Digging Deeper using ThingLink

If you've spent time on this blog you'll see I use visualizations frequently to communicate strategies. A few years ago I created a few articles, using ThingLink to help people dig deeper into the visualization.

Below is an article from 2017.  I had created this blog post, pointing to a 2017 report, by the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at UIC that focuses on the State of Racial Justice in Chicago . Then in a follow-up article, I used the same image, and embedded links,  using Thinglink.

I learned about this from my #clmooc educator network.



Click on any of the nodes and you'll find an article related to that part of the graphic. Read the article and more like it.  Share with people in your own network so more people will get involved and we can increase public will and the number who care. 

Below are two more graphics I shared  using ThingLink.

Service Learning Loop:   In the early 2000s I created a pdf that shows how volunteers who get involved in a tutor/mentor program often become evangelists who draw other volunteers and donors to support the program. In 2007 an intern created an animation to illustrate what I call a "service learning loop".  Below is a screen shot of his animation, using a Thinglink to point out different parts of the loop. Click on the dots and read the information provided.



All five parts of this loop are important. The weakest links are 1) support for knowledge aggregators who collect and share information others can use to get involved, and 2) not enough intermediaries who use their time, talent and communications ability to draw attention to the knowledge (right side) on a regular basis, so that more people use it to find where and how they can help (left side).

Below is another graphic showing my role as an intermediary, connecting people who can help (the list on the left) with information (the blue box) and people and organizations in places where help is needed (the tutor/mentor organizations I  point to from the web library I host. .



I've used versions of this graphic in numerous articles and presentations.  It's critical that more people understand the on-going role of intermediaries as well as the role of information libraries.  See more graphics showing role of intermediaries at https://www.pinterest.com/tutormentor/role-of-intermediaries/ 

I've used this and similar graphics to emphasize the many years it takes for kids to grow up.  There are no quick fixes.   

While many are needed in this intermediary role, investors need to also fund the work done by groups who collect and organize information. This needs to be done on a regular basis, and for many years.  I wrote an article a while back showing some of the challenges involved.

I hope those who read this article will see themselves in this intermediary role and will share the article with others using social media and personal communications channels.  That's putting this lesson into action.  In fact, I encourage you to rewrite it, with your own interpretation, pointing to your city, and youth serving organizations operating in your city.  

If you value these articles please consider a small contribution to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.  Click here to find a PayPal link you can use. 

Navigating Information in the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC Library

Over the 24 years I've led the Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present) and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC (2011-present) I've had many people say "I did not realize there was so much information here." or "Wow, that's a lot of information."

That's not necessarily a complement. In a world where people want solutions in one page papers few are willing to do the deeper learning needed to develop broad strategies to complex problems that affect people in many places throughout the US and the world.

I've persisted and I keep looking for ways to help people navigate the information I've been collecting. In the late 2000s I created a learning path concept map, intended for new staff working with me in Chicago. I've shared it as a guild others can also use.  Today I highlighted some sections using Thinglink.



Click on the dots and learn more about what's included in each section of the map.

In 2015 Wona Chang, and intern from South Korea, spent time looking at the same concept map. She then created a visualization using Prezi (no longer available) and following that, put the visualization on YouTube. You can see that below:



This information can be used as curriculum for high school or college level leadership training and can also be used to guild businesses and organizations as they look for solutions to poverty, inequality and other complex problems.

Furthermore, students in middle school, high school and/or college could be looking at my strategy articles, the same way interns have done in the past, and then creating their own interpretations.  Not only will they learn the ideas and strategies that they study, but they will also learn new ways to communicate ideas.  These are valuable skills.

I'd be happy to walk you through this information, in person if you're in Chicago, or via Skype if you are located elsewhere.

Apply Service Learning LOOP to Disaster Recovery

In the aftermath of hurricane Harvey and in anticipation of hurricanes Irma and Jose many are creating information platforms that use maps to show where the storms are hitting and resources that people can use to survive and recover. These also point to organizations who are providing service and who need donations and volunteers to do their work.  I point to some resources in this section of the Tutor/Mentor web library.

In the early 2000s I created a pdf that shows how volunteers who get involved in a tutor/mentor program often become evangelists who draw other volunteers and donors to support the program. In 2007 an intern created an animation to illustrate what I call a "service learning loop".  Today I created a Thinglink to point out different parts of the loop. Click on the dots and read the information provided.



