Into the new year

America lost a hero this week with the death of former president Jimmy Carter. 

I heard President Carter speak in June 2008 when I attended the National Conference on Volunteerism and Service in Atlanta.  His purpose, and the purpose of The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation (JRCPF), was (and still is) to encourage the growth of campus-community partnerships and student-led community service learning.  

I wrote two blog articles in 2008 in the weeks after hearing Jimmy Carter and I've mixed them together in the message I'm sharing today.

President Carter talked about the gaps between rich and poor, and then demonstrated what he is doing to close this gap by providing awards to three university-community engagement projects.  

He said "the greatest challenge we face is the gap between rich and poor." And, "We have the best institutions of higher education in the world, yet many are surrounded by slums."

I created the graphic below as I attended workshops focused on business and university engagement. It includes a map of the Chicago region, showing areas where poverty is concentrated and were youth, families and schools need more help.

In 2008 I'd already spent 14 years trying to reverse the traditional two-way process of how nonprofits obtain resources from people who already have a self interest in wanting these nonprofits to be successful in their missions. We'll never have great social benefit programs in a majority of the places where they are needed based on the current system of competitive allocation.

Yet, if we can engage the talent of volunteers and leaders to serve in intermediary roles, we can do more to connect people who can help with places where help is needed.

I put these and similar charts on the T/MC web site with a goal that they are used by groups of people in universities, churches, businesses, etc. who want to become more strategic, and more engaged, in the ways they use their talent, time and resources to help end poverty in Chicago, and other cities around the world.    

I wrote a second article after hearing President Jimmy Carter say "We have some of the best institutions of higher education in the world. Yet many of them are surrounded by slums."

I included this map showing locations of colleges and universities in the Chicago region,  with overlays showing where poverty was most concentrated and where poorly performing schools (based on 2007 Illinois State Board of Education) were located.

Its aim is to help students, faculty and alumni from each university create tutor/mentor support groups that adopt the mission and strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (led by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011) in their own efforts to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in the areas around the college or university.

Thus, if you're at Northwestern, or Loyola, you could have a great impact on the growth of programs in the North part of Chicago and in Evanston. While if you're at the University of Chicago, you could have an impact in helping tutor/mentor programs grow throughout the South Side where our maps show so much poverty and too few tutor/mentor programs.

If you're at Dominican University in Oak Park, you could be supporting programs in Austin and on the West side of Chicago. If you're at the University of Illinois at Chicago, you could also be supporting the entire West side. And, if you're a downtown campus, with students and alumni living in all parts of the region, you could use these maps, to develop engagement strategies throughout the region, using the expressways as routes to connect with programs in different neighborhoods.

You could have a page on your website showing how your students were collecting and sharing information about what tutor/mentor programs in your part of the city were doing, and what universities in other parts of Chicago, and in other cities, were doing to help youth in high poverty areas of their cities. You could even be hosting conferences and online forums to share this information. View this intern blog to see examples of what's possible. 

As you look at these maps, use the Zip Code Map and Chicago Programs Links, to find contact information for organizations that provide various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring. You can narrow your search by type of program and age group served by using the Program Locator database (which was built in 2004, but is now only available as an archive).

You'll find that some programs are very well organized. Some are small, and may not be so well organized. Some places just offer homework help. Some offer a rich learning environment and connect youth to a wide network of adults and opportunities.

However, the goal is not to pick and choose between different levels of program quality. It's to help develop great volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring and extended learning programs in every zip code with high poverty. That may mean helping a small program grow. It also means helping the best programs continue to sustain their work.

It means we need to build a distribution of manpower, talent, operating dollars and technology into every poverty neighborhood, not just a few with high profile leaders.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection was created in 1993 and has been led by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011. It's aim is to share information so that teams in universities begin to develop their own ideal of what mix of services and what type of program structure is best, and that they begin to take on a responsibility for helping such programs grow in the area around the university, with a goal that elementary school kids they work with today can be college freshmen in 6 to 12 years, and college alumni who support the university, and its neighborhood tutor/mentor programs, 15 to 20 years from now.

Read this "Tipping  Point" article to see a description of this vision. click here

The result of such leadership can be that instead of wealthy alumni donating $20 million for research at an area university, these same alumni might begin to divide that money into annual grants of $40,000 to $80,000 that would provide operating support to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in the area around the university, using the web site of the organization, and the recommendations of the university, to determine which groups to support. It also means that thousands other donors will contribute their own time, talent and dollars to support the on-going efforts of programs in different parts of the city and suburbs.

