It’s been a busy week. I’ve continued to reach out to people who are involved in volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, or who could support the growth of such programs with their time, talent, dollars, etc. I’ve also continued to expand my own knowledge and network by participating in the EductionTechnology MOOC, the JellyWeek event, and my Facebook, Linked In and Ning networks. I even made time to create a January newsletter and send it out to about 3000 people (only 12-16% will open it).

I participated in a couple of Blackboard Collaborate Sessions hosed by the ET MOOC and I’ve been following the Twitter chatter on #etMooc. There’s also a Blog Hub, aggregating blogs posted by participants. As one writer said, “it’s frustrating because there is so much info and too little time.”

If you don’t know what a MOOC is, this “What is a MOOC?” article is useful.

I’m participating in these as part of my efforts to connect with others who share the same goals and strategies for making k-12 volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring, learning and career focused programs available to youth in more places. At any given time I’m connected to a diverse base of people from all parts of the world. This Twitter Mention Map from yesterday visualizes who I was connecting with on Twitter.

You can see from this map that while I’m learning from these events, I’m also connecting people I know to others who they might want to know or learn from. My hope is that I can find help from people in the mentoring, tutoring world who will want to organize MOOCs focused on building and sustaining mentor-rich programs in more places, drawing from articles that I’ve written, research that others have generated, and ideas from many people in many places.

The MOOCs are free and you can participate at your own pace, learning what you want, when you want. This is a long-term learning process not something that you can master in a day or a week. I hope to see you on-line.