Tapping Potential of Interactive Technology

Digital Promise - challenges

I saw this Digital Promises Priority Challenges graphic on my Twitter feed today and took the time to visit the site and look at the graphic, clicking on different sort features, such as rural, urban, suburban, etc. as I did.

There is a load of information here, that can support the education research and involvement of people throughout the country.  I encourage you to take a look.

I pointed to the Digital Promise web library in this 2016 article.  In that article I wrote "What frustrates me is that I've not been able to find the talent and dollars to do as good a job showing the information in the Tutor/Mentor web library that I started building even before going on the Internet in 1998."

At the right is the graphic that was used on the home page of the first Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) web site in 1998. The goal was that this would be interactive, meaning you could click on any of the spokes and that would become the center of a new wheel, where the spokes pointed to sub sections of information available on the web site.

web library - open map

In 2005 I began using concept maps to show information in the Tutor/Mentor Connection library, and to show strategy ideas. This is interactive, meaning you can click on the buttons at the bottom of each node and go to external web sites or to other concept maps.

In 2009 two of our interns from South Korea, via IIT in Chicago, created a flash animation showing information in the T/MC library which you can now view in this YouTube Video.

Visit this page and you can see other animations created by interns.

The core component of the T/MC library has been the directory of non-school, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs operating in the Chicago region, which we started collecting in 1994. We've plotted this information on maps and began to share it via an interactive search portal in 2004.

Then, in 2008, we built a new Chicago Program Locator, starting with a map of the Chicago region, which anyone could use to learn where existing programs were located and where more were needed. They could also use this to identify assets, such as businesses, colleges, hospitals and faith groups, who could help programs in different areas grow.

In 2008 a graduate student from the University of Michigan created this animated introduction to the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, during a one week volunteer service term.  I'm not certain how long this will still be view-able since Flash animation is no longer supported on many browsers. 

The financial sector crash that started in 2008 had a huge negative impact on my continued development of these resources. This ultimately led in 2011 to the separation of the Tutor/Mentor Connection from the nonprofit where it was created and my creation of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to continue its operation.

While I've been able to keep the Program Locator on-line, and have continued to maintain the web library and list of Chicago area youth tutor/mentor programs, I've not had funds to support a team of people working with me to continue to develop these capacities.

Thus, I look on the work of groups like Digital Promise, with envy...and inspiration.

Below is one of many graphics I've created to communicate the vision and strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Connection & Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

I model a role for intermediaries & leaders from every sector.

In this graphic I point to information collection and sharing strategies, as well as effort to motivate leaders to adopt these strategies, with year-round actions that draw needed resources to every youth tutor/mentor program within a geographic region, such as Chicago.  Someone could help me communicate the message of this graphic,  using video, animation or other web tools.

Goal - kids to careers

Just to remind readers, the goal is to help kids move through school and into adult lives. That's what the graphic at the right visualizes.

Thus far, I find few organizations or leaders who incorporate all components of these graphics into their leadership. Thus, there are too few comprehensive services in all the places where they are most needed.  The problems continue from generation to generation.

Any of the graphics and blog articles I've created could be converted to an animation and/or video to communicate the ideas to other people.  In the video below one intern from South Korea created a video that shows work done by earlier interns.



Imagine a future page on a college or high school web site where students and alumni are creating videos like this showing work other students were doing to help make sense of all the information available on my web sites, or on web sites like Digital Promise. 

Youth from any school
could be doing this work.

As I move through the holiday season and into 2020 my wish is that someone from a high school and/or university will read the articles I've written about roles of universities and then reach out to create a long-term partnership with the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. 

Until that happens I still need your help.

I've put my 73rd birthday campaign on this page.

My "fund T/MI" campaign is on this page.

Through these I hope to find money to continue to share these ideas and keep T/MC resources available on line.

However, my lottery wish is that one of the billionaires supporting change in the world will provide the money to create a Tutor/Mentor Institute on one or more college campuses, based on the ideas and resources I've been sharing. 

Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Linked in.  Visit this page to find links.

Thank you for reading. Enjoy a safe and happy holiday period.