That was a long term vision when I wrote this in 2008. It's still just a vision.

It requires many leaders in many organizations and communities. This is why I think some of this leadership should be anchored in universities who have long term commitments to their neighborhoods and the city of Chicago. Through these universities we can engage other teams of volunteers, from hospitals, businesses, civic and social organizations. (I'll write about the role of hospitals, faith groups and businesses in a different article.)

This is not something you can wait for the other college or university to take ownership of. It's a form of leadership and engagement that a student, alumni, professor or administrator can launch from their own blog or web site.

We even created a template of a strategic plan that you might use to start your thinking. We've created a Business School Connection to show how students from the business schools of our major universities could use the skills they are learning to mobilize volunteers and donors for area tutor/mentor programs.

Since 2008 I've created other visual essays to encourage universities to create on-campus Tutor/Mentor Connection strategies.  See them in these articles.

As you read the paper this week about another shooting in Chicago, or about some leader promising new hope for America, I hope you'll look in the mirror and say, "Solutions to America's problems start with me."  That's what Jimmy Carter did. 

Thank you for reading and sharing my blog articles.  I hope you'll connect with me on social media (see links here) and help build an on-line community of people who discuss and share these ideas. 

And thank you to those who made 2024 contributions to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.  If you did not contribute this year, please make a donation in the coming months.  Visit this page for details. 

When will this end?

I watched a movie titled "The Six Triple Eight" this week on Netflix. It's a war drama film directed by Tyler Perry, focusing on the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all-Black and all-female unit to serve overseas during World War II. They were given six months to fix the three-year backlog of undelivered mail in Europe and faced with massive discrimination, they managed to sort more than 17 million pieces of mail and get it delivered to troops. See more here. 

It's a powerful movie and several scenes brought tears to my eyes.  It also reminded me of how the discrimination these women faced did not end with their success in delivering the mail. It continued when they returned to the United States, from the late 1940s till now, entering 2025.

For the past 23 years I've been building a library of articles related to race, poverty, segregation and inequality in America.  

Browse this section and one of the first articles is this one from The Atlantic, asking "How Did We Get Here?" and sharing "163  years of The Atlantic's writing on race and racism in America."   This is one of more than 100 websites I point to in just this one section of the Tutor/Mentor library.

Another section focuses on Black History and also has dozens of links. Scroll to the bottom and you'll find the Zinn Education Project, with teaching materials that educators, parents and youth program leaders can use to expand our collective understanding of this tragic, continuing, history. 

I majored in history at Illinois Wesleyan from 1964 to 1968.  It wasn't until my senior year when I did my senior thesis on the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which consisted of all African-American enlisted men commanded by white officers, that I was officially exposed to this history. And, it wasn't until I started volunteering with a tutor/mentor program in Chicago, serving elementary school kids from the Cabrini Green neighborhood, that I began to take a personal interest, that has grown over 50 years.

Another section of my library focuses on poverty and crime mapping.  One of the sites is the American Inequality site hosted by Jeremy Ney, with data maps and articles like the one shown below. 

You can also find many links in articles on the Mapping for Justice blog. For instance scroll these articles and you'll see how I've shared the American Inequality site. 

The maps are important. This Pew Research Center article provides facts about the U.S. Black population, which was an estimated 47.9 million in 2022.   Scroll down on this page to look at data about educational attainment and household income.  "Among Black U.S. households in 2022, 27% earned less than $25,000, 23% earned less than $50,000, while 51% made $50,000 or more. A third of Black households (34%) earned $75,000 or more, including 22% that made $100,000 or more."

The maps I share focus on that 27% who earn less than $25,000, and who are living in highly segregated, persistently poor areas of big cities and rural areas.  These are places where organized, on-going, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs can expand the networks of opportunity for kids living in highly segregated poverty.

However, the color of your skin and racism affects people of all income levels.  Maps can help target resources and programs to areas of high poverty. They can also show incidents of police violence, traffic stops, drug arrests and other systemic practices that affect people of color more than others.  We need to understand and address both issues. 

Many of the sites I point to are libraries themselves, with links to hundreds of additional books, articles, movies, etc.  There's a lot to learn. Maybe too much to learn.  

Yet, without making the effort the racism and inequality that persists in America will continue. Will you add this to your 2025 commitments?

Thanks for reading my articles this year. I hope you're sharing them.

I can be reached on Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.  See links on this page.

