Share the Love. Change the World. Make it Better for All.

This graphic was created by two interns from South Korea during a a seven week internship in 2012.  I wrote about it and included a link to the animation in this article.

I was prompted to write today's article because Sunday will be Valentine's Day.  This article from the DePaul University Center for Writing-Based Learning includes it's own message of Love heading into this weekend.  Another article, by Simon Ensor, a professor in France, communicates the same idea and points to ideas I've been sharing at the Tutor/Mentor Blog.

Here's another graphic, also created by the 2012 intern team. Song Me Lee wrote this article, to show how the graphic was created, and to show what she'd been learning during her internship.  I encourage you to look at all of the messages posted by Song Me during her internship.  

On this page of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site I post a list of interns from 2006 till 2014, with links to articles they wrote to introduce themselves at the start of their internship, and then links to final reflection articles.  Some provide more information than others, but all show an intent that the intern learn new ideas and new skills from working on their projects.

As I've interviewed students for these internships I've emphasized that one of my goals is that these students continue to stay connected to the Tutor/Mentor Connection library of ideas and to each other, so that in future years they become a community of people who help each other, and who apply these ideas to making the world a better place.

Forming a College-Based Tutor/Mentor Connection by Daniel F. Bassill

I created this presentation to show a goal of having student-led Tutor/Mentor Connection-type teams growing on high school and college campuses throughout the US and the world.  Anyone who takes a few moments to view my blogs and then shares what I'm writing about, as Simon Ensor has done on his blog, is providing inspiration and motivation for one or many people to take this roll.

I'm still waiting for the first university or high school to adopt this strategy, and for the first corporation or benefactor to endow it with 10 years of funding, but as they say "Rome was not built in a day."   

I created this concept map to illustrate this vision. If you start writing about my ideas and/or creating your own visualizations, share the link in the comment box and I'll add you to this map.

Better yet, create your own map, and add my blog articles to it.  

Through the collective effort of many, we'll gather the bricks needed to build the "Rome" of this vision.

Many Ways for Young People to Tell Stories

For the past 10 years I've hosted interns via the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, based in Chicago. If you browse through the articles on this blog you can see work they have done, and find places where I'm encouraging educators at the K-12 level and in colleges, as well as leaders and volunteers in non-school youth programs, to engage their own students in creating visualizations for the same purpose.

For the past couple of months I've been following a series of cartoon comics, created by Kevin Hodgson, a 6th grade teacher in Western Massachusetts.  Below is one.

Visit this link and see the entire series.  There are so many different ways for young people to communicate ideas. I look forward to connecting with youth and educators who get involved doing this work.

Here's a link to a site Kevin shared earlier this week that students and adults can use to create their own comic strips.

Visualizing New Ways To Solve Social Problems

The graphic below is from this animation, created by interns from IIT in Chicago during 2008-09 internships. (Note: the animation can now be seen in this video). The goal was to share the vision and four-part strategy piloted by the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) since it was launched in 1993.

Since 2005 a number of interns have worked with T/MC. They've all been challenged to find new way to visualize and communicate ideas originated in Tutor/Mentor Connection blogs, aiming to increase the number of people working to help programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods that expanded the network of adults helping kids move through school and into jobs and careers. This page shows projects that have been done.

Yesterday I was encouraged to view a TED talk by Bret Victor, a technology visionary who has helped develop some of the tools we use today. I was awed by the work he has done and his vision of the future. Below is a video from his bio page, that shows creative ways to represent ideas.



My goal is that youth in k-12 schools, colleges and non-school programs look at the work interns have done with me in the past, and the ideas I keep adding the MappingforJustice blog and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC* blog, then challenge themselves to find new ways to communicate these ideas to the people in their own family/community network. The result will do the following: a) increase the number of people looking at these ideas

b) increase the range and number of people giving time, talent and dollars to help high quality, mentor-rich, programs reach youth in under-served areas with supports that help those youth move through school and into 22nd century careers

c) increase understanding of youth who work on these projects of the infrastructure needed to build and sustain long-term programs, and the ways volunteers, donors, youth and others can proactively support such programs in all parts of a geographic area

d) expand youth understanding of spatial mapping and dynamic communications tools

e) expand growth of information-based intermediaries like T/MC in other cities of the world, and apply this problem solving strategy to other social/environmental issues

f) create a future generation of leaders who use information and networked-learning consistently to innovate solutions to problems and use dynamic communications to share solutions in ways that build and sustain support from a wide sector of people for these solutions.

