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Using wikis to support student writing mentors' reflective practice : a brief overview

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Bakhshi, Savita, Reynolds, Lynn, Harrington, Kathy and O'Neill, Peter (2010) Using wikis to support student writing mentors' reflective practice : a brief overview. Investigations in university teaching and learning, 6 (2). pp. 178-181. ISSN 1740-5106

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Abstract

Over the past four years, student writing mentors at the London Metropolitan University Writing Centre have provided over 3,000 hours of one-to-one academic writing support to their fellow undergraduate and postgraduate students (Harrington et al., 2007). For the past three years (2007-2010), wikis have been used to support the training and development of student writing mentors. In particular, they have been used to facilitate mentors’ reflective practice, including the benefits and challenges of working with fellow students for improving writing. When we first began using wikis, it was hoped that this virtual space would enable mentors with different working hours in the Centre to continue to reflect on their professional practice as mentors following the initial three-day intensive training programme. We have discovered that the mentors have gone beyond this to build a virtual community based on encouragement and respect for their fellow mentors and which has aided their own writing and learning development. This short article reports on the key aspects of our experience of using wikis to support mentors’ ongoing development.

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