Blogging4Life - Part 2

Last week I posted this article, showing "Why I Started Blogging" which was inspired by educator friends whom I've met over the past 12 years.

Today I'll answer two additional questions.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why do you use it?

I started my blog on Blogger.com in 2005 and continue to use it today. It is easy for me to use and because it has an archive of images, I’m able to write new articles using images I added in the past.  

I'm also able to find all of my past articles using the Internet Archive.  That means in the future, others will still be able to find what I've written, even if Blogger.com shuts down.  Of course, I suspect most of the links I point to will no longer work. 

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

Yes. Many. 

I started networking on the Ning.com platform in 2007 when it was free and did a great job of connecting networks.  One of the first groups I joined was Classroom2.0, a place for educators to share ideas.  Here's the first article I posted there, in 2007.

Then, in 2007 I created a TutorMentorConnection.ning.com site.  Each member has a blog and I've used it since then, even though it changed its format and is less valuable from a networking perspective than originally.  This link points to blogs posted on the site, by myself and others. 

I launched a Tutor/Mentor Exchange blog on Wordpress in 2016. My original goal was to focus more on the broader information-based problem solving strategies that are at the heart of the strategies I share. However, I’ve not used it often in the past few years. 

I have a Tutor/Mentor Connection blog on Tumblr that pulls from my Wordpress blog -  I also have a Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC page on Tumblr.com where I share articles from my main blog.

I have also posted a few times on Medium 

In addition, I've posted guest articles in several places. In 2015 I poste five articles on the I-Open blog, serving Cleveland, Ohio. These are all archives now. Here's one. 

I've asked interns and staff who worked for me to write blogs showing what they were doing and what they were learning.  The graphic below is part of a network analysis project done in 2012 by two interns from South Korea, via IIT in Chicago, showing the growth of the Ning network since 2007.  This article on the T/MC Intern blog shows that work. 

From 2007 to 2011 we employed Northwestern University graduates through their Public Interest Program. I asked each to blog their experiences and you can find those on this site. 

The Intern blog, also hosted on Blogger.com, was created in 2007 by Michael Tam, an intern from Hong Kong. Here's a post of his from August 2006 that shows what he was learning.  If you read posts by other interns you'll see similar experiences. 

While we started creating map stories using donated ESRI software in 1994 I never had the money to hire anyone to build maps consistently until late 2007 when an anonymous donor gave $50,000 to rebuild the mapping capacity.  We hired Mike Trakan and he began the MappingforJustice blog (also on Blogger.com) in January 2008. Here is his first post. 

If you read Mike's 2008 to 2010 articles you can see many maps created using ESRI software. You can also see how he guided the efforts of a team from India who built an interactive, map-based, Tutor/Mentor Program Locator for us in 2008-9. This article is an example. 

Mike created so many map stories that I asked him to build a site that served as a "map gallery".  The image at the right shows what he built. It's now an archive, but can be seen here.

Since 2011 I've been writing article on the mapping blog. Some were stories created using the Program Locator, such as this one.  Most have showed how others are using maps to tell stories, such as this article. 

When we  created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 we also were launching a new site-based tutor/mentor program to help 7th and 8th graders move through high school. We called it Cabrini Connections and I led it until mid 2011.

I encouraged staff, students and volunteers at Cabrini Connections and the T/MC to also write blogs. Thus, if you visit cabriniblog.blogspot.com you can read blog articles posted by myself and our tutor/mentor program staff leaders between 2006 and 2011, as well as by students and leaders of our technology, arts, writing and video clubs. 

Here's an article from the Tech Club, showing how students and volunteers entered a team in the Cabrini Madness fund raising event. The Tech Club was led by Mike Trakan, our GIS mapping expert.  

The Cabrini Blog and our student and intern blogs were also hosted on Blogger.com.  

That's it for today.  What I've shown in the first two Blogging4Life posts is a long-term commitment to using blogs to share information and influence the actions of others. I keep urging others to do the same and offer my articles as inspiration for what they might write. 