On this wiki page I describe how this might become a competition that involves a growing number of young people and volunteers.

As more youth become involved in this work, and learn from people like Bret Vector, we'll create a future generation of leaders who apply these tools to visualizing and shaping a brighter future for the world they will inherit.

*The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC was created in 2011 to continue the work of the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago, while helping similar intermediaries grow in other cities.

Visualizing ideas. The Role of Intermediaries

I encourage you to view this animated video, highlighting ideas from Robert Putnam's book titled Bowling Alone.

Once you've viewed the video, visit the Macat.com blog and see how they are creating a wide range of videos and blog articles to share big ideas.

Then look through the blog articles posted here, and think of how students, volunteers and professionals could repackage some of the work done by interns, and other ideas shared on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site, so more people would understand and apply these ideas in their own communities.

Work done by young people in middle school, high school and college, and by volunteers with professional communications skills, could draw more people to information libraries where they create a deeper understanding of complex problems and begin to look at how some people are solving those problems in some places, which are ideas that could be borrowed and applied in other places.

If you're interested in doing this work, why not join and introduce yourself in the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum.

Introduction to Tutor/Mentor Exchange Web Site and Strategy

During her Jan-Feb 2015 internship with Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, Wona Chang created two visualizations using Prezi. In one she showed a "learning path" that guides visitors through the different strategies and resources offered by the T/MI and Tutor/Mentor Connection. In the second, she showed different sections of the T/MI web site.

Below is the "learning path" video:



Below is the introduction to the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

Hopefully these will be used by thousands of people who are looking for ways to help high quality, constantly-improving tutor/mentor programs grow in big cities like Chicago.

I wrote this article focused on deeper learning in 2012. It emphasizes the many hours of reading and reflection needed to understand issues before being able to lead and innovate solutions. The work Wona and other interns have done illustrates a learning strategy that could be duplicated in many places. Spend time browsing information related to an issue that is important to you, then create your own visualization to guide others through the same information.

If more people do this for many years we can change the way we solve problems in the world.  As I've said in the past, I think youth in high schools, college and other non-school tutor/mentor programs could be doing the same type of work as Wona and past interns have done, helping others in their community find and use ideas that help great programs grow in ALL of the places where kids need extra help.

If you're doing this work, or want to do it with the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC please introduce yourself.

Introduction to Tutor/Mentor Institute web site

I created this graphic to help people understand the information available on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site.

Wona Chang, the 2015 winter intern from IIT and South Korea, created the introduction shown below, first using Prezi, then by adding the Prezi to a YouTube video, which is seen below.



I wrote this article focused on deeper learning in 2012. It emphasizes the many hours of reading and reflection needed to understand issues before being able to lead and innovate solutions. The work Wona and other interns have done illustrates a learning strategy that could be duplicated in many places. Spend time browsing information related to an issue that is important to you, then create your own visualization to guide others through the same information.

If more people do this for many years we can change the way we solve problems in the world.

Follow this Learning Path to Understand Tutor/Mentor Connection strategies

For the past 9 years interns from South Korea, China, India and US universities have spent time with Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in Chicago working on projects that help communicate the ideas and strategies T/MC has developed over the past 40 years. The January 2015 intern is Wona Chang,from South Korea. Below is a presentation she created over the past two weeks, to provide a different guide to this concept map.


In this page you can see other projects which were also done using Prezi. However, Wona is the first intern to figure out how to create a sound track, where she guides visitors through the presentation. She also put in web links pointing to some of the same sites the original concept map points to.

In addition to creating an English language version, Wona created a Korean language version (2016 note: these are no longer available on Prezi). Since every major city in the world has areas of concentrated poverty where people live more isolated from the rest of the community and its resources, the T/MC strategy could be duplicated in many countries. Thus, finding ways to creating versions of the blog articles and web presentations in different languages will help leaders in other countries find and adopt these ideas.

Wona and I share ideas in this on-line forum. If you'd like to work on one of the T/MC visualizations, join in.

New Intern helps launch 2015

Since 2006 interns from various universities have spent time helping communicate ideas and strategies of Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute.

Each intern starts with an introduction. You can see many from past interns on this page.

Our newest intern is Wona Chang, from South Korea. She created this Prezi presentation to introduce herself. She said "It was the first time that I work on prezi, so what I first did was learn how to use it. I had a lot of fun learning new skills."

Thanks one goal of this internship. Students should learn new skills and have fun doing it. While Wona works with me in Chicago, others are invited to join our Tutor/Mentor Group and do similar projects from where ever you are.

