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#openbadges – Learner Stories

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

Over at P2PU.org I’m co-ordinating a ‘semester of learning’ on Mozilla’s upcoming Open Badges framework. This past week we’ve been looking at ‘learner stories’, scenarios for using badges to credentialise learning. Here’s my (fictional) attempt to explain how badges could work in the contexts with which I’m familiar.

Sarah with guitar

Sarah: recognition for extra-curricular learning

Sarah is a 15 year-old pupil in an average English secondary school. As a pupil on the ‘gifted and talented’ list,  she is working towards 14 GCSEs, including the English Baccalaureate subjects. Her passion, however, is music. She is a guitarist in a newly-formed band, something her parents and schoolteachers deem a distraction from her studies.

Recently, Sarah’s desire to spend more time writing and recording music has come into conflict with her studies. She has started to dabble in music production, but knows that to get a qualification in this area will probably have to wait.

How badges help:

Hearing of a new project using badges to credentialise learning in the music production arena, Sarah talks to her tutor and parents and the next parent/teacher evening about her passion for music. Because there is a way to credentialise it, her parents and tutor are happy with her dropping one of her GCSEs to free up time to pursue music production.

Within a few months, Sarah has her Music Production 101 badge. Realising she has module exams coming up, she decides to focus solely on her schoolwork for a month, then goes back to work on a badge that has been custom-made for her by a local producer: Producing kick-ass guitar music.

Sarah’s other band members begin to take on her ideas much more as she can talk knowledgeably about how something will sound as they are writing. Her teachers and parents notice she is happier in and with school, and notice an increase in Sarah’s confidence.

The result:

Badges provide a way to show parents and teachers the value of particular topic/subject/interest. In a world of high-stakes testing, badges allow for the credentialisation of passions, interests, and curiosities.

CC BY-NC rachel sian

JOIN US! A semester of learning about Open Badges and assessment.

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

Open Badges and assessment

What: An informal, collaborative group learning more about Mozilla’s Open Badge architecture.

Why: To consider the ways Open Badges could be used to credentialise educational outcomes.

Where: http://p2pu.org/en/groups/open-badges-and-assessment

When: Saturday 13th August – Friday 30th September 2011

Hashtag: #openbadges

I proposed a ‘semester of learning’ on Open Badges and assessment earlier this week. The idea seemed to gain some enthusiasm and traction, so I’ve gone ahead and set up a study group at P2PU.org. There’s no real need for a commitment other than joining the group and lurkers are as welcome as frequent contributors.

There’ll be a live Q&A and discussion session via IRC at 20.00 BST (GMT+1) tonight, Saturday 13th April, and every Saturday night. The link to get involved with that is in the sidebar at P2PU.org.

The first week’s task is really easy: read up on Open Badges so that in Week 2 we can negotiate how we’re going to move forward discussing and debating how they could be used within education.

Join us!

Semester of Learning: Open Badges and assessment

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

Update: This will now take place at P2PU.org

Semester of Learning: Mozilla badges and assessment

At the Thinking Digital Conference 2011 Nicole Yershon, Director of Innovative Solutions at Ogilvy mentioned an idea that immediately struck a chord with me. The idea? Having a semester of learning. This, of course, is a term loosely borrowed from universities but the way Nicole described and applied it (before I drifted off into a reverie of what I could spend a semester learning about) was much more self-directed and informa.

I’d like to propose a collaborative semester of learning.

After being initially sceptical, I’m now super-excited about the revolutionary potential of Mozilla’s Open Badges project and I want to investigate it further. I want to go beyond the type of research I would do for a single blog post and go a lot more in depth.

I have a feeling some may wish to join me in this.

Mozilla’s project in a nutshell:

  • Today’s learning happens everywhere, not just in the classroom. But it’s often difficult to get credit for it.
  • Mozilla and Peer 2 Peer University are working to solve this problem by developing an Open Badges infrastructure.
  • Our system will make it easy for education providers, web sites and other organizations to issue badges that give public recognition and validation for specific skills and achievements.
  • And provide an easy way for learners to manage and display those badges across the web — on their personal web site or resume, social networking profiles, job sites or just about anywhere.
  • The result: Open Badges will help learners everywhere unlock career and educational opportunities, and regonize skills that traditional resumes and transcripts often leave out.

I’m proposing the following as a basic minimum for this semester of learning:

  1. It lasts about six weeks, from Saturday 13th August to the end of September.
  2. Participants pool their findings and have asynchronous discussions (location TBC)
  3. Synchronous discussions as and when required.

The whole thing would be very light-touch, completely interest-based and informal. We’ll experiment with approaches for badge-giving within communities both educational and otherwise and, well, generally just see how it goes.

So… you in? (let me know in the comments)

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