he potential of the internet for tutoring and mentoring is thus far under-exploited. Few teachers are even willing to give out their e-mail address for worry of it being abused by pupils.

In the four years that I have been using my web pages with pupils I have had two instances of such abuse, both of which were easily traced and dealt with. The vast majority of pupils use my Ask a Teacher facilities maturely and sensibly particularly those who would normally be less inclined to communicate freely with their teachers.

More recently I have been experimenting with weblogs and forums as sources of online discussion, debate and tutoring, and most recently as means of mentoring students to set meaningful targets and move on.
 
Discussion boards managed effectively by a confident teacher provide tremendous opportunities for students to debate and discuss in a safe environment, greatly enhance home-school links and "off site" learning, and can be effectively deployed as a tool for tutoring and mentoring pupils online, giving the teacher considerable time savings.