Intern Visualizations help communicate ideas

In this post on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC blog I showed how I scratch out ideas during meetings, then later convert them into visualizations. In the article I illustrate how interns have taken the graphics I first launch as a blog article or a power point visualization, and create new interpretations using their own talent. Here's an example.

This is an image I created many years ago to illustrate the need to support youth from first grade through high school and into jobs. It show three time frames in the day, including after 5pm when workplace volunteers would be more readily available for weekly involvement in non-school tutor/mentor programs. It shows that while parents, teachers, mentors and tutors are "pushing" youth to make decisions that have a positive influence on their lives, the business community could be "pulling" youth through school through the involvement of volunteers as mentors, and their workplace as opportunities for job shadowing, apprentice programs, part time jobs, and entry points to careers.

This graphic is from an animation created by an intern from South Korea (via IIT) that communicates this idea in a new way.

At this link you can see a wide range of visualizations done since 2006. If you'd like to do work like this introduce yourself on Twitter or join the Tutor/Mentor Connection Forum and introduce yourself.

See work done by past interns. Duplicate this in your school.

Since 2005 interns from a variety of colleges have spent time creating new interpretations of the ideas I've posted on various Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute web sites. Last year I asked interns from IIT to create some new presentations that gave attention to work done by others. In this visualization the intern used Prezi.

A second intern, Kyungryul Kim, developed a video, posted on YouTube, introducing the same interns, but using a different form of communications.

Since 2005 several dozen interns from colleges in the US, South Korea and China have spent time creating new interpretations of the strategies I've been creating for over 40 years. Hopefully some of these interns will continue to work with these strategies in future years, or some of the people looking at them will adopt them in their own efforts.

I support this work in a sub group at http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com and I invite students from junior high, high school and colleges around the world to join the group and create your own interpretations of this information. This could also be project based learning for youth and volunteers in non school tutor/mentor programs.

I've posted work done by interns and fellow in these following locations:

Strategy presentation pages on Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site. Be sure to view all three pages.

Videos by 2005-2012 interns are posted on Tutor/Mentor Conference site. On this page you can see 2013 projects.

Graphics by past interns, on Pinterest.

Find an tntroduction of of many of our past interns, on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site This represents a vast library of work. I encourage you to browse through some of the projects and use your social media to encourage people to look at them. As long as there are youth living in high pockets of poverty with fewer opportunities for learning and career development in a city, there will be a need for leaders to build strategies that support the growth of a wide range of youth tutoring, mentoring and learning programs in these areas. Thus, these ideas are timeless. They need to be re-circulated in Chicago, and in other cities, so more people view them and consider which to adopt as part of their own leadership. There is work for many. Please get involved.

South Korean Ferry Disaster affects many who have been interns since 2006

It is with great sadness that I follow the daily news stories of the sinking of a ferry boat off the coast of South Korea. Since 2006 many students from South Korea have been interns with the Tutor/Mentor Connection and many may have friends and family directly involved in this tragedy. I hope for the best possible outcome over the next few days for each of you and those who are on board the ferry.

Simplifying Complex Ideas - Role of Interns

This is a graphic introduced a few months ago on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC blog via this article. Most people looking at this will be overwhelmed and won't dig deeper to understand how it relates to their own involvement with helping youth through school and into jobs.

Since 2005 interns from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Hong Kong Baptist, Northwestern, Loyola and many other universities have been spending time reading articles like this, then creating their own interpretations, in an effort to help more people view, understand, then apply the ideas.

The video below was launched today. It was created by SUNJOONG YOO, who is one of two students from South Korea working with the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since Jan 20.

Once you've looked at the video do you understand it's message better than before? If so, please share it with leaders in business, colleges, politics, etc. so others will understand and apply the ideas. Youth from many schools, youth organizations and cities could be creating visualizations like this as part of a citywide effort to transform the way youth are supported. If you'd like to help make this happen we'd like to hear from you.

Interns make a difference!

I've introduced Byungkwan Jang (left in picture) and Sunjoong Yoo in previous posts. They are interns from Illinois Institute of Technology and universities in South Korea who have been with me for the past four weeks.

This week Byungkwan Jang completed a revision of the banks section of the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator's Asset Maps. This is work that has been needed since 2009, but I've not had money to hire anyone to do it, nor have I found a volunteer with the skill and experience to do it. Thus, I'm thrilled that Byungkwan volunteered to take on this role.

