Ford and Community Engagement Thru Social Media

Theresa Campbell, Aida Correa, William Jackson, Chaun Avery, Cayla Whitcomb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ford and Community Engagement Thru Social Media
William Jackson,  FORDVIP Blogger
William Jackson and Aida Correa are attending multiple community events
sponsored by Ford Motor Company and the Southern Ford Dealers across
Florida. Selected as part of 25 Blogging Influencers that attended the Florida
Blogging and Technology Conference in 2018. Several of the events are
highlighted in this blog.

The Black History Month Unity Networking Mixer in Orlando, Florida, sharing
this event on social media channels to encourage community collaboration to
build partnerships in mentoring and business. Ford sponsors many activities
across the state, this effort through the #FordVIP and #ConnectFord program
addresses the use of social media and digital platforms to reach out to
communities to broaden the vision for unity, collaboration, business growth
and family/community engagement.

William and Aida residents of Jacksonville and part of the 25 member team
FORDVIP Bloggers that blog using multiple platforms and report  on state-wide
activities that are sponsored by Ford. Each event represents family oriented
and community based to engagements promoting the beauty of diversity,
awesomeness of inclusion and the need for increased community service.
What better way to create a vision of diversity and inclusion, to allow bloggers
of diverse backgrounds to share their experiences through their eyes using their
talents, skills and abilities using social media.

The Unity Mixer was attended by several  hundred business  and community
organizations that contribute to building youth and teen leadership skills,
advocates for  STEAM and educational  success in Orlando and surrounding areas.
The ROLEX 24 auto race held at Daytona International Raceway gives a view into
the world of motor racing that many do not get to see and experience.
Bloggers like William, African American, educator and speaker at national and
international WordCamp conferences shares his views why people of a diversity
should experience attending races with their families.

Aida of Latina background, Puerto Rican shares from the perspective of a mother,
grandmother, Artist what her views are of the fun women can have with their
families attending motor sports.

Cultural backgrounds should not limit the involvement and engagement of activities
that are different and out of the norm. What better way to experience life than to
do things that are different, exciting, new and innovative.

Pictured are operations managers and marketing specialists that coordinate with
William and Aida to provide maximum exposure for the Southern Ford Dealers that
are sponsoring events that promote family engagement and unity in their communities.
Attending community events like the Women On The Rise that celebrates women
doing phenomenal things in their communities that influence youth, teens and young
adults is more than a movement it is a passion for the direction of change.

Attending these events are pictured:
Theresa Campbell (Regional Marketing Specialist Orlando Region), Aida Correa
(FordVIP Blogger), William Jackson (FordVIP Blogger),  Chaun Brown (Orlando
Sales Operations Manager for Ford), Cayla Whitcomb (Sales Business Development Specialist).

Follow William and Aida and other bloggers on the social media hashtags
#ConnectFord #FordVIP #MyQuestToTeach and #LoveBuiltLife.

 

All Kids Can Code in Jacksonville

All Kids Can Code In Jacksonville

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Kids Can Code in Jacksonville
William Jackson and Monica Timmons
Partnership between:
Jacksonville section of the
National Council of Negro Women
My Quest To Teach
LoveBuilt Life, LLC

The Jacksonville Section of NCNW and STEAM Chair Monica Timmons
envisioned All Kids Can Code Event, as a talking point for students that
would spark interest in technology.
The event was created to expose kids to the computer programming coding
language  “Scratch,” discuss various types of technology careers that kids
can have access to..

Monica knew that in order to captivate the audience of young people she would
have to be transparent and meet the youth where they were with positive word
affirmations over themselves. The students yelled, “I am somebody, I control my
destiny, I am brilliant and my mind is limitless.”
“My hope is that a technology movement of young people building code and
using creativity will erupt and cause the youth to put down guns and pick up
coding methodologies,” said Monica.

William Jackson, a 31 year educator hoped that the skills gained learning coding
and applied to Social Media responsibility and accountability can change the
mind-sets of youth, teens and young adults. “Creating a transformative mental
shift away from self-hurt, self-denial to self-nourishment and self-empowerment,”
said William.

The ability to understand languages is not just related to foreign languages;
Spanish,  French, Igbo and the other diverse languages that can he heard in the
community of Jacksonville. There is another language that is located on digital
platforms that is the language of coding.

Coding can be the language to program robots, mechanical machines, cars,
airplanes and spaceships. It can be related to the language of the web also,
that Tim Berners-Lee created browsers to allow the Internet to be seen by human
eyes through web browsers and not just viewed but with interaction and
engagement.

A quote by Lee, “the Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future
is still so much bigger than the past.” William Jackson a STEAM advocate
encourages youth, teens and young adults to have a global perspective of the
world. To look beyond Jacksonville, Florida.
There are other similar languages CSS, Python and others that allow for the
connections of human and machine. The incorporation of AI – Artificial
Intelligence that blends human thinking to the decision making of machines.
Allowing machines to think like humans and make independent decisions.

The All Kids Can Code workshop for kids provided by the vision of Monica
Timmons, a skilled and proficient coder, developer, web creator. Monica an
active and engaged member of the historic National Council of Negro Women
https://ncnw.org/ Jacksonville Chapter.
The direction of life sustaining careers is directly related to STEM and STEAM.
Science Technology Engineering and Math or in some cases Mechanics.
The A represents the engagement of the Arts a very important element that
allows diverse areas of the brain to function in creativity and innovation.
Artist like Aida Correa infuse these elements to excite kids that are not into
sports or entertainment.
Youth, teens and young adults need to be engaged academically that can lead to
professional careers.