All five parts of this loop are important. The weakest links are 1) support for knowledge aggregators who collect and share information others can use to get involved, and 2) not enough intermediaries who use their time, talent and communications ability to draw attention to the knowledge (right side) on a regular basis, so that more people use it to find where and how they can help (left side).

Below is another version of this graphic.



I've used versions of this graphic in numerous articles and presentations.  It's critical that more people understand the on-going role of intermediaries as well as the role of information libraries.  See more graphics showing role of intermediaries at https://www.pinterest.com/tutormentor/role-of-intermediaries/ 

I've used this and similar graphics to emphasize the many years it takes for kids to grow up.  There are no quick fixes.  The same is true for disaster recovery.

While many are needed in this intermediary role, investors need to also fund the work done by groups who collect and organize information. This needs to be done on a regular basis, and for many years.  I wrote an article a while back showing some of the challenges involved.

I hope those who read this article will see themselves in this intermediary role and will share the article with others using social media and personal communications channels.  That's putting this lesson into action.

Volunteer Involvement in Tutor/Mentor Programs - A Growth Strategy

I created this graphic in the 1990s to illustrate how volunteers who become deeply involved in volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs often become evangelists who reach into their personal, family, business and faith networks to get more people involved.  I've suggested that if this were a strategy at  more programs it could lead to greater on-going support for all tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and other cities.

Last week I posted a blog with a volunteer-growth strategy map. See it here.  

I have been inspired to use Thinglink and similar tools by educators I've met over the past five years who are part of a Connected Learning #clmooc.    Below is a version of the featured graphic from last week's blog article, using Thinglink to focus on the four elements of the graphic.



Visit this page and follow the links to where #clmooc members meet on various social media platforms.  Leaders, volunteers and students in tutor, mentor and learning programs could be following this group the same way I do and could be creating their own visualizations to show the strategies of their own programs.

At some point in the future you should see a version of this on a growing number of Chicago and national tutor/mentor program web sites if enough people share this article with people involved in these programs.

Try it.  Then share what you've created.

Connecting Global Sustainability Development Goals to Local Problems

I created this graphic in an effort to show how the United Nations' Global Sustainability Goals (SDGs) are also local challenges.   If you open the SDG web site you can click on each of the 17 boxes and find information related to that goal.

I think that many of the issues we face in Chicago and America are the same, but that some may be on a different scale. For instance the income level of really poor people in Chicago may still be quite a bit higher than really poor people in India and Africa.  However, the gaps between rich and poor in other countries may not be as wide as it is in America. All of this deserves greater study, so I point you to the research section of the web library I've been building since the late 1990s.

I've been using Thinglink (free version) to highlight sections of complex visualizations. So invite you to look at this.



I've put nodes on my Race-Poverty map to the SDG Goals that have a direct correlation.  On the left, with a black dot, I list goals that are not directly related to poverty, but affect the well-being of all of us who share this planet.

There is a world-wide effort to bring the SDG's into classroom study. At the right is a learning path infographic from this site.

I encourage classrooms to look at my Race-Poverty map, and other concept maps and visualizations.  Think of ways students and adults can use their time, talent and dollars to help overcome these problems in different places throughout America and the world, over many years of consistent attention.

11-14-2017 update - Here's a pdf showing 17 SDGs, in comic book format.

6-9-2018 update - "How the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals undermine democracy". The writer of this article claims that "basic freedoms that underpin and advance human development are missing from the SDG equation.' Read the article.

3-12-2019 update - Canadian Index of Child and Youth Well-Being - this report ties into the SDGs and is model that might be used elsewhere. click here

2-27-2020 update - Catalytic Communities is committed to the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Rio de Janeiro’s favela communities -

The text next to the tree says "Sustainable communities and cities are impossible to achieve without social justice and accountable institutions. If CatComm were a tree, SDG 16 would be our trunk and SDG 11 our canopy."  Read more

9-15-2021 update - Global SDGs action map shows who's involved in each goal, in every country.  click here

Get to know resources in Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC library

I started reaching our to peers and others in 1973 when I became a volunteer tutor with a program at the Montgomery Ward headquarters in Chicago. When I became the volunteer leader of that program I expanded my search for ideas since I had no previous experience leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program serving k-6 elementary school kids in Chicago's Cabrini-Green neighborhood.

