Kenneth W. Mentor, J.D., Ph.D.

"Brag Like Your Mother Would. You need to tell your own story. Tell how wonderful and significant your work is. If you don’t say it, no one will hear it, so don’t be afraid to brag. This is not the time to be humble or shy."

This advice is offered by Sherril Gelmon and Susan Agre-Kippenhan in "Promotion, Tenure, and the Engaged Scholar: Keeping the Scholarship of Engagement in the Review Process," (January 2002 AAHE Bulletin).

Following this advice, I have created this site as an online portfolio that organizes much of my scholarly work in one place. Let me say right up front that this is a bit of a leap for me. The idea of registering my own name as a domain seemed less than modest, and I am still not totally comfortable with the idea, but I understand the benefits of this approach.

Essays, working papers, web sites, course outlines, shared learning objects, and other web-based scholarship are included in this site. A tendency to "think out of the box" leads me to question the value of limiting access to knowledge by claiming it as "intellectual property." Unless otherwise restricted, everything published at kenmentor.com and each of my other sites is available under the limitations of the Creative Commons license.

As scholars, we all gain by sharing new ideas and approaches. This does not happen when scholarship is hidden. Unfortunately, we often restrict access to web-based scholarship. We keep these materials private in the hope of finding a traditional publishing outlet. Ironically, even then our work remains hidden from the majority who do not have access to academic journals. Our reliance on an outdated model of scholarship, which is forced on educators through an equally outdated tenure process, prevents us from fully realizing the potential of the Internet as a place for research, teaching, service, and other forms of scholarship.

As an academic, peer review is very important. I welcome your comments. In fact, I need your comments if I am to continue this process of intellectual growth. Feel free to adopt and modify my course materials. All I ask is that you let me know that these materials have value to you, as an academic peer. Please let me know when you see ways to improve my work. Ideally, educators will adopt content on this and my other sites, make improvements, and return the improved materials to the public domain.

Thank you for visiting this site. I hope the content is stimulating, educational, and of value to you and your students.