know if they read it and just forgot about you."

Like the boys, the girls found the idea of writing for an audience appealing. Jessica said, "I like seeing what other people think of my writing other than just teachers." Angela agreed, stating, "I like it too. It's pretty cool to have a lawyer take time to read your stuff, but sometimes they take really long." Erin picked up on this same theme saying, "Maybe if they weren't lawyers it would be a really good program. Not that lawyers are bad, but they are really busy."

(Note: I took a few minutes at this point during the interview to ask the girls whether they knew how lawyers billed for their services. The girls were unfamiliar with the fact that lawyers billed clients by the minute. I thought it was important to explain how lawyers worked to provide the students with a better understanding of why some delays in response time may have occurred with some of the NetPals. Later, when I related this story to Jen Moekle of Sulloway & Hollis, she agreed that it would be a good idea for her to go to the school in the future to explain the structure of legal work so the students would have a better sense of how lawyers spend their time.)

The girls liked having input into the questions they could ask their NetPals about their writing. Angela reported asking the following questions: "Did it flow well? Did you get a 'mind picture'? Did I use proper grammar and punctuation? Did you laugh?"

The girls discussed the advantages and disadvantages of having NetPals from Concord. Erin said, "I think it would be exciting to have a NetPal in some other place other than just in Concord." Angela said, "It's a good thing they are in Concord and a bad thing because I want to meet them." Jessica piped in, "I think that what we are doing with them it is OK that they are just in Concord, but if we were doing just a pen pal thing, I'd probably rather have them from somewhere else."

In spite of the technical problems, the girls liked the idea of participating in a NetPals program. Angela said, "I think NetPals is a really good program because they help you with things that you never thought were important to your writing so they can help you improve your writing." Jessica said, "It is a good program if you are really serious about writing. I hope that it works with everybody because it would be neat to get it going faster." The girls indicated that they check their email for responses every day. Erin stated, "I wish I had a schedule to know when to expect it. Then I would know to check it."

There are three NetPal teachers involved in the program at the Walker School. Steve Rothenberg (5th grade teacher), Kristen Cerami (6th grade teacher) and Susan Blanchette (Special Education teacher). (Note: All direct quotes that follow were transcribed from audio-taped interviews I conducted with Mr. Rothenberg and Ms. Cerami at the Walker School on April 15, 1997.)

Steve Rothenberg stressed his view about the importance of finding a single business to get involved in the program. "I didn't want to get a geographic spread of people. I wanted them to all be in one location because I felt, as important as it was to have mentors, it was just as important to train the mentors how to read the kids' work." Rothenberg conducted two training sessions at Sulloway & Hollis reviewing writing samples by fifth-graders with the adults. Rothenberg stressed, "We decided to focus on the positive. We didn't want them reading the kids work to the point of fixing every grammatical error known to man."

Rothenberg also stated that he felt strongly about outlining clear program expectations to the law firm participants before the relationship even started. He emphasized three requirements when he met with members from the firm. "We would agree to hold a few orientation sessions, we would agree to meet every once and a while during the program, and they would dedicate on a bi-weekly basis 15-20 minutes to review their student's work."

Rothenberg is a strong advocate for the web-based NetPals format that he had to abandon this year because the law firm did not have enough computers with Internet capacity. Rothenberg stated that the value in the web format is the concept of sharing:

Email shares between two people. The web shares everything. If you do it on the web site, which is exactly the way it should be done, the teacher can walk in and monitor the communication at all times. That's high level stuff, but I can enter the web site and I can see and evaluate the quality of the writing.

Rothenberg believes the program design must be teacher-friendly saying:

Realize, as a teacher now a days, to do it right and embrace technology and move on, you need help." You either need more people to come into the classroom or you need to find better ways to do things and they both have to happen. NetPals provides the teacher with the ability to have a gallery to look at the whole trend of the communication between a student and a NetPal. And that's the beauty of the web site.

Rothenberg was undeterred by the difficulties of getting the program up and running with the law firm. When asked if he thought it was unwise to match up with lawyers due to their notoriously busy schedules, Rothenberg said, "I really didn't care who it was. I think you're going on the wrong track in that sense. Everybody has 20 minutes."

Rothenberg continued this thought saying, "It wasn't fair of us to have perfect expectations when our own house was not in order at the beginning of the program."

