University Teachers and Technology Mentoring — Why, How and for Whom?

Abstract

Modern teaching methods, including the need to use information technology in teaching, are receiving increasingly more attention in higher education pedagogy. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the technology mentoring programme that was launched in the University of Tartu and to categorise the reasons why 15 university teachers who specialise in the field of education decided to take part in the technology mentoring programme, describe their expectations of the programme and describe their current teaching practices with regard to employing ICT at the start of the mentoring programme. Results indicate that the main reason for joining the programme was the teachers' wish to make learning more interesting for both themselves and their students. By joining the programme, university teachers hoped to gain more knowledge of various ways to use technology in teaching, thereby supporting students in their learning efforts. The opportunity to have systematic discussions about teaching-related topics with other participants of the technology mentoring programme was also considered an asset. At the start of the programme, the university teachers described their own experience of using ICT mainly in connection with information retrieval, content creation and communication.