I depend on a small group of donors to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and that enables me to keep the library on line and to keep writing articles like this.  If you can help, please visit this page.

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all enjoy a safe, happy, healthy and hope-filled holiday, in whatever way you choose to celebrate.  

If you have time please browse through articles on this blog and think of ways we can all do a better job of reaching youth and families in areas of concentrated poverty with on-going support that helps kids through school and into adult lives, free of poverty, and with a wide network of support formed through the connections they made while part of organized, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs.

Thank you for reading and sharing.  

Long Term Connections

Yesterday I turned 78 and received nearly 100 "Happy Birthday" greetings on Facebook.  Many were from former students. 

One said, "Happy Birthday Dan! thanks for everything that you have done for us."

Another said, "Happiest of Birthdays to such an amazing person! Someone who shaped me into who I am today! Happy Birthday Dan!!"

A few also showed their support with contributions to my Birthday Campaign.  I appreciate them all.  It's why I keep doing this work.

Look at the history

Over the past few days I've been sharing posts I made in late December of 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Below I've reposted my 2008 article.  Read the "Once in Cabrini Connections, always in Cabrini Connections" message.

---- start 2008 -----

Yesterday when I came to the office I received an email telling me about a funeral being held that morning for the 2-year old daughter of a former Cabrini Connections student. The message came from the volunteer who began mentoring that youth in the mid 1990s and who continues to this day --- more than 15 years later -- to still be a mentor in the life of this youth and his family.

I went to the funeral. It was tragic. The minister said "nothing I say can make sense of this tragic death" but "God has a purpose and maybe this death brings us together and changes our own life direction".

While he was addressing the family and friends of this young man and his wife, he did not realize he was also addressing the Cabrini Connections family. I had not talked to this volunteer in more than a year, or to this young man in about the same length of time. At the funeral I saw, and talked with, others who had been part of Cabrini Connections, or the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini Green Tutoring Program prior to 1992. I'd not seen many of these young people for many years, but have been making an effort to reconnect via Facebook and our Linked in pages.

Maybe this tragedy will be the catalyst that gets more of our former students and volunteers reconnected to our current students and volunteers and each other.

Mentoring is not about reading, writing, test scores, and teacher-directed tutoring. It's about relationships that form because a program like Cabrini Connections is available in the neighborhood, and creates an introduction during one year, that we hope lasts for a life time. Well organized tutor/mentor programs support the match between youth and adult, with the goal that they last for additional years so the bond between young people and volunteers, and the organization, grows and remains supportive as everyone grows older.

Once in Cabrini Connections, always in Cabrini Connections. I've been saying this for many years. I mean it.

Being at this funeral and giving support is just one small example of the type of support mentors can give to youth, and each other. Recognizing that these young adults, who were in elementary school or middle school when we first met them, still need our support for them, and for their own children, is what this community is really all about, and why we need donations from people who read this blog or visit our web sites.

January is National Mentoring Month. As you make your New Year's Resolution I hope you'll read the blogs we write, and learn more about this long-term form of mentoring, and ways that you, your church, your family and your business can support it in 2009 and beyond.

--- end 2008 ---

There have been other funerals since then, and other reunions.  January will again be National Mentoring Month.  The many birthday greetings I received yesterday, and continue to receive today, are a reminder of that commitment to "Once in Cabrini Connections, always in Cabrini Connections" message.

There area still areas of persistent poverty with us. These are places where building programs like Cabrini Connections and helping them last 20 or more years can make a life-changing difference for many youth, and adult volunteers.  Skim through this set of articles showing where poverty is concentrated in Chicago and America. 

If you're reading this, thank you.  Please share it and my other articles and help build support for the type of mentor-rich program I describe in my articles.

And, please read my articles about having universities adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection - click here

You can still contribute to my Birthday Campaign - click here

And there's still time to make a year in contribution to help Fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and help me keep doing this in 2025.  - click here to donate.

Have a safe, healthy, happy and hope-filled holiday.  There will be much to do in 2025. 

Help me help others

I'll be 78 in two days, on December 19th.  Since I formed the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011 I've added a "Dan's Birthday" campaign to my year end giving request.  

I did this to appeal to potential donors who were not willing to support Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since it is not a 501-c-3 non-profit due to changes in mid 2011 that separated the Tutor/Mentor Connection from it's non-profit organizational roots dating back to its founding in late 1992.

