Connecting network. Building Relationships.

The video below is from a Google hangout this morning, with Terry Elliott, who I met last year when I began following the Making Learning Connected MOOC. That is repeating again this year and following a comment I posted a week ago, Terry invited me to connect this morning in a Hangout. I hope you'll take a look.



I've been reaching out to share ideas and learn from others via on-line communities since I started using the Internet in 1998. This is part of a process of learning and network building that I feel is essential to expand my own effectiveness, and expand the range of non-school, volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs reaching youth in high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities.

This relationship-building is a process. In the final part of today's interview, Terry said that when I first started posting on the CLMOOC he and other organizers were not sure if I wasn't just a spammer. Over time Terry began to dig deeper to see how what I was posting was related to the goals of the group, and that led to today's interview.

I started participating in discussions on the Skoll Foundation's Social Edge platform in 2005, and over the years have built strong relationships with a few people. Here's a discussion led by Charles Cameron, who I started connecting with in 2005. As a result Charles was a speaker at the 2010 Tutor/Mentor Conference I host in Chicago.

I first connected with the Webheads group in 2004, and in recent years that has resulted in on-line sessions like the one today. Here's a link to a discussion with Vance Stephens in 2012. This link points to an archive of many interviews and videos I've been part of.

I've participated in MOOCs for the past few years and believe that MOOCS are one strategy for building a deeper understanding of all the ideas I share on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site, as well as a larger network of people who help share that information and apply the ideas in more places.

I post links to these MOOCs, and to articles about "how to create a MOOC" with the goal that others will step forward to organize MOOCs and communities of practice aimed at helping mentor-rich youth programs grow in more places, using the ideas I and others share from our own experiences.

Thanks Terry for taking time to get to know what I was offering the community and for inviting me to share my ideas in today's hangout.