State of New Jersey Department of Education

Online

There are at least two kinds of mentoring of new teachers that can be accomplished on line: 1) formal programs, and 2) informal. Of course, sometimes these two are mixed, but just for the sake of organization, we'll consider them separately.

Informal Teacher Mentoring. This is a quick way to get a fast answer! There are open Web sites for you to jump into and get advice on your problem. The trick with these solutions is to be sure to use a site that is accessed often and has a large amount of traffic. We have chosen a few sites. There are many more.
Teachers.Net Chatboard Network
Choose a category, just read and then join in! See also Teacher Mailring Center.
Online Mentoring, from College of Education, University of North Florida.
Send an e-mail - get an answer.
INTIME Videos

Enables educators to watch online video vignettes of PreK-12 teachers from various grades and subjects integrate technology into their classrooms using numerous teaching strategies. Select by category or grade level.
Formal Teacher Mentoring. There are several formal mentoring programs in the U.S. They are often started by universities as research programs and then they become commercial.
The Novice Teacher Support Project (NTSP - a partnership between universities and districts in Illinois). This includes an e-mentoring handbook, with guidelines. The mentoring is structured via "mentoring conversations" or "electronic conferences" and discussions. These are not open to the public. "E-mentoring allows new and experienced teachers to discuss classroom experiences, ask questions, share resources, and reflect on their practice within password-protected electronic conferences (e-conferences) on the NTSP website. The e-conferences are organized by grade level and by themes that reflect the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards. Discussions are generated by participants and are related to educational issues, both practical and conceptual. New and experienced teachers, educational consultants, and project staff may initiate discussions, post messages, and respond to others' messages within the e-conferences."
The New Teacher Academy, TC Innovations (Teachers College, Columbia University).

See the article: "TC Innovations™ and Nassau BOCES Launch ‘New Teacher Academy™."

“The New Teacher Academy provides our newly hired elementary teachers in selected districts with the resources and tools they need to create successful learning environments for their students and rewarding careers for themselves,” said Dr. Jerry W. Shiveley, District Superintendent of Nassau BOCES. “The blended model of onsite and online instruction used by TC Innovations significantly enhances our teachers’ ability to grasp and retain content and bring that knowledge to the classroom.”

Selected Articles about E-Mentoring. There are many articles. We have posted just a few.
Gigabyte Guidance from Milwaukee. The program director is program director Chris Dede [see below].

"...this past fall, Milwaukee decided to replace its face-to-face program with a portal—a private Internet site, complete with Web pages, subject-related discussion areas, and chat rooms—developed and designed by the district and by researchers at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education."

"Now 22 mentors, or facilitators, are working with 200 teachers. The job has been transformed into a part-time gig that can be done at any hour of the day, expanding the potential pool of advisers to include classroom teachers and educators on leave. The district’s costs have been reduced to laptop computers for participants and facilitator compensation, which is currently being negotiated but which may include professional-development credits and time off in lieu of cash. Officials estimate that running the online program and creating a new district Web site will cost $200,000 over three years, significantly less than salaries and expenses for its now-defunct team of full- time mentors. "

A New Century Demands New Ways of Learning. An Excerpt from The Digital Classroom by Chris Dede. This is a general article about the use of technology-based learning.
The fundamental issue is not whether new instructional tools are more efficient at accomplishing current goals with conventional methods, but instead how emerging media can provide an effective means of reaching essential educational objectives in the technology-driven, knowledge-based economy of this new century. Since computers and telecommunications increasingly enable students and teachers to have rich interactions with resources outside of classroom walls, the mission of schooling is inevitably changing, too."
"E-Mentors" Offer Online Support: Information for Novice Instructors - an article based on the experiences in the The Novice Teacher Support Project (NTSP).
"This is definitely an idea whose time has come, and something that's going to go everywhere soon," said Tom Carroll, the executive director of the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, a nonprofit group based in New York City. "School districts across the country have tremendous attrition rates of entry-level teachers. ... And providing networked professional communities is one of the most powerful ways to sustain them."