I've not raised much money each year and have cut expenses dramatically, and have not drawn a salary since 2011. That means that some of the resources built in the 2000s, like the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator are now off line, and only available as archives.  I still maintain and share a list of Chicago area tutor, mentor and learning programs and an extensive library of resources people can use to understand where and why volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs are needed.

I share this on social media daily and in monthly email newsletters, as well as on the http://www.tutormentorexchange.net website, which really is a workshop for people looking to start and support youth serving organizations.  

If you're reading this you've probably read some of my blogs from the past year, or 20 years!  Thank you.  Now, please visit one of the pages shown below and add your support so I can do this again in 2025.

Dan's 78th birthday - click here

Support Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC - click here

Holiday Wish - Read and Share!

Below is a graphic that I've used often over the past 30 years.  

At the top is the hub/spoke graphic that visualizes the role of volunteers from multiple sectors connecting with economically disadvantaged K-12 youth in on-going, long-term, tutor, mentor and learning programs.

On each spoke is a circle, representing how any volunteer in these programs could be reading articles on this blog, or visiting sections of the www.tutormentorexchange.net website, then using their own blogs, videos, podcasts, TicToc, etc. to share what they are learning with others in their business and/or personal networks.

In doing so, we'd have thousands of disciples recruiting millions of people to support kids in high poverty areas and working to end systemic racism and other complex problems that keep so many people poor or lower class in America. 

Below is a larger version of the second element of the graphic shown above.

My holiday wish, and New Year wish, is that each reader become the "YOU" in this graphic and share my articles, visual essays, videos and web library with people in their own networks.

Don't just share. Start conversations.  Use the maps to focus attention on all of the places where people need extra help.  

A couple of nights ago I had dreams about the "information-based problem solving" strategies that I've piloted.  Open this link and read about this strategy.

If you are religious and you read Holy Books, you're engaged in an "information-based" learning strategy.  As you go through school the curriculum and required and suggested reading are part of "information-based" learning strategies. 

It's only when the learning focuses on fully funding and solving a specific problem over many years of consistent effort that it becomes a full "information-based problem solving" strategy, which is what I'm sharing.

Read, reflect, discuss, share. 

Anyone can do it.

Here's another graphic that shares the same idea.

The blue box in the middle shows the role of intermediaries, like myself, who collect, archive, curate and share information and ideas on websites and blogs.  As long as someone does this for a city like Chicago, anyone else in the region can take the learning roles I described above.

I've been collecting information to support my role as a volunteer tutor/mentor and leader of tutor/mentor programs for over 50 years.  I'm 78 next week.  This role needs to be taken by someone younger, ideally at a local university (in Chicago and in other cities).  My library and archive are only valuable if someone keeps them online and updated over the next 10-30 years.  

If you're interested in discussing this connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Instagram or Mastodon. See links on this page. 

My other wish is that some of you will contribute to my December 19th birthday campaign or my on-going "Fund T/MI" campaign. 

I've not drawn a salary for leading the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011.  I've paid many of the expenses from my own savings, which are now mostly depleted.  It's only through the continued annual donations of a small group of supporters that I've been able to keep doing this work.  I hope you'll join them this year.

Thanks for reading (and hopefully sharing) my articles.  Enjoy your weekend, and your holidays.

Deeper learning and lost digital archives

I've been sharing ideas for ways people can start and sustain volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs that help kids in high poverty areas move through school and into adult lives since forming the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago in 1993 (and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011).

As I searched past articles for inspiration for this article, I initially was going to share an article showing work interns had done in past years to help share the ideas I launched in PDF essays and blog articles.

That brought me to an article I wrote on this blog in 2018, which I'm going to repost, with comments.

Start 2018 ---

My first line was "In this article I'm going to write about the Thinglink360 video created by Kevin Hodgson, a middle school teacher from Western Massachusetts, and more than 20 other people starting in February 2018."

However, Thinglink360 no longer is open for public viewing so the video by Kevin, and the projects I created, no longer work.  Furthermore, my link to Kevin's profile on Twitter does not work either, because Kevin deleted his Twitter account due to the actions of its owner.  He's not the only one.

Then I wrote about this cMap which I created in 2018, inspired by the project Kevin is describing.  I hope you'll follow along and see the connection.

See Interns w T/MC cMap at this link. 

I first met Kevin in 2013 as part of the Connected Learning #CLMOOC, and have grown to appreciate and value the ideas he shares on his blog. Thus, I visit often. So in early April 2018 I opened this article, which was the first of a three-part reflection under the title of "Creating a Virtual Gallery of Digital Art".