I'll post one final article next week in this Blogging4Life series.  

I hope you are inspired to create your own blog and use it to influence change and well-being in the world. It's a medium you can control.  

Let's connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Mastodon or other social media platforms. See links here.

Furthermore, if you're able and willing, please help me pay the bills. Visit this page and help fund my work. 

 

STEM and Networks. Share These Resources.

Last week I participated in two webinars of interest. 

One was titled “State of STEM Ecosystems”. Visit this site for the video and a written summary of the ideas that were shared by panel members.

Then, visit this page on the STEM Learning Ecosystems website to view the resources they share.  

One other resource on the site that I want to draw your attention to is the map I show below. Open the link then click into any of the dots on the map and dig deep into work being done in each community in the network. It's extensive!

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time you have seen how much I value the use of maps. When I look at the STEM Learning Ecosystem map I ask, “How are these communities sharing ideas across the network, and within their own cities?” I also ask, “Do they have maps/directories that point parents, volunteers and donors to STEM programs in their communities?”  Are they educating donors to use maps to find STEM and other youth development programs to support?  How are they drawing attention to their libraries? 

The second webinar was titled, “Exploring Multiscalar Networks” with June Holley. 

It was hosted by Socialroots as part of the Network Coordination Commons. 

The full video from this webinar can be found at this link.  A shorter, 30 minute summary video is at this link.  And, slides from June Holley's presentation can be found on this page.  The three images shown in the graphic above are from June's slide deck.   Here's another review of June's presentation. 

Visit June's LinkedIn page and review her history.  She's been weaving networks for more than 40 years.  She created Network Weaver in 2018 to offer Network Weavers a hub of free information and resources to support their systems change endeavors. Beginning in 2021, Leadership Learning Community has managed Network Weaver in partnership with One Sphere, Ltd. Their vision is to empower network leadership as a catalyst for racial equity and justice, driving collective liberation through interconnected networks.

I’ve followed June Holley since the mid 2000s, but we’ve never connected in support of work either of us was doing.  Maybe it's due to her focus on helping networks grow and my more narrow focus on helping economically disadvantaged youth via long-term tutor/mentor programs.  You can read some of my articles about ecosystems here.   I've only learned about the STEM Learning Ecosystem recently. 

One of the STEM webinar panel members was Dr. Stephanie Rodriguez – Director of the STEMM Opportunity Alliance. During her presentation she shared the graphic below, showing questions that need to be asked and answered in each of these communities and across the entire ecosystem.

I watched the introduction to the STEMM Opportunity Alliance in 2022 and wrote this article, showing strategies that can be used to build STEMM learning programs in more places.  The ideas are as valid now as they were then.

The facilitator of the STEM webinar, ended with this question: "What will be our legacy in 10 years?"  

I was asked a similar question in 2014 and wrote this article, showing where I hoped the tutor/mentor ecosystem would be in 5, 10 and 15 years. 

In 2014 I wrote the following. I think these goals could apply to the STEM Ecosystem, too:

* In five years, the map of the Chicago region should show a growing density of needed youth and family services in areas where they are needed. These programs should have web sites that show what they are trying to do, and what they are accomplishing, using this Shoppers Guide as a checklist. 

* In ten years, the map should show an even greater density of programs in areas of need. Web sites of programs operating in 2014 and started over the next five years, should begin to show participation history, and stories of youth and volunteers who have been part of these programs and who now are further toward graduation and jobs. Programs started between 2019 and 2025 would show the same start-up information as programs starting in the first five years. 

* In 15 years the density of programs should reach all areas of need, and web sites of programs in place now should show a number of stories about alumni who have gone through the program and who are now adults who are working, raising families, and in some cases, providing support for the growth of the programs that were part of their lives as young people. If this strategy is supported consistently for the next 15 years, by donors, volunteers, media, business, etc. we should begin to see significant changes of where poverty is concentrated because there should be less in places where well organized programs are helping youth grow up, move through school, and find jobs. 