Rothenberg indicated that a new schedule was in place, and he and his contact at the law firm, Jen Moekle, had set a one-week response time for the latest assignment. In order to do this, all of the student work was sent out in a batch email that the law firm NetPals all received the same day. The NetPals were given a deadline to respond of one week. Moekle thought the deadline was a "good idea because lawyers work on deadline all of the time."(26) This arrangement might improve the response time on the part of the NetPals because, as Moekle stated, "If something never becomes the squeaky wheel, it doesn't get priority."(27) The downside of the imposition of a deadline means that students must have all completed their assignment in order for Rothenberg to send them all at once. This loses some of the flexibility inherent in the design that enables a child to write at their own pace, and not be dictated to by the pace of the larger group.

Sixth grade teacher Kristen Cerami expressed her enthusiasm regarding the aspect of NetPals that gives the students an "audience" for their writing. She shared a recent experience that confirmed, in her mind, the importance of having an audience:

Last summer I attended a writing conference at UNH [University of New Hampshire]. That's when I really understood the importance of having an audience for writing. That is all we did...share our writing with each other...getting feedback...getting ideas...The concept is fantastic.

Ms. Cerami said that she observed an improvement in the students' attitudes about writing because they were getting constructive feedback from their NetPals. However, Ms. Cerami expressed her desire to include students of varying levels of ability in the program. She said, "The next level is to involve kids who are ambivalent writers...Kids at the high level are going to write anyway. They love the extra attention."

During an interview to find out how the NetPals program was affecting the law firm, Jennifer Shea Moekle revealed that this was the first firm-wide community activity. (Note: All direct quotes attributed to Jennifer Shea Moekle were recorded during a telephone interview May 5, 1997). While individual attorneys participated in different civic causes, the NetPals program was the first time this many people from the firm were involved in a communal activity. Moekle said that the activity had definitely "generated some enthusiasm among the attorneys who think it is fun." Moekle added that many of the people working at Sulloway & Hollis "either had children in the public schools in Concord, have children there now or will have children attending the schools in the future." This close tie, in addition to the fact that the firm was legal counsel for the school system, may contribute to the high interest among the employees at the firm.

Moekle related the difficulties the adult NetPals at the firm attempting to use the web-based software. The sole computer and the lack of experience on the Internet resulted in a very poor start to the program. Moekle stressed the need for the NetPals to be able to have easy access from home or when they stayed late at work. Moekle said that, typically her reviews take about forty minutes, so she prefers to remain after work when she has a less likely chance of being interrupted. The web-based software did not permit the NetPals to save their work, so they frequently lost their review if they were forced to sign-off before they were finished.

Moekle related a recent converation she had with a lawyer from another firm who was interested in doing a similar program after hearing her speak at a meeting:

He was really enthusiastic. They wanted to get involved in their community through a program like NetPals because, as lawyers in a small firm, they were tied to their office, but this program had the flexibility enabling them to respond at midnight.

Moekle thinks it is a good idea for the students and adults to meet because, otherwise, she said, "Adults are getting the stories in a vacuum. I think it would work better if there was a personal connection established."

The unfolding relationship between Sulloway & Hollis and the Walker School is instructive in many ways. First, it demonstrates the necessity "technical readiness" for on both sides in order for the program to run smoothly. Second, the students raise an interesting issue regarding what they believe to be the "objective" critique of a mentor as opposed to the "subjective" critique of a teacher. Melanie Goldman, NetPals project coordinator at BBN, hypothesizes that "there is strength in weak ties, meaning that often people who have a less intensive relationship have a greater effect on someone's targeted behavior."(28) This theory deserves further exploration.

Case Study #3: Le Moyne College Graduate School of Education's NetPals Program

Dan Lake is an adjunct professor at Le Moyne College's Graduate School of Education located in central New York state. Among the courses Professor Lake teaches is EDU 550: Applications of Technology in Education. The graduate students enrolled in this course are all aspiring teachers.

For several years Lake has been involved with BBN in the development of the NetPals software. This year he decided to integrate this software into his course at Le Moyne. One of the assignments for students taking EDU 550 requires students is serving as a "Writing Mentor" to a middle school student attending school in the Central NY Regional area where Lake is also employed as a technology coordinator.