It all started about three months ago (mid February?) when Kevin got an idea. "What if the (open and university) folks dabbling in Networked Narratives (#NetNarr) together created a collaborative piece of trans-media artwork together?"

Kevin brainstormed the idea with a few other on-line friends and soon created this site as an invitation for others to join in the fun. He titled this the NetNarrAlchemyLab.

In his blog Kevin wrote, "Early on, we had a vision of an immersive virtual lab that visitors could wander around in, like a museum."  He went on "We wanted to create a "doorway" in and a "doorway" out.

Over six to eight weeks 20 people from different parts of the world (Australia, Scotland, USA, France, etc) created more than 50 projects. The project began with a group from the #NetNarr ecosystem, but soon spread to folks in the #DS106 and #clmooc groups.   

I encourage you to visit Kevin's blog and read his description of what worked, what did not, and see how he keeps drawing attention to the work he and others have been doing. 

Another change I learned about today is that Kevin has reformatted his blog. No longer does it show past articles or links to other blogs on his side bar.  

See graphic in this article

As I said, I've been engaging with the #clmooc world for five years and have shared some of these interactions using graphics and concept maps posted in more than 30 articles. 

As of December 2024 that number is up to 75.

I've watched Kevin and many others from several on-line communities connect with each other and amplify the work they are each doing via their own blog articles, Tweets and Facebook posts. The motivations for these interactions are many. For instance, if you visit this #clmooc home page you can see how such interactions have been stimulated in that group.  

Since late 2023 many of the people who I met on Twitter are now using Mastodon and BlueSky to connect and share ideas.  

Find Dan Bassill on Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/tutormentor.bsky.social
Find Dan Bassill on Mastodon - https://mastodon.social/@tutormentor1, https://mastodon.garden/@tutormentor1 and @tutormentor1@mastodon.cloud

As you do you'll see a few examples of where I've tried to draw members into the work I've been doing since 1993, helping non-school tutor/mentor programs reach k-12 youth in high poverty neighborhoods.

So far, I've not found many of the Chicago tutor/mentor programs on this list on Mastodon and BlueSky. Few use Twitter any more.  Some are on Instagram. Some on Facebook. Some on LinkedIn.

That means people looking for information about programs and ways to help them are going to have a more difficult time.

I liked Kevin's description of his goal, "to create  an immersive virtual lab that visitors could wander around in, like a museum."  That's the way I think of the web library I've created, and it communicates my own goal that people come in, wander around, do some reading, then share what they see with others.

As I looked at the Thinglink360 I wanted to create something similar to show work interns have done while working with Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC between 2006 and 2015, with the goal that some of these educators would duplicate these intern efforts and for the same purposes.  Since I don't have a paid account with Thinglink (or the talent) I could not do what Kevin did, so I used my free cMapTools account and created the concept map shown above. 

Each graphic on the cMap comes from a project done by one of the many interns who work on the Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC project. Below each graphic you can find one or more links that open blog articles and/or videos that show the project, or show how the project was created and how I coached the interns along the way.

As I spent time last week reviewing work interns had done to collect images and links for the cMap I was reminded again of the immense talent of the students who worked with me.  More than half came from South Korea and Hong Kong, while most of the others were from Chicago area universities.

Much of the work being done in these on-line communities focuses on "cultivating connections" and "strengthening networks".  My goal is to draw people from the non-school #tutor #mentor, youth and workforce development and anti-poverty ecosystems together in similar on-line communities...and to connect them with the people and networks I'm already following.

As participation grows I hope to recruit a few people from different places who will spend time building their own understanding of what I've been trying to do. I hope some then begin to duplicate my own 25 year history, by creating libraries of content, and recruiting students from as early as middle school to spend time reading, reflecting, hacking and re-making work that I and my interns have done, to mobilize the time, talent and dollars of more people to help kids born or living in high poverty areas get the extra adult support they need to not only move successfully through school, but to have help moving into adult lives with jobs and careers that enable them to raise their own kids in any place they choose.

In many of the links on the cMap, like this one, I show how interns created their own projects after reading PDF essays, or blog articles, that I've written.   That represents more than 1000 articles, a mountain of content and ideas, that educators and social innovators from all over the world could draw from.

Throughout this and other articles I've included #hashtags with links to Twitter.  If you open these and scroll through past Tweets, you'll open yourself to a wide network of people and ideas.  For instance, here's a Tweet Kevin posted to draw attention to one of the projects in the Alchemy Lab.

