Mentoring at Monash University

Yesterday at the invitation of a colleague I joined him at Monash University as he started a Masters in Education course.  As I walked from the car park I was struck by the both the number of students [I’m told there are 70,000 students and over 500 staff at Monash] and the general intent shown by the students as they made their way to class. A little lost I was picked up by one of the librarians: “Are you here as a Principal for the Masters Course?” she asked. I think the tie gave me away.   I was asked by my colleague as his mentor to attend several sessions which looked at mentoring, the use of library and IT facilities as a student and what one might choose to investigate as a research project as part of the Master Course.  I think the library and IT sessions showed me how much some things had changed: i.e. the use of electronic portals and digital online blackboards to get all the notes, references, online journal articles etc.. and how much I had forgotten about how to write papers citing in the correct ERIC terms references used.  I’m looking forward to some challenging readings and interesting discussions ahead in the next 2 years.  PS Roland Bath was tonight’s reading for the students [Learning by Heart]. I heard him speak at Harvard last year and was really interested in his work. He starts the chapters in this book with some great quotes – two of my favourites being:  “You cannot discover new oceans unless you risk losing sight of the shore” or  “We must be the change we wish to see in the world” [Gandhi]