Job Changes for Me & I'm Eager to Get Started

I haven't posted lately because I've been holding onto some information that changes quite a bit of how my time will be spent at work.  Now that it's closer to the transition, I can speak a bit about it.

For the past two years, I've been in a split job working 4 days/week working with consumers who need public benefits; either help with the application process or, more and more these days, help with advocacy when their applications are not processed properly or promptly or are outright mishandled.  The other day I devoted to financial literacy education and taxes (VITA).  During tax season, the job split to 3:2 so I had a second day for taxes.  But it is difficult to split your time like this, especially when those 8 or 16 hours don't all occur on the same day and you try to balance how much time you are devoting to projects that require more time than you have available.  Complicating this is the evening hours that 2nd piece of my job entails.

As of October 1st, I'll have only the one job, managing financial literacy, VITA, working more closely with the IDA program (Individual Development Accounts), and employment-related programming/services in our technology center. 

I'm glad my patience has been rewarded with this shift.  If you want to help people get out of poverty, they need to develop assets.  This comes under the umbrella of Asset Development or Asset Formation; in my case, we help people to:

• develop their financial competence (financial literacy education) and put money into savings;
• save towards owning as asset such as a home, business, or to go back to school (IDAs);
• get the most out of their tax return through credits, better advance planning (how to use their refund, setting up withholding properly, file past year returns), and on-time current tax filing (VITA); and
• become bankable: save towards paying back-owed money to a bank if they've had past banking problems so they can once again open and bank account (2nd Change Banking Account).

You can see how this could be difficult to manage in an 8-hour/week schedule! 

In addition, people need an income to live on, save with, and spend.  Many people have trouble getting re-employed after being on unemployment more than 6 months.  Jobs are highly competitive and many people need help with today's electronic application process.  Without a new job, they'll lose the assets they do have and become a statistic -- unemployed and sometimes eventually homeless.  So beefing up our employment-related services and reaching out to communities that are hardest hit and most affected by our tough economic situation is closely tied to poverty prevention. 

This also helps integrate our technology center more closely with the overall agency; something I've been working on over the past year with a good amount of success, but only possible because of the help of agency staff who also see the value in this.  Together, we're providing better & more integrated services.

This transition will take time, as people still need help with benefits and we cannot expect other agency staff to know, overnight, all that I've learned in 2.5 years.  But we have good staff who can rise to many occasions.  Together, we'll at least be able to handle benefits applications and possibly refer to other agencies, especially legal ones, for many of the advocacy issues I've been handling.  When state agencies continue to improperly deny benefits or make it difficult for eligible applicants to get benefits, perhaps it's best to let some "legal eagles" take them on and push them to properly train and supervise their case managers. 

That is for the difficult situations.  For the less difficult situations, many of my clients have learned how to advocate for themselves.  This really is a good advocate's goal - empower clients to self-advocate and win on their own; help them recognize that they have the can do attitude and skills to do other things that will move them forward. 

It won't be an overnight transition, but it is an important one.  I'm so glad that our funders and board recognize Asset Development/Asset Formation as a proper and potentially powerful tool in the fight against poverty. 

I Love it When Things Come Together!

I get really excited when I've been able to figure out the answer (or an answer) to a problem that's been bugging me.  When it comes to technology, figuring out those answers usually means I've learned the tool at a deeper level of understanding than I had before -- and that's a good thing. 

So I was really excited this morning when I made one change to a website I've been working on and the "fix" did exactly what I hoped it would do.  I had figured out the answer a few days ago but didn't have time until today to actually test it out.  Now I can tell the client to take a look and we can move on from here.

I've been using the Joomla! web development tool for a while now, but don't get to work with it all the time.  I have to do it early in the morning (before my day job) and on the weekend.  But I've gradually grown to understand it at a much deeper level and can often figure something out fairly quickly.  I'm not a coder, but know enough html, and now even a bit of css, to work with it and set things up to work the way I want. 

But every once in a while I get stumped.  And I was stumped for about a week with this last problem.  I use the same template on another site, so started to look at the css files of both, comparing what was different between and found the "offending" plugin that was stumping me.  Turning that off cleared up my problem and I have decided I don't want/need that plugin.  Next step is to uninstall it so my site stays clean and only has features and plugins installed that I want or need. 

I think that my many years of fixing computers (hardware and software) have helped me be a good troubleshooter.  And this skill transfers to non-technology projects and problems.  I find I can look at the problem fairly dispassionately and review the surrounding environment (circumstances, issues, players involved, etc.) and localize the source.  That's essential in good problem-solving.  Too many people put band-aides on problems rather than taking the time to figure out the source.  Problem is -- the problem keeps coming back if you don't get to the source and eliminate it!

That's my thought for this morning.  I think it's a great way to start my day.

Each Week, I Learn a Little More with Joomla!

Yesterday I did a little searching and discovered a plugin that permits me to embed powerpoint presentations in Joomla! websites. I already had a SlideShare account, but hadn't thought about using that with Joomla! A little research on how to get my slides to embed in a website led me to that solution and it's working pretty well.

Some of the slides are a full screen, and those don't display exactly properly. But for now, it's a good start on getting our Electronic Bulletin Board, with local events and information constantly updated, onto our website.  This will make it easier for our volunteers to answer a question from someone who has seen something posted on the bulletin board but doesn't want to stand outside and wait for it to roll around again.  They can go to the website, click on the link, and find what the person is asking about.

I LOVE how technology can actually make things easier for us.

