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.

Building Systems of Support for Youth. Where Do I Start.

This graphic includes a lot of ideas, all focused on what leaders in a community need to do to build systems of school-based and non-school-based support that help all kids move through school and into adult lives with jobs and careers.

I share these on Pinterest and in blog articles I've written here since 2005, and on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site, which I started in 1998 as a component of the Tutor/Mentor Connection library.

I learned what I know, and built this library, over a period of 40 years, drawing from many experiences along the way, and borrowing ideas from many other people and organizations. Thus, my biggest daily challenge is to figure ways that other people can become familiar with these ideas in a much shorter time frame.

A few years ago I created the concept map below, as a learning guide for staff who joined me at the Tutor/Mentor Connection.  It's now a guide for anyone else who wants to journey through this information.

Then in 2015 an intern from South Korea, via IIT in Chicago, spent time opening and reviewing each link in the map, and then created a visualization to describe what was included. She used Prezi to do this, then transferred the work to YouTube, which you can see below.

This is the solution to my problem and to similar problems faced by others who aggregate content related to local and global problems.  

Youth and adults from faith groups, business, middle and high schools, colleges and other organizations in Chicago or in cities throughout the world, could take their own journey through this concept map, and other resources in my library, then create their own presentations and discussions to bring others from their community to the information, and into brainstorming and innovation sessions intended to build and sustain long-term systems of support helping youth move more safely and successfully through school and into adult lives.

Yesterday I viewed a video of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's presentation last week at ChiHackNight. As I viewed the video I tweeted some things he was saying. I encourage you to take a look, too.

@tomdart at #chihacknight. "You got to be in it (solutions) for the long-term." https://t.co/ZQpEVziwBP Yep. No quick fixes.

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) June 12, 2017

He's one of the people I hope will look through these ideas and want to start a conversation about ways he can champion them and apply them via his own office.

There's much to learn, and much to do.  It starts with learning what's already available.

Navigation of Tutor/Mentor Institute web site

Wona Chang, the T/MI's 2015 intern from IIT and South Korea, created a visualization using Prezi to guide visitors through the different sections of the www.tutormentorexchange.net web site. There's an English language version and a Korean language version.  Unfortunately the Prezi versions are no longer available.

After creating the presentation on Prezi, Wona created a YouTube video to show it. You can see that below:



This is one of two visualizations Wona did during the internship. As she was doing this she was learning new ways to communicate ideas. She told me, "I've never used Prezi before, or converted a Prezi to  YouTube".  That's one of the befits of working on these presentations the way interns have in the past.

One of the best ways to learn something is to spend time diagramming and writing about what you are learning. Creating leaders who are prepared to deal with the complexity of poverty, and of building and sustaining resources and programs to overcome poverty, requires leaders who have habits of deeper learning and are willing to make the sacrifices of time and effort to build their knowledge base.

This is a practice that students and adults could duplicate.