When we formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993, with a goal of  helping tutor/mentor programs grow in all poverty neighborhoods of Chicago, our first task was to find out who was already doing this work, and to expand our library of research showing where and why they were needed, and ways leaders could build and sustain strong programs in more places.

Over 40 years I've collected quite a bit of information.  Below is a concept map that I use to show the 4-sections of the library. I put it into a Thinglink so I could point to each section and tell why I think the information is important.  Take a look.



You could spend a lifetime digging through this information and still not find all that the library includes. One reason is that while I point to more than 2000 other organizations, they each point to more organizations from their sites, and they each are constantly adding new information.

Thus, think of this as a huge department store or a college library. Get to know the sections and what's included. Then dip into it on an on-going basis to build a deeper understanding of different topics and to see how resources from one section relate to resources in another.  Or just search for terms or topics and see if they are there.

As you look at this, take a look at this 4-part strategy map, described in this article.  The information in the web library is Part 1 of this four part strategy.  Drawing more users to the library and helping them understand and apply the information to help build and sustain systems of support for kids living in high poverty areas are the other three steps.

I've been building this over 40 years and now am looking for partners to help me keep it going and draw more users to it, but also to carry this forward in future years.  I created this Wiki page to show that "One of the greatest resource we offer is the library of links and ideas we host."

If you're interested in helping, connect with me on one of these social media pages or post a comment below.

Mentoring Kids Through School and Into Adult Lives

This montage shows youth and adults from a tutor/mentor program I launched in January 1992 and led through mid 2011. Some of those kids were in 7th grade when they joined us, and had been part of the 2nd to 6th grade program I led from 1975-1992 before joining us. Many now are out of college, in jobs and raising their own kids and some of us are connected on social media. Many of the volunteers stayed with the program 3 to 10 years with one serving more than 20. One of those alumni posted this message on Facebook today:

"those times spent at tutoring made me the woman I am today"

So when I talk about "mentoring kids through school and into adult lives" I'm talking about the commitment a few people make to helping kids from the time they join a program until they are out of school and in adult lives.

In leading a single program I was constantly looking for ideas, thinking "what are all the things I need to know and do?"  Those things extended to running an effective organization and raising needed funds every year, not just recruiting kids and volunteers and providing a safe space for them to meet.

As we created the single tutor/mentor program in 1993 we also responded to a larger need. No one had a master data base of non-school tutor/mentor programs serving Chicago, thus, no one was leading a business-type marketing campaign intended to help every program in the city get the resources and ideas each program needs to constantly improve what they do while staying connected to kids and volunteers.

Furthermore, no one was mapping this information to identify neighborhoods with no programs, or without programs serving specific age groups.  Thus, we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection to fill this void. We launched a first Chicago programs survey in January 1994 and started producing maps showing locations of programs at the same time.

As we built a database of programs, we also began to expand the library of research and ideas that I had started collecting in 1975 when I first started leading a tutor/mentor program in Chicago.  That library went on the internet in 1998 and has constantly expanded since then.

It contains answers to "what are all the things we need to know and do" and it's free and available to people from anywhere in the world.

I've been sharing what the Tutor/Mentor Connection is and what it offers, in many ways, for many years, in an effort to recruit leaders, partners and a few benefactors to support this work in Chicago and grow it in other cities.  In 2011 I created a space on Debategraph for this message.  Last week I used Thinglink to highlight the information on the Debategraph site.



Take a look.  Click on each circle and a pop-up opens with information related to that spoke of the wheel, with a link directly to that page on the Debategraph site.

I learned about Thinglink from educators I've met over the past five years on Twitter, Google-Plus and Facebook, who are part of a Connected Learning #clmooc community.  The type of on-going interaction and idea sharing that this group models is something I've tried to create for the non-school community, including donors, researchers, policy makers, volunteers and students.

It's one of many mountains I've tried to climb over the past 24 years with too few resources and too little help.  However, by sharing this information, I hope it inspires others to try to build a support system like the T/MC in their own community.  

Since mid 2011 I've continued to support the T/MC through the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.  It's the same mission, just a different tax structure. Still has the same lack of resources to do all that needs to be done.  Click here if you'd like to offer some help.