Assignment #4 in Lake's syllabus posted on the web outlines student requirements as Writing Mentors (see Appendix C). Lake uses points to weight the completion of each of the tasks. Depending on submission/completion of the tasks, graduate students can earn the following points: Expert (10); Practitioner (8-9); Novice (4-5).(29) To earn the maximum number of points, Lake requires students to complete a minimum of three reviews for submission "that contain interactive messages that clearly indicate you are assisting your mentee, as evidenced in his/her commentary."(30) Recognizing the fact that the graduate students have limited control over the writing submitted by the middle school student, Lake requests that his students keep track of their attempts to establish communications, not only with the student but with the facilitating teacher as well.(31)

Lake's rubric for grading the graduate student's work also includes the "readability" of the portfolio of communications, "inclusion" of all of the contacts, and the "presentation" of the student's final notebook.(32)

In a telephone interview, Lake expressed his frustration about the "rough start-up" and myriad of obstacles participants on all sides encountered during this particular assignment. Lake acknowledged that this was to be expected since the software is only in the development phase.

Lake related the major problem that occurred when his students were all issued passwords to log on to the web site. These were "complicated" passwords featuring a combination of letters and numbers. When the graduate students all tried to log on simultaneously, the system overloaded and shut down.(33) BBN technical design staff had to make the necessary repairs, which, according to Lake, contributed to a "loss of momentum" for the graduate students.

Access for both the Le Moyne students and the middle school students was another formidable barrier. Many of the graduate students do not own personal computers. This means that they must use the computer lab on campus and work on computers with Internet access to communicate with their NetPal.

Elna Gordon, one of two NetPal teachers at the Eagle Hill School, related a similar story regarding the difficulty she and her nine students had gaining access to the computer lab to send their stories. (Note: All direct quotes attributed to Elna Gordon were recorded during a telephone interview on April 16, 1997.) Gordon said that she did not select one particular class to participate in the NetPals program with Le Moyne College. Instead, she randomly chose nine students she thought might benefit from the program, including 1-2 students she categorized as having low writing skills, 3-4 who fell in the middle range and 1-2 excellent writers. Because the students were not together at the same time, Gordon was required to coordinate student schedules with the availability of the computer lab. Gordon said that Eagle Hill School has a policy that does not permit students to use computers without adult supervision so she had to physically be with the students in the computer lab at all times. Gordon noted that this situation would be remedied if she had more computers in her classroom.(34) This would negate her having to reserve the computer lab and the children could simply come to her room at designated times. Gordon noted that she recently had a student teacher working with her which gave her more time and freedom to devote to the NetPals program.

Gordon said that one of her biggest concerns was the uneven "quality of feedback."

While noting that some of the feedback by the Le Moyne students was "superior," she also said that some of the reviews by graduate students "were poorly spelled and the sentence structure was also poor." Her middle school students caught the misspellings and mainly reacted by laughing. When Gordon shared some of the NetPals' feedback in a presentation to her colleagues, she said several of the teachers had a lot of questions and expressed some skepticism about the program.

However, Gordon remains undeterred by both the technical problems and the issue regarding the quality of the feedback. She stated her belief that "the benefits far outweigh the negatives." Gordon said that all of her students had been "highly motivated by this program." She believed the biggest factor contributing to the students' high level of motivation was the students' excitement about having an audience. Gordon said, "The fact that an outside person was going to read their work motivated them to make their writing clear. It also broadened the students' perceptions about people who can give them feedback about their writing. They no longer think the teacher is the only person." Her students were also learning the importance of revising their writing through the editing process. Gordon believes these factors make the program a worthwhile educational endeavor.

Professor Lake agreed to give his graduate students credit for an "authentic assignment" if they responded to this researcher's inquiry regarding the graduate students' perceptions about the NetPals program. Eight students sent email messages to me with their impressions about the program.