A starfish in the Alchemy Lab? Of course, if it leads to a poem by @inspirepassion. And, yes, if the poem is giffed up. We’re surfacing media in the #netnarr Alchemy Lab, and you can wander amidst the words of the shelves at any time: https://t.co/b2W1oiR53O Doors always open. pic.twitter.com/TQK5YAkfsi

— KevinHodgson (@dogtrax) May 26, 2018

Note:  Due to people like Kevin leaving Twitter hundreds of my past articles will have a "not found" message. Fortunately, the text still appears.

In another cMap I've been aggregating links to Twitter conversations I've been following.  My vision is that at some point in the future I could find Tweets within each of these groups, pointing to my articles and work interns have done with me in Chicago, with new visualizations, videos, articles, etc. that apply those concepts in Chicago neighborhoods, or in neighborhoods throughout the world.

I'm not sure how much value this cMap will have in the future, unless their is a dramatic reversal in ownership and operations at Twitter. 

Furthermore, while my articles focus on helping kids living in poverty connect with extra adults and learning via organized non-school programs, this graphic visualizes a wide range of complex problems that need to be concurrently addressed in Chicago and throughout the world.

The "how do we do this" needs many people's ideas and what better way to communicate those than through the type of work Kevin is describing and that I've been trying to do.

Finally, if you are re-making and hacking the ideas I share, let me know. In the lower right corner of the intern map, you'll find this map, shown below, which I'm using as another 'museum' that showcases others who are already helping share Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC ideas.

I don't find enough people writing about my work. Yet, I keep encouraging alumni and others to take ownership and carry this effort into the future. 

Share the link in the comments section or on social media. You can connect with me on many platforms. Open this page to find links to each. 

--- end 2018 article w 2024 comments ----

Thanks for reading my posts, and for sharing them with others.

If you find value in what I'm sharing please consider a gift to support my 78th birthday - see this page

Or a contribution to my annual "Fund the T/MI" campaign - see this page.

This helps me keep my library and ideas on line for another year.

Who uses Slideshare or Scribed.com?

I began creating visual essays in the late 1990s and started posting them on the www.tutormentorexchange.net website around 1999.  These were in PDF format and I had no way of knowing how many people read them, so I started putting them on Scribd.com and Slideshare.com in 2011. At that time they were to separate companies with different display formats. They have been one company for the past few years.

Each month I look at the stats and record the number of views each presentation receives. That has shrunk quite a bit over the past few years.

Here's the latest presentation that I put on Scribd.com

My 30-Year History of Reach... by Daniel F. Bassill

I created this in early 2024 and so far it's not recorded many views.

Here's one of the first presentations that I put on Slideshare. It shows the learning and networking strategy that I've piloted since 1993.

   

Tutor/Mentor Learning Network Strategy Introduction from Daniel Bassill

These are two of about 60 presentations on each platform.  Many are duplicates since I was posting on two different platforms with different display features when I started putting these on line.

So my question is, are you viewing presentations, from anyone, on these platforms?  Are you posting your own presentations on one or both of these?  Is there another platform that you post to more often?

I keep my content on Scribd and Slideshare, and updated, because I believe it only takes one person, from anywhere in the world, to view my ideas and want to embrace them and support them with time, talent and a lot of dollars.

I originally put my visual essays on this page.  It sill has many presentations that I've not shared on Scribd or Slideshare, so I encourage you to skim through the list.  

For a few years I featured the link to the Scribd and Slideshare pages, but as I began to see more advertising embedded into these sites, making them less reader friendly, I created a new page with most of my visual essays.  You can find it here.

I've also created a page with my collection of videos, created by interns who have worked for me, and by myself.  Here's one.

 

As I said earlier, it only takes one person to see these and want to use their own time, talent and dollars to share the ideas and make the strategy come alive in many cities, including Chicago.

My dream is that one day you could go to the website of a university and/or a high school, and find pages with collections of visual essays and videos, with exactly the same content and purpose as what I've created, but re-built and updated by students, volunteers and professionals.

Does such a page exist in your community? Share the link in the comments section or on social media. You can connect with me on many platforms. Open this page to find links to each. 

Thanks for reading my posts, and for sharing them with others.

If you find value in what I'm sharing please consider a gift to support my 78th birthday - see this page

Or a contribution to my annual "Fund the T/MI" campaign - see this page.

This helps me keep my library and ideas on line for another year.