Sharing ideas using Thinglink

Last week I created this blog post, pointing to a new report, by the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at UIC that focuses on the State of Racial Justice in Chicago . Below is the same image, with embedded links,  using Thinglink. I learned about this from my #clmooc educator network.



Click on any of the nodes and you'll find an article related to that graphic. Read the article and more like it.  Share with people in your own network so more people will get involved and we can increase public will and the number who care.

Building Greater Involvement in Problem Solving Strategies

In past articles I've shown some of my interactions with the Connected Learning MOOC (#clmooc), which is an online network of educators from the US and the world. I've done so with the goal of creating a similar on-line community of people who are working to reduce poverty and inequality in Chicago and other cities, through strategies that help kids move through school and into jobs and careers.  

Part of the CLMOOC process involves people from different places creating on-line projects (makes), which then are re-mixed or embedded in blogs and/or social media, so that more people engage with the ideas and each other.  Through this process there is a constant introduction of new places and tools where this work can be done.  

The graphic above was introduced in a blog by Algot Runeman, then remixed by KevinHodgson. I then added my own ideas and re-shared via social media. 

Over the past few days Kevin introduced a new  annotation platform called NowComment, a free site, and posted the graphic here.  

Terry Elliott then used his blog to provide some more encouragement to visit and use the NowComment site.

So I did.  You can see this map here and below.

During the Connected Learning MOOC, participants have been encouraged to "make" and share things. Since most participants are educators, much of the sharing and making tests new ways to engage students in their own learning.  A MAKE BANK has been created where participants have shared some of their work. I've added some of my graphics. 

If you compare my graphics to many of the others, you'll see that I'm trying to engage people in thinking about strategies that would make more powerful learning opportunities available to youth in high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities.  Furthermore, I'm trying to influence people who look at the graphics and presentations I create, so more will adopt the ideas and apply them through their own efforts, in Chicago or in the communities where they live.

For that to happen, they need to build a deeper understanding of what I'm talking about. Using annotation tools like NowComment is one path toward that greater understanging.  In this particular map I'm showing four steps that are involved in problem solving, that could be duplicated in many places and that require involvement of many people.

I've created maps that show other organizations in Chicago who focus on the well being of young people and on issues such as poverty, inequality, youth and workforce development. This is one. This is another.

I'd like to see strategy maps on every web site that I point to with these maps. I'd like to see their own efforts to draw people together on-line, perhaps learning from the sites I point to.

By sharing these graphics and pointing to these sites, that's what I hope to influence.

I hope you'll take a look. Add your own comment. Make your own version. Share it. Connect with me on other spaces. Help me do this work.

Digging Deeper. Connected Learning Ideas

I'm constantly humbled by the creativity of some of the people I've met during the Connected Learning MOOC that I've followed each year since 2013. Below is a graphic shared today by Kevin Hodgson, a middle school teacher from Western Massachusetts. You can see it here.



Kevin and others who I've met during the #clmooc have frequently added new understanding to graphics I've posted, and so I hope they will do so again with the visualizations posted below.

Mentoring Kids to Careers - see map

Race - Poverty - see map

Learning Path/Information Flow - see  map 

Strategy map - see map

These are just a few of the concept maps you can find at this link.  If you view visualizations on this page you can see how interns from South Korea, and other places have looked at my visualizations and created their own interpretations.

For instance, this animation shows a different interpretation of the strategy map above.  This was created in 2009 while the Tutor/Mentor Connection was still part of the Cabrini Connections program, so needs to be updated.  It was also done in Flash animation, which is no longer supported. The link I point to is a video which I created to share the animation.  I invite one (or more) of my readers to create a newer version of this using technologies now replacing Flash animation.

If educators participating in on-line events like the Connected Learning cMOOC begin to do this on a regular basis, more people will begin to understand and apply the ideas, while also adding improvements based on their own experiences, where they live, and who they teach.

Maybe more people will begin to create their own strategy maps,  showing their solutions to other important issues, not just poverty, social justice, education and inequality.

While millions of dollars are being spent to elect new leaders for public offices in the US, creating the world we want really remains the work and responsibility of every one of  us.  I've never expected much help from political leaders, and don't expect much in the next four years.

As Merri Dee of WGN TV fame said to me 25 years ago, "If it is to be it is up to you and me."

Update 11-20-2017 - Kevin Hodgson's use of Thinglink inspired me to create several Thinglinks, which you can see here.