The graduate students were generally positive about the program, viewing it as having great potential. They were disappointed in the fact that the majority of them had only received one writing assignment from their NetPal to review. The students expressed some concern about the fact that they were given little background about the student and his/her ability. This caused several graduate students to express their hesitation about knowing what kind of feedback was appropriate. For example, Renee McDowell said that she felt at a disadvantage not knowing the student and whether or not it was appropriate to be tough them, especially if they might not be able to handle the criticism from a stranger:

It is hard, without knowing the student, how critical or how much input you should provide on their writing assignments. We do not have any background on the students as far as their skills, individual reading and writing levels, and ability to accept criticism. So far, I have only rcvd one assignment and I tried to limit my comments as responses to the questions I [was] asked. I am assuming that as the communication progressed, I would get a better feel for the student and his work.(35)

Other students expressed how they felt the program benefited them as future educators. Rachel Riggs stated:

I believe that this is opening up a huge tutoring possibility. Especially with class sizes as they are, telementoring allows for some one-on-one attention. It also provides experience for someone like me working towards a Masters in Elementary Education, as it gives me student interaction under the supervision of an experienced educator.(36) Renee McDowell concurred saying: " For someone like myself (not a teacher yet), this is a great first hand experience to work directly with a student."(37) Rachel Riggs suggested that the NetPals program did not have to be limited to students studying to be teachers but that it "would probably be nice for other students to be able to link up to children in their field."(38)

Riggs noted that the program was also held up due to some parental concerns:

"Mr. Lake ran into some parental concern that their students [children] would be communicating with strangers. All of our communications are traceable and it must be reinforced that, as enrolled graduate students, I would consider it highly unlikely that any mentor would be interested in jeopardizing their future career. All minor student use of computers in an educational, and at home for that matter, should be monitored."(39)

Several graduate students, including Kelly McCarthy, commented on the fact that the program requires a lot of "time and dedication on the part of the teachers involved."(40) Kimberly Anne Smith stated her conviction that the students benefited from interacting with a writing mentor because it was not a pressurized situation as it is with a teacher:

I feel that students love to get feedback on their work, not only from teachers, but a variety of sources. Also, student are able to have a mentor to help improve their work and also the mentors are not "grading" them so therefore the student feels less pressure. Overall, this program is a benefit for all students both academically and socially.(41)

Elna Gordon from Eagle Hill School and Dan Lake at Le Moyne College arranged to have BBN officially designate me as a "Facilitator," issuing me a password so I could personally review the quality of the NetPals exchange.

I observed a range of quality among the reviews submitted by the graduate students from superb to poor. The superb reviews included positive feedback with the Le Moyne students directly addressing their NetPal by name as if they were holding a conversation with the student. The constructive comments included zeroing in on specific areas the student showed a weakness in (i.e. confused pronouns, sequence, and use of quotation marks). The superior reviews all addressed the specific questions the young student asked. The better Le Moyne students gave extensive feedback, often referring to specific sentences in the child's story. They also took the time to share personal information about themselves.

A few of the poor quality reviews had several misspellings and grammatical errors. They not "model" good writing for the young student, nor did they exhibit any serious effort on behalf of the reviewer. They were done in a casual, almost flip way, that showed little interest on behalf of the Le Moyne student.

As a "Facilitator," I found the software to be a powerful tool enabling me to get an overview of the program's status (i.e. work submitted by both students and Le Moyne NetPals). It also gave me the ability to survey the quality of responses the children received. I can understand how this software could be extremely beneficial to a teacher involved in a NetPals program.

Conclusion

Through my study of these three pioneering telementoring programs, several common denominators have emerged regarding the structural and philosophical factors involved in designing an effective telementoring program. Without going into detail about the importance of developing a framework before a telementoring program is launched, I have identified several critical factors that I consider essential to the creation of a successful telementoring program:

1.) Clear goals and expectations must be outlined for all participants.

2.) Training should be conducted for all mentors and teacher facilitators.

3.) Some type of personal communication between the students and mentors should be included at the start of the telementoring program.

4.) Teachers and mentors need to work closely to ensure that the adults mentoring relationship with the student is educational and productive.

5) On-going program evaluation should be conducted focusing on how the program is benefiting the child, the teacher, and the mentor---in that order.