It’s 2025.  We are not close to achieving these goals. Maybe 2040?

One of the member communities is the South Side STEM  Opportunity Learning Landscape, which I wrote about in this 2023 article.  This is the direct link to their site. 

Then, this week I saw a report titled, “INCREASING STEM ENGAGEMENT THROUGH OPPORTUNITY LANDSCAPING” (on this page)

This paper on Opportunity Landscaping, co-authored by Nichole Pinkard, with Sheena E., Caitlin K. Martin, Yolanda J. Majors, PhD, & Natasha Smith-Walker, explores how we can better understand and design learning ecosystems to ensure equitable access to STEM and out-of-school learning opportunities. An example of this work is the Chicago South Side STEM Opportunity Landscape.

This information is all related.  Ideally, each community on the STEM Learning Ecosystem map would have a similar landscaping strategy in place, and would be constantly sharing what works, what doesn't, and what help is needed with others in the network.  Ideally, networks in each STEM community would be connecting with other youth development networks in the same community. 

This may already be happening. Is it? 

The sites I point to in this article aggregate information that can be used by members of their ecosystems and networks.  June Holley's presentation asks, "How do we connect across networks, to create "networks of networks".  I keep asking the same questions.

If you read my "Why do I blog" article you'll see my 2005 article, showing my goal of  creating a blogging space that links to the T/MC web sites, so that as people talk about tutoring/mentoring, we can use maps, charts and other web links to show them where, why and how they can be involved. 

As I listened to these two webinars I ask, "Where are people sharing these ideas in on-line conversations?  

I’ve shared my ideas and website with these networks for many years, but finding a place to interact has been difficult. I’m not part of the “in group” and never have been. That’s been a challenge since I started leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago in 1975 while holding a full time retail advertising job with the Montgomery Ward corporation.

I post ideas here, and share links in my library, with the goal that a few people will see them and take them into these networks.  I put links to the STEM Learning Ecosystem in this section of my library and the Network Building resources in this section. I shared these in the webinar.

They area available to anyone in the world.  

Please share these resources. Help STEM programs grow in more places and help people in more places connect with ideas they can use to solve complex problems facing this planet.

Thanks for reading.  I look forward to connecting with you on LinkedIn, Mastodon, BlueSky, Insatragram, Facebook and even Twitter. 

Blogging4Life: Why I Started Blogging

A few of my #clmooc friends have created posts showing why they blog and invited me to add my own history.  I invite you to read posts by Kevin, Sarah and Sheri to see where I'm getting my inspiration. 

Like Kevin, I'm going to break this into a few posts, with the first one probably the longest.

Why did you start blogging in the first place? 

Creating and writing this blog, starting in April 2005, was an extension of the public awareness strategy which I’d launched in 1993 when I and six other volunteers created a new tutor/mentor program in Chicago, to serve teens in one neighborhood, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, to help similar programs reach k-12 youth in every high poverty area of Chicago. 

Sample graphic from Tutor/Mentor blog articles

The goal of every article is visualized with the graphic shown above.  "How can we do this better?"  How do we get more people involved in helping kids in high poverty areas move safely through school and into adult lives, with jobs and careers that enable them to raise their own kids free of poverty, and from the scourge of systemic racism.

The habit of blogging has deeper roots, extending to my 17 years working in retail advertising for the Montgomery Ward retail store corporation from 1973 to 1990. Every ad we wrote was a ‘mini blog’ providing information to millions of potential customers. 

When I started leading a tutor/mentor program in 1975, as a volunteer, I created weekly newsletters to provide volunteers with ideas and tips and news about upcoming events that they were to share with their students. Each of these is an early version of what I have been trying to do with my blog articles. This link points to the April 1986 issue shown at the right.  

From 1993 to 2002 my primary communication to the world was through printed newsletters that I sent three to four times each year. In 1993 the mailing list was around 400. It grew each year and was close to 14,000 by 2003 when we stopped sending these due to rising costs and lack of funding. 

