As we enter the marketplace or build up a digital identity that is representative of our skills, we upload our resume/CV. We can use badges/credentials to signify growth/learning. We can use networks, like LinkedIn to express our values and have others review/vet them. One of the challenges in this is that when we look for…
Digital badges provide great opportunities to recognize, assess, and motivate learners in and/or out of traditional learning contexts. Digital badges are web-enabled tokens of accomplishment that contain specific claims and evidence about learning and achievement along with detailed evidence supporting those claims. Badges traditionally consist of an image and relevant metadata (e.g., badge name, description,…
As detailed in the annual report for 2015-2016, BadgeChain has undergone a series of changes in the first year of the organization. As we enter into our second year we, the core members of BadgeChain, see opportunities within the field, as well as in our own work that we would like to pursue. As part…
Good friend and advocate of open & digital badges Doug Belshaw gave a great keynote on July 26th at the Badge Summit in Aurora, CO. You can review the slide deck here and the video of the address here. Skip ahead to about 22:30 in the video to get to Doug’s address. I sat in…
On March 22nd, 2016, I presented on the Open Badges in Higher Ed working group call. The purpose of the call was to speak about some of my thinking about blockchain technologies and potential futures in research and development. In the discussion I defined blockchain and related technologies. I also discussed the work conducted up…
As I research and develop digital badges, I’m thoughtful about aspects of value, credibility, and “sincerity” of design in the badging infrastructure. Put simply, I believe that people will make judgments about the believability, credibility, and relevance of the digital badges based on elements of the metadata, the images used, and where the badge is hosted.…
In our discussions over the past couple of months about what would ultimately become BadgeChain, we’ve been trying to unpack what would happen if we injected blockchain technologies into an open badges framework. Keep in mind that we started with an examination of blockchain and open badges, but we’re exploring and not entirely sure where…
As I have detailed numerous times on this blog, I worked with a colleague (Greg McVerry) to develop the Online Research and Media Skills (ORMS) model. The ORMS model was developed to provide guidance for educators as they integrate technology into their classroom. As I continue to use the ORMS model in my classes and…
A part of the ORMS MOOC, we built a series of badges to act as gatekeepers and markers of identity within the community. The ORMS MOOC is a mentored, open, online learning community where we focus on opportunities to authentically and effectively embed technology into instruction. As part of this learning community, we wanted a…
Our column on Digital Badges: Recognizing, Assessing, and Motivating Learners In and Out of School Contexts was just published in JAAL. I co-wrote the column with Katerina Schenke, James E. Willis, and Daniel Hickey. As a supplement to the column, we invited a series of experts to spend some time discussing the broader impact of…