Focusing on the positive aspects of how telementoring can enhance the academic and emotional development of a child as a learner seems to me to be the key to structuring an effective program. I believe that framing the issue in this way permits us to focus on what Moore and Kearsley describe as one of the strongest benefits of distance education which views "the idiosyncrasies and independence of learners as a valuable rather that a distracting nuisance."(42)

In his book Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy, Power, and the Information Superhighway, Steven Miller puts forth his theory that humans only achieve their full potential through interaction with others.(43) Yet Miller acknowledges that the cyberspace has the power to connect us together through building a new type of "community," or, conversely, has the power to push us farther apart in what he calls society's "continued atomization."(44)

Miller contends that we all exist in a "web of relationships." Technology is continually spinning new "webs of relationships,"(45) thus forcing us to cope in a new and largely unfamiliar terrain. These communities are no longer based on what Miller describes as the "old neighborhood" model where like people share like experiences. Cyberspace communities and relationships represent a whole new way for humans to connect with each other.

Mobilizing the vast army of volunteers that exist in corporations, organizations and higher education institutions to help children learn through telementoring is both an exciting prospect and a daunting challenge. I concur with A.W. (Tony) Bates when he states that schools must embrace technology and not shrink from it. His prediction is on target when he says technology will "dramatically impact on all educational institutions, and change their nature."(46) Bates insists the important issue at stake is how schools will chose to take advantage of this new technology. He describes the importance of schools possessing a "clear vision of the role of new technology within an organisation, so that when a particular initiative comes along, there is a framework for project evaluation."(47)

Cyberspace is here to stay. How we choose to use cyberspace-to build or breakdown society-will be this generation's lasting legacy. It is imperative that we act wisely.

Notes:

1. Jonathan Alter, "Powell's New War," Newsweek April 1997: 29-30.
2. Steve Rothenberg, "Walker School Telementoring Program: NetPals: A Business-School Mentor Project Over the Internet [on-line]: Winter 1997: 1.
3. Steve Rothenberg 1.
4. Allan Sloan, "Can Need Trump Greed?, Newsweek April 1997: 34.
5. Martha Stone Wiske, "Interactive Distance Learning Course Syllabus," HGSE, Spring 1997: 1.
6. U S West Foundation, "U S West Employees Go Back to Class: 300,000 Students to Benefit from New Initiative," press release April 18, 1997: p. 1
7. David Neils, "1997-98 Program Goals," HP Telementoring News April 1997: 1
8. David Neils, 1997-98 HP E-Mail Mentor Program Information (on-line) April 13, 1997: 1.
9. David Neils, HP E-Mail Mentor Program Information : 2.
10. David Neils 2.
11. David Neils 3.
12. David Neils 1.
13. David Neils, "1997-98 Program Goals" HP Telementoring News April 1997: 1.
14. David Neils 2.
15. David Neils 2.
16. Research on the HP E-mail Mentor Program - School Contact Status Report - February 1997 published on-line April 13, 1997: 1-3.
17. BBN Telementoring Workshop Notes on-line, "Telementoring discussion by Scott Durkin, 25 January 1997: 1-6.
18. David Neils, Email communication with F. Robb May 6, 1997.
19. David Neils, 6 May 1997.
20. David Neils, "Program Goals and Changes for 1997-98, HP Telementoring News April 1997: 1.
21. Cicily Robbins, Telephone interview, May 5, 1997.
22. Jennifer Shea Moekle, Telephone interview, May 5, 1997.
23. Jennifer Shea Moekle, Telephone interview, May 5, 1997.
24. Matthew T. Hall, "Where Help is Only a Phone Link Away: Walker Students Start Telementoring." Concord Monitor, 14 April 1997: B1.
25. Steve Rothenberg, personal interview, 14 April 1997.
26. Jennifer Shea Moekle, telephone interview, 5 May 1997.
27. Jennifer Shea Moekle, 5 May 1997.
28. Melanie Goldman, Telementoring Discussion [on-line] BBN web site 15 January 1997.
29. Professor Dan Lake, EDU 550: Applications of Technology in Education Course Syllabus, Le Moyne College, Spring 1997: 1.
30. Professor Dan Lake Course Syllabus, p.1
31. Professor Dan Lake, Course Syllabus, p. 1
32. Professor Dan Lake 1.
33. Professor Dan Lake, telephone interview, 14 April 1997.
34. Elna Gordon, telephone interview 16 April 1997.
35. Renee A. McDowell, "My NetPals experience" email correspondence with F. Robb, April 14, 1997.
36. Rachel A. Riggs, "NetPals" email correspondence with F. Robb, April 17, 1997.
37. Renee A. McDowell, email correspondence.
38. Rachel A. Riggs, email correspondence.
39. Rachel A. Riggs, email correspondence.
40. Kelly E. McCarthy, "NetPals research" email correspondence with F. Robb, April 16, 1997.
41. Kimberley Anne Smith, "NetPals reply" email correspondence with F. Robb, April 24, 1997.
42. Michael Moore & Greg Kearsley, Distance Education: A Systems View: (New York: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1995) 204.
43. Steven E. Miller, Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy, Power, and the Information Superhighway, (New York: AMC Press) Preface v.
44. Steven E. Miller, 321.
45. Steven E. Miller, 319.
46. A.W. Bates, Technology, Open Learning and Distance Education (New York: Routledge, 1995) 54.
47. Bates, 53.