We created two versions of this. One focused on our own tutor/mentor program, as well as the T/MC. The other focused on the T/MC and other programs in Chicago and around the country, with just a small mention of our own program.

In each printed newsletter I included a “President’s Message”. That was an early form of blogging for me. At the left is the editorial from my Jan-Feb 1997 newsletter.  On this page you can find links to many of my past printed newsletters. 

We switched to weekly email newsletters in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, only a fraction of the people in our print mail database transferred over to the email list. Unless they have searched the Internet for "tutor mentor" and found my website and blogs, we've lost contact. 

As with the print newsletters, each email newsletter ended with a “President’s Message”.  You can read many of these in this section of my archive.    

By 1995 I was beginning to share ideas on Internet forums, such as the VOC-Net (Vocational Education Discussion List), Digital Divide, After School Network, SAC-List at University of Illinois, and MOTT School-Age list. I also connected on a list hosted by the Australian Student Traineeship Foundation.

Then around 2000 I started hosting planning conversations on Yahoo Groups.  My rational was that using the Internet I could reach hundreds of people every day, whereas in face-to-face meeting I might only meet with one or two people a day, at the most. 

The goal was to get more and more people involved, helping the program I was leading, and helping every other program operating in the Chicago region. My library now points to youth serving programs in all parts of the USA and many parts of the world. They all need help.

We recruited a professional public relations firm, Public Communications, Inc.,  in 1993 to help us develop the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy and implement the public awareness part of it. This led to me hosting tutor/mentor conferences every six months from May 1994 to May 2015, publishing a printed Directory of tutor/mentor programs, and organizing Chicagoland Tutor/Mentor Volunteer Recruitment Campaigns each August/Sept from 1995 to 2003. 

Our PR partner fed information to the media each time we hosted an event, which resulted in numerous print, radio and TV stories. You can see many on this page.  

We launched a “Rest of the Story” strategy in 1994 to follow negative news with map-stories showing where the incident took place and any tutor/mentor programs operating in the area. Many of the articles in the Tutor/Mentor blog are part of the “Rest of the Story” strategy. Here’s an example. 

Along with this I began to write “letters to the Editor” which were often published in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times and other media. I shared some of these in this article.

However, more often than not, my letters were not published. 

Volunteers from my Chicago tutor/mentor program built my first Tutor/Mentor Connection websites, in 1996, then again in 1998, which demonstrates how workplace volunteers who first begin as one-on-one tutors and mentors often go beyond, and help the program, and the students, in other ways. 

I posted my maps and information and lists of programs on those sites. I pointed to them in my on-line listserv conversations.

As I learned about blogging I saw a way to by-pass media gatekeepers who only chose to print my letters occasionally.

I felt that with a blog I could share my ideas and draw attention to the tutor/mentor program I led, and to events I was organizing, more consistently than through traditional media.

So, I launched this blog.

In my first article, published in April 2005, I wrote:

I've been taking a look at the blogging community in the past week and feel that this is a great format for creating on-going dialog about volunteering, community service, civic engagement and tutoring/mentoring. Most blogs only connect to other bloggers. I'm looking to create a blogging space that links to the T/MC web sites, so that as people talk about tutoring/mentoring, we can use maps, charts and other web links to show them where, why and how they can be involved. If we can create a space for this on a T/MC web site we can be a hub for bloggers throughout the world to connect, link, and increase awareness of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and the work we do.

In a couple of months it will be the 20 year anniversary of this blog.  Over the next two weeks I'll address some of the other questions shown on Sarah, Kevin and Sherri's blogs. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit some of my past articles and use them as starting points for your own. In particular, look at the #clmooc articles to see how I've connected with this group since 2013.  They have been a tremendous source of inspiration and support.  

Thanks for reading.  I hope this encourages you to write your own blog, and use it to focus on drawing people to ideas they can use to help solve problems that need the efforts of many people, over many years.

I'm on BlueSky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I hope you'll connect and boost my posts.  

I also hope a few readers will visit this page and make contributions to help me continue to do this work.