Remote In-home Mentoring
Using the Internet for conferencing has a mystique which we feel is beneficial to the project. It also allows interaction between the student and the mentor in the privacy of their home. One of the goals of the project is to evaluate this approach to home mentoring.

Internet conferencing can be accomplished in several ways, text (chat room, instant messaging), audio, and video. A cost-effective way to obtain an Internet connection not requiring a computer is MSN TV. All that is needed in the home is telephone service and a television set. The MSN TV device contains a built-in modem and browser to view web sites. Access to dial-up service is provided by Microsoft for a monthly fee. We are providing each student with a MSN TV receiver and a 13 inch TV set.

The service includes a personal home page, email, instant messaging, and chat. The main account for the service is used to set up a sub-account for the student's use which provides access to e-mail and instant messaging. The main account is password-protected to prevent the student from changing the settings. We recognize that access to the Internet has some opportunities for mischief. The MSN TV access can ameliorate this to some extent by content filtering of web pages.

Text conferencing lends itself to this project due to its simplicity and low band-width requirements. Our initial approach was to utilize the experience of Resolution Forum, Inc. in on-line mediation, to build a customized chat room which was optimized for simplicity. This has the disadvantage of difficult setup and maintenance requiring a high degree of expertise. We are no longer using this approach.

Instant messaging has advantages of simplicity, notification when 'Buddies' are on-line, and minimal set-up. Communications is via text as in a chat room. The MSN-TV has Microsoft Messenger built in, and Messenger is available for a PC free of charge. We implemented the use of this technology in the Spring semester of 2003.