References

Alter, J. (1997, April). Powell's new war. Newsweek, pp. 28-34.

Bates, A.W. (1995). Technology, open learning and distance education. New York. Routledge.

Durkin, S. (January 1997). In what ways does telementoring change learning in your classroom? Telementoring discussion on-line BBN web site

Foster, A. (April 1997). Atlanta Braves statistics project - hp mentor Bill Wear. HP Telementoring News. pp. 1-2.

Goldman, Melanie (1997). Telementoring Discussion on-line, BBN web site:

Hall, M.T. (1997, April 14). Where help is only a phone link awary: Walker students start telementoring. Concord Monitor, pp. B1 -6.

Harasim, L., Hiltz, S.R., Teles, L., & Turoff, M. (1995). Learning networks: A field guide toteaching and learning on-line. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Lake, D. (Spring 1997). EDU 550: Applications of Technology in Education Course Syllabus, Le Moyne College, pp. 1-2.

Miller, S. E. (1996). Civilizing cyberspace: Policy, power and the information superhighway. New York: ACM Press.

Moore, M.G. & Kearsley, G. (1995). Distance educations: A systems view, California: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Neils, D. (April 1997). Program goals and changes 1997-98. HP Telementoring News (on-line) pp. 1-3.

Neils, D. (April 1997). Research on the hp e-mail mentor program - school contact status report Feb. 1997. HP Telementoring News. pp. 1-3.

Neils, D. (April 1997). 1997-98 program information. HP E-mail Mentor Program

(on-line) pp. 1-6.

Rothenberg, S. (Winter 1997). Walker school telementoring program: NetPals: A business-school mentor project over the internet. Walker School web site

(see below) pp. 1-2.

Sloan, A. (1997, April). Can need trump greed? Newsweek, pp. 34-36.

U S West Foundation (April 1997). press release pp. 1-3

Wear, B. (April 1997). Atlanta Braves statistics project - hp mentor Bill Wear. HP Telementoring News. pp. 1-2

Wiske, M.S. (Spring 1997). T-524: Interactive Distance Education Course

Syllabus, Harvard University Graduate School of Education, pp. 1-6.

Interviews

Gail Andon, Community Relations, Continental Cablevision, Boston, MA, April 1997.

Kristen Cerami, Sixth Grade Teacher, Walker School, Concord, NH, April 1997.

Elna Gordon, Eighth Grade Teacher, Eagle Hill School, Chittenango, NY, April 1997.

Dan Lake, Adjunct Professor, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY, April 1997.

Jennifer Shea Moekle, Attorney, Sulloway & Hollis, Concord, NH, April 1997.

Cicily Robbins, Program Manager, One-to-One, Washington, DC April 1997.

Steve Rothenberg, Fifth Grade Teacher, Walker School, Concord, NH, April 1997.

Curt Sokness, Superintendent, Concord Public Schools, Concord, NH, April 1997.

Students at Walker School, Concord, NH, April 1997.

Email Communications

Kelly E. McCarthy, Graduate Student, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY, April 1997.

Renee A. McDowell, Graduate Student, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY, April 1997.

David Neils, Program Manager, HP E-Mail Mentor Program, Fort Collins, CO, May 1997.

Howard Rafal, NetPals Technical Designer, BBN, Cambridge, MA, April 1997.

Rachel A. Riggs, Graduate Student, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY, April 1997.

Kimberley Anne Smith, Graduate Student, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY, April 1997.

Web Sites

http://nsn.bbn.com

http://www.mac.cnyric.org/edu55097/

http://www.concord.k12.nh.us/schools/walker/Rothenberg/netpals.html

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