10th Annual GUT Conference

Friday night and Saturday I spent some quality time with other community organizers, writers, and activists who gathered for a combined Digital Media Conference organized by the Organizers' Collaborative (10th annual conference), National Writers Union, and Open Media Boston.  I often go to conferences on my own dime, so to speak, but always end up bringing back valuable information to use in my work.  This was no exception.

Overall, I was able to gain something important for my work from the conference and that's always a plus.  I consider conferencing successful if it brings me into touch with people who have knowledge or skills I can learn from -- the oh so important networking aspect of conferencing -- and it's a bonus if the sessions provide even more knowledge on topics.  I've gone to so many conferences over the years that many workshop sessions are not all that valuable to me.  But I have to say that the GUT Conference each year has provided important session content as well and this year was no exception.  (Another conference that has done that is PodCamp, but that's another post entirely.)

Combining workshops by writers and media activists brought broader content and additional depth to the workshops, with common threads of organizing/activism and technology.  It seems like a smart thing to do when people have scarce resources and technology is so pervasive in our lives. 

Technology is a real concern to writers as they struggle to earn a living while technology is getting so good at making so much free.  Newspapers, for example, are struggling to redefine themselves in the technology economy and determine what should be free and what should be paid for. Organizations and individuals who want to use the Internet for fundraising or to earn a living need to understand what technology is available to do what, how it works, and how to make it work for them. 

The question of how consumers would pay for information was part of a session I attended on microfunding, where consumers can pay for content on a subscription, per article, or tip basis.   Many web-based content providers want to earn money using the Internet.  Setting up a payment scheme that works for that type of content and gets people to pay can be tricky and may require trying more than method before finding one that works for a person or organization.  Try Delicious' website and type microfunding in the search bar to get an idea of the many options you have for setting up a payment scheme for your website's content.

I have been learning Joomla web development software to convert my websites from a proprietary platform to open source.   But also of concern to me is a good database structure that lets me manage course registrations and payments, memberships and payments, volunteers, and fundraising.  Having a database that works with Joomla, so this is available online and I can manage it from almost anywhere, is important to me.  So I attended the CIVICRM workshop and learned more about it in one hour than I'd learned from research on the Internet I'd done.  That was very valuable to me and can help me make a decision about whether to move in this direction or not after my Joomla sites are running.

Of course, having such a database online raises security issues, so the session on Data Safety, while focused on the Massachusetts law that goes into effect March 1st, seemed a logical session to attend.  I realized during this session that I still have some work to do to comply with the law and now need to absorb more info about it so I can pass this along to others at work.  Thankfully, some tools provided during the session will make compliance much easier. 

Too many conferences focus on workshops and not enough on networking.  Quality sessions are important, but networking can make or break a conference.  There isn't enough networking time built into the GUT Conference in general and this is something I'll bring to the organizers' attention.  I hate having to choose between a session I want to attend and spending some time with people from whom I can learn.  While it seems counterintuitive, I've found that the PodCamp model of 90-minute sessions with 30-minutes in between provide a great balance between the two.  It really works and this is something I'll try to encourage GUT organizers to adopt.  Session facilitators might find it a bit intimidating at first, and some topics can benefit from a Part 1 and Part 2 or a long session, but if you want people to gain as much as possible from their time, you've got to give them time to talk about what they're seeing/hearing and learn from each other.

Overall, I'd give it a good grade and feel it was worth my time.

Barriers to Web 2.0 in Schools

"Teachers and students are largely driving the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in schools, but human and technological barriers are holding back the use of these as learning tools in many classrooms, according to a new study..."

From an article in eSchool News.

Here's an area where many of us can make a difference. We can connect with teachers and officials in our local schools and help improve their understanding and use of Web 2.0 tools.

Why would I recommend this? Educating students utilizing the ways that they learn today requires using the tools they use today. Web 2.0 tools can bring an "immediacy" to the classroom that outreaches traditional textbooks and other tools.

However, teachers are at a huge disadvantage in our classrooms; so are the students. It's a two-pronged problem that has nothing to do with Web 2.0. You can continue to read to see what I think about some of them (just the tip of an iceberg--it's early morning and I have to get to work). But you may be able to help your local schools in their understanding and adoption of Web 2.0 tools that improve teacher and student access to information that is relevant to their learning.

Unrelated to Web 2.0, what are some barriers to learning?
Teachers often are disadvantaged by the students themselves. Admittedly, and thankfully, it's not all students. But so many are disrespectful and disruptive in the classroom. Some don't want to learn. Some resent being in school. Some just don't know how to behave because no one has ever expected them to behave in a manner that's conducive to learning. Teachers end up becoming peacekeepers and disciplinarians. It reflects on the phrase, "When you're up to your ass in alligators, it's difficult to remember that the objective was to drain the swamp." It's difficult for the teachers and for those students who want to learn.

Students are also at a disadvantage. Some teachers don't know how to control a classroom. Some don't know how to engage youth in the learning process. Many of today's teachers cannot read and speak properly themselves. I am not talking about teachers who learned English as a second language. I'm talking about teachers who grew up in the American school system and never learned the basics themselves. They don't correct students' grammar because, "I'm not an English teacher," or some other silly reason.

Educational materials often create problems. Students bring homework home with instructions and worksheets. But if you read both, you'll see that the instructions use different terms than the worksheets. So the students are being taught one thing in school, but are bringing home assignments that use different terminology which they don't understand. I blame the publishers for this problem; they're so busy creating new editions of books each year to make money that they don't proofread and cross-reference properly before they publish. Again, it's not all of them, but it's enough of them to be a problem.

So, read the article and add your thoughts. Can you help your local schools in breaking down Web 2.0 barriers or any of these other barriers?

...Read, Think, and Discuss...