Visit this page to see his report on updating the asset maps. Read more about this on the Mapping for Justice Blog and the Tutor/Mentor Institute blogs.

New PSA for Tutor/Mentor

This is one of four short videos created by SUNJOONG YOO, and intern from South Korea and IIT, to encourage more viewers to look at ideas shared on Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web sites. Take a look!
 



These are the four short 45 second PSA videos.

* Shoppers Guide - click here
* Virtual Corporate Office - click here
* Planning Cycle - War on Poverty - click here
* Problem Solving - 4  Part Strategy - click here

The Power of Small Change

This video was created over the past two weeks by SunjoongYoo, who is a winter 2014 intern of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in Chicago.



This is one of many visualizations created by interns since 2005. It's also an example of the type of project students from many place could be doing in an on-going effort to create more and better non-school learning, mentoring and job training opportunities for youth living in high poverty neighborhoods.

Interns from South Korea focusing on mentoring strategies in US

View this animation and meet Byungkwan Jang, our second winter 2014 intern from South Korea and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. This graphic is part of a Prezi presentation that shows the network of people Byungkwan is connected to, whom he might send notices to read and share the articles he writes while he is an intern.

This intern program has been active since 2005. In this page you can see introductions and learning paths for many of the students from Chicago area universities, as well as from South Korea, China, and India.

In this second Prezi Byungkwan introduces himself. In each internship the first week is spent creating these introductions and network maps. It helps me get to know each student, and helps them show the talents they have. It also helps them understand how important the work is that they will do over the next six weeks. I hope you'll follow them and share this with youth and volunteers in your own network.

New Interns at Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC

Two new interns from South Korea, via a partnership with Illinois Institute of Technology, started working with me last week.

This is part of a program that has been on-going since 2005. Interns spend from a week to a year with me. During their time they read articles posted on the Tutor/Mentor Blog, Scribd.com, Pinterest, and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC home page. Then they create new visualizations to provide their own interpretation of those ideas.

The network map helps them identify people in their own family, work, college and/or military network who may be interested in these ideas and who may pass them on to others.

The graphic above is a network map created by Sunjoong Yoo This link points to an self-introduction he created on Prezi.

Thanks for the help. Enjoy your 2014.

As we head in to this new year I want to thank everyone who has helped the Tutor/Mentor Connection over the past 20 years, especially the interns from South Korea, China, India, and US universities who have written numerous blog articles, and created videos and visualizations to help explain the strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

Two new interns will start this week. I hope you'll follow their work at the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum.

Shining Spotlight on Interns from Past

This is the final day of the May-July 2013 internship with Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC for Byeonghui Kim and Kyungryul Kim, students from South Korea and IIT in Chicago.

When they arrived I introduce a "web quest" idea, using an animated video that you can see here.

During their internship they each created two new presentations showing strategies that can be applied by leaders in Chicago, South Korea or any other place to mobilize resources and support the growth and distribution of mentor-rich youth organizations in places where they are most needed. This past week Byeonghui Kim published this visualization, using Prezi.

At the same time Kyungryul Kim developed a video, posted on YouTube, introducing the same interns, but using a different form of communications.

Since 2005 several dozen interns from colleges in the US, South Korea and China have spent time creating new interpretations of the strategies I've been creating for over 40 years. Hopefully some of these interns will continue to work with these strategies in future years, or some of the people looking at them will adopt them in their own efforts.

I support this work in a sub group at http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com and I invite students from junior high, high school and colleges around the world to join the group and create your own interpretations of this information.

I've posted work done by interns and fellow in these following locations:

Strategy presentation pages on Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site. Be sure to view all three pages.

Videos by interns posted on Tutor/Mentor Conference site. 2005-2012. 2013 projects done by Byeonghui Kim and Kyungryul Kim.

Graphics by past interns, on Pinterest.

Introduction of interns, on Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site The projects from past years need to be updated where links are broken. They also need to be re-circulated so more people view these ideas. There is work for many. Please get involved.

Business recognizes girls as formidable new force

This week's article of Crain's Chicago Business features a story showing how girls are becoming high powered social activists.

I have written several articles in the past showing how young people can take on activist roles, motivating adults to do more than what they do now to help kids have safe places, good schools, and access to jobs and careers.

All of the graphics and videos shown on this blog, and this page, were done by college interns. However, these could have been done by middle school and high school students.

Let's recruit more young people to create and lead campaigns that make mentor rich youth programs available in all of the high poverty neighborhoods where the are needed.