Great appreciation to Gabriella White for sharing her story and drive toward her career
dreams. Her involvement is an inspiration to the youth attending to see a young person
they can look up to as a role model and even a mentor.
Opportunities like All Kids Can Code have the potential to open professional doors that
lead to sitting at the tables of business, commerce, technology, the Arts and education.
The economic opportunities for children of color and culture to develop skills necessary
to start their journeys in new career opportunities and as entrepreneurs.

The NCNW in partnership with My Quest To Teach and LoveBuilt Life, LLC will be providing
workshops on June 15^th and June 22nd in Jacksonville continuing to teach coding, web
development and Internet safety and responsibility.

Thanks and appreciation goes out to Monica, the volunteers and support of the NCNW
and building the future leaders Jacksonville will need to become a transformative city
for the future.
Businesses are embracing new technologies that manage data, are proactive to challenges
that humans face and even encourage innovation.
The Arts is a very valuable component because of the infusion of visual elements that
bring attention to nature. Special thanks to the Jacksonville Public Library and the use
of its state of the art facilities. Always available to help and build a better future for youth,
teens and young adults in Jacksonville.

NCNW Jacksonville Section under the leadership of:

Kruzshander Scott – Executive Director
Dr. Sabrina Edward, Ph.D. – President
Dr. Jevetta Stanford, Ph.D. – Vice President
Brandi Bennett – Secretary
Alfreda Denson-Butler – Interim Treasurer

William Jackson can be contacted at myquesttoteach@gmail.com
Monica Timmons can be contacted at jaxncnw1938@gmail.com
Aida Correa can be contacted at heisintheart@gmail.com
Jacksonville Section of NCNW website: https://jaxncnw.wordpress.com/

 

All Kids Can Code In Jacksonville

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left to Right: William Jackson, Alfreda Denson-Butler,
Sharita Neal, Gabriella White, Tasha Gaitlin,
Monica Timmons, Marcia Brown, and Marilynn Doucet.

Being An HBCU Professor Was Awesome

Being An HBCU Professor Was Awesome
2004 to 2017
Being an HBCU Professor was one of the best experiences
as a professional educator.
Teaching at Edward Waters College, the oldest HBCU in the
state of Florida.
Not only did I teach Educational Technology,
Social Media and STEAM during the school year,
I had the honor to teach with Black Male Explorers
and other groups in Jacksonville.
Advocating for STEAM Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts Math,
instruction and helping to build learning leaders in the community.
I took my students, those that wanted to come
to WordCamp conferences, community meetings,
Open House at my place of employment
and other venues.
It’s the truth, “It Takes A Village”
Sharing my video to inspire other HBCU instructors.
Click on link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6aY_4i7Hlc&feature=youtu.be

Prof Jackson and Students

The Power of Blogging – Opening Dynamic Digital Doorways

The Power of Blogging – Opening Dynamic Digital Doorways
by William Jackson @wmjackson

WordCamp Jacksonville 2019

Blogging is a dynamic digital doorway to discovery and social engagements
that are continuously changing. Blog provide a voice to the voiceless and a
platform to tell a story. Traditional processes of communication have changed
from verbal exchanges to the infusion of digital tools and platforms that
allow for uninterrupted connections and enhanced exchanges of information.

The tools or platforms range from Vblogging, Podcasting, Instagraming,
Snap-chatting, Vining, Periscope, Voxing, Facebook Live and the list continues
to grow.  As a past instructor teaching Educational Technology, Social Media
and STEAM at a historically Black higher educational institution –
HBCU Edward Waters College. The opportunity to teach, expose and bring
to light how powerful tech can be is awesome and a little intimidating.

There is a need for instruction that is tailored not to specific platforms,
but an open discussion of the why Social Media should be implemented
and how to effectively to get students to understand that their career
success is dependent on their gaining knowledge, acquiring resources
and networking. As shared by a previous student Crystal Sanders, attending
the class on blogging and technology; “as a future educational leader
you maybe required to conduct training’s on a platform or formats using
productivity tools and digital tools.” Educators must be able to apply real
learning to real relevancy so students know how to apply their thinking.
Understanding how to use these tools is very important, each lesson in
Educational Technology was designed for you to “think and apply” “in
a particular way concerning your area of study.”

Prof Jackson and Students

The Educational Technology and Social Media course is project based
and develops thought leadership and critical and higher order thinking
that students will need as they begin their new careers. Our society is
a knowledge based society. There is a need for the skills of acquiring
information, applying information and understanding the relevancy of
information. Students need to understand the application of applying
knowledge, especially to career choices and learning situations.

Blogging is not dead as some people imply. It is transforming to embrace
a digital lifestyle. The growing social engagements that allow for direct
communication, local  connections that allow for community activism,
mobile ability to communicate on the move and community interaction
that brings people closer together and allows for diversity to unite instead
of divide people.

If students are not taught the power of blogging, building digital platforms
and growing into digital innovators, the ability to be authentic storytellers
could be lost, their voices could be drowned in the commercial manipulation
of media and our diverse cultures could be lost in the overall digital Matrix.

The power of blogging strong when words define a Blog, words create a
Niche and word are characteristically adaptable to all situations and
circumstances for communication. Sharing stories was once only done
by storyteller, blogging is now the storyteller format for digital
communication and allows anyone, everywhere, from all walks of life to
have a voice and bring a voice to the voiceless.

Blogging is not dead, nor will it ever die, it will adapt, re-invent itself and
even become scalable to new tools and platforms to share information
that is transformational and empowering.

Bloggers, Content Creators, Digital Innovators