Four Steps in Problem Solving - Could Involve Youth
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I created a concept map showing the four part strategy in mid 2000s. Here’s the link. http://tinyurl.com/TMI-4-Pt-Strategy
If you click the box at the bottom of each node, you open one, or more additional maps, that provide deeper understanding, or link directly to on-line resources.
Eternity is in love with the creations of time.
So much of every step of the way in this process is filled with human connection. I find that my students steer away from this utterly as they try use only online sources as the path of least resistance in answering their question. This people part, this networking the commons part, is what sets students apart. Those who can engage with their commons almost always succeed on both the micro (university success) and the mondo (life success) levels. I find the same pattern holds true for MOOCs. It doesn’t matter how big or impersonal the MOOC is, if you don’t make any connections of quality, it won’t work. And that is why CLMOOC has proven to be enduring—the connections and the open invitation to connect without being forced to do so.
Terry, here’s another map, showing a goal of teaching youth to build habits of going to web sites to get/give info. This process should start early and be reinforce all through formal schooling, if it’s to become a habit of adults. http://tinyurl.com/TMProgram-LearningGoals
While the Tutor/Mentor Connection was started in Chicago, and most program related info is pointing to Chicago, the strategy can be duplicated in any city.
Is there a national connection organization? How do groups like your share out on the larger stage?
Kevin, here’s a link to a section of my library pointing to other orgs across the nation. http://www.tutormentorconnection.org/LinksLearningNetwork/LinksLibrary/tabid/560/agentType/ViewType/PropertyTypeID/94/Default.aspx
While I have them in my library, and try to connect on line, many don’t point to each other the way I do.
Many have started after I started T/MC in 1993. Instead of saying “can I help you” they just reinvent the wheel.
This pdf was done by a group of NetImpact volunteers, to compare what I was doing in Chicago to what others do in other states. http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/images/PDF/tmccomparison2010.pdf
I did not have funds/volunteers to continue this after 2010, and I don’t see anyone else attempting to do a similar comparison, with the goal of providing ideas that any can use to constantly improve.
Eternity is in love with the creations of time.
Eternity is in love with the creations of time.
I worry that our networks generate so much noise that folks just go ahead and reinvent the wheel as a way to avoid that noise. What we need is folks in every organization who cut through the noise and curate the signal.
You’re right about the level of noise. I’ve patterned my efforts around what faith leaders do weekly to point congregations to small pieces of scripture within the huge Bible, then encourage group discussions around that scripture. I also copy what advertisers do, putting messages out weekly, in many formats, inviting customers to come to their stores. Those who care about a specif cause, need to band together and adopt these strategies, if they are going to be able to cut through the clutter of noise and attract eyeballs.
The Connected Learning MOOC (CLMOOC) at http://clmooc.com/2016/ is a model for how people from around the country can connect and share ideas related to a specific theme. It shows that if the MOOC is repeated over many years, more people participate, stronger relationships grow, and the library of ideas also grows.
The challenge of online spaces like CLMOOC is to sustain the energy over time, and not just in the small window of activities. Invitations and multiple paths for contributions is a key factor. People need to feel invited and that their work has meaning and value.
This is why I’ve been trying to find a university and/or business that would take ownership of what I’ve been doing pretty much as a one-man army.
I connected with Steven, but his focus is on what happens in schools, thus not giving much thought to how non-school programs might support students and teachers. I’m also connected to a writing project at DePaul.
Educators do this daily as they ask students read and reflect on specific sections of books, videos, etc. Faith leaders do this weekly as they read a passage from scripture, then volunteers lead groups that dig deeper into those passages.
This step is borrowed from my 17 year retail advertising experience. Each week retail companies spend millions of dollars to showcase merchandise that potential customers are looking for. They motivate action by offering “deals” or “sales” with limited time, act now, incentives.
See this graphic on this page. http://tutormentorinstitute.wikidot.com/using-maps-to-build-capacity
As you work through the four steps, in sequence, you see work that’s been done since 1993, and work that still needs to be happening. These four steps can focus on any problem, not just building youth serving organizations in Chicago.
Eternity is in love with the creations of time.
Eternity is in love with the creations of time.
I think it is so important that we acknowledge how demanding this algorithm is. As the expanding boxes point out there is increasing complexity almost immediately. I know when my students confront “simple” instructions they are way more complex than I had considered when I wrote them. I find myself creating maps/templates so that they can focus on the larger purpose. For example, I use a text in my Freshman Comp class called “They say/I say” The simple pattern in “they say/I say” is that all academic writing can be reduced to that simple but not easy call and response. The whole semester is the playing out of how that simple template is played out in writing summaries, critiques, analyses, and research syntheses.
I also use a similar stepwise plan when I talk about research writing that I stole from Harold Jarche (highly recommend his writing): seek/sense/share. We seek info in response to a personal interest or question or curiosity. We make sense of it (sum it up, critique it, analyze it, synthesize it). Finally, we share it. SeekSenseShare, the identifying feature from 10000 feet.
The scaffolding needs to be super simple and memorable. Students need to know that it is not necessarily a linear process but it’s OK and productive to make it so. I find your four steps here to be very similar.
So…I guess I want more stories about how folk have used these four steps, how you have used these four steps, perhaps how you came to this plan. I suspect it came through your formative marketing years. I know a lot of my steps came not from education, but from business and teaching and farming.
You’re right, Terry. It’s even more complex than what you described. For someone to really understand what I’m describing they need to go to the live concept map, and begin to open the linked pages at the bottom of each node. These go several layers deep and many end up pointing to sections of my web library, which hosts over 2000 links. It’s not a short term exercise, which is why it’s not used nearly as much as it needs to be. It’s also a reason to keep trying to make this curriculum that a school/department stretches out over many years of learning.
If teachers are trying to get students to map solutions to problems, they can point to my maps as an example of how I’m sharing my ideas in ways that others can find and apply them. This might prompt students to create their own maps, focusing on problems important to them. If enough teachers do this, some of the issues important to Ss will be the same ones I focus on.
Agree. The tools for collaborative information collection/curation/sharing are now better than when I first started. However, a leadership commitment is needed for much to happen. Here’s one PDF from my library focusing on shared information collection. https://www.scribd.com/document/75699079/Community-Information-Collection-A-Shared-Effort
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Eternity is in love with the creations of time.
Eternity is in love with the creations of time.
Step One: define the commons.
Step Two: gather folk to the commons.
Step Three: make sense together in the commons.
Step Four: re-define the scale of the commons.
I don’t know if this helps any for you, but for me it makes me realize how messy this folk-centered version of your plan truly is. And I see that it is quite likely not a linear plan except at the very beginning. These steps are, however, great stakes in the ground as you survey the increasingly complex ecosystem that is the commons.
Terry, I encourage you to read this blog, and view the video by Gene Bellinger, who leads a systems thinking network. He shows four steps that are similar to yours and mine. http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2014/07/problem-solving-systems-thinking.html
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