Connecting like #CLMOOC

Here's a post that I saw today on Twitter.

Thanks Kevin. You and others in #clmooc and #rhizo14 helped spark all sorts of creativity which led to this visual art. Firstly digital https://t.co/6sk0Sl2BPu and then analogue https://t.co/mKDIkQI8z5 I wouldn’t be sharing this without you all. You helped me discover my voice. pic.twitter.com/otxZOOYGkJ

— Simon Ensor (@sensor63) December 21, 2021

What I liked about this is that Simon Ensor (who teaches in France) points to 2014 and 2018 articles to show how the educators in the Connected Learning cMOOC (#clmooc) have influenced his current work. 

I've used this graphic in the past to show major networks that I'm part of. This includes extended family, Illinois Wesleyan Acacia Fraternity current and alumni members, youth and volunteers from the Chicago tutor/mentor programs I led from 1975 to 2011, people in other programs, foundations, universities I've met via the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, social entrepreneurs from the USA, Europe, Asia, Africa, and others.

This PDF from 2012 shows my networks and my goal of growing the network and nudging it to encourage more people to duplicate my actions in trying to help tutor/mentor programs grow in more places. 

While I use Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, I've not succeeded in drawing people from my network together in on-going interactions where they help each other the way the educators in the #clmooc do.  

Between May of 1994 and May of 2015 I hosted Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences in Chicago, which brought together people from the tutor/mentor program ecosystem.  You can read conference goals, on this page. 

And you can view participation maps on this page. 

However, these did not attract people from my college or family network, nor many current and former students and volunteers from the tutor/mentor programs I led. Furthermore, I've not been able to host a conference since 2015.

And, they did not draw together leaders from business, politics, philanthropy and other sectors, visualized in this concept map.  All of these people need to be interacting on an on-going basis in order to innovate solutions that help bring hope and opportunity to people in high poverty, and reduce racial injustice, segregation, violence and inequality.

So social media is the only place where people from different places can connect in on-going relationship building the ways the #clmooc educators are doing. 

I encourage you to browse some of the articles on this blog, tagged #clmooc, which show my growing participation in their network since first meeting them in 2013.   Then browse the Twitter feed for the #clmooc group and see live interactions. You can scroll back as far as you wish. 

My goal is that people from different parts of my network get to know and support each other, in many of the same ways as the people in the #clmooc network have done.  

I point to Twitter because while the #clmooc group is on Facebook (it started on Google+) I find the most interaction on Twitter.   

I'm there @tutormentorteam.  Join me.