Learning Futures

Open Badges don’t work as expected! Introduction At this stage of the project we explored how to use and possibly adapt existing Open Badge tools to create the instruments supporting the development of Local Recognition Networks (LRNs). It is when we realised that, while being very efficient in certain contexts, existing Open Badge tools might not be aligned with REVEAL’s objectives. The…

Open Badges will work wonders! Foreword This article is the first of a series of 4 articles recounting the journey of REVEAL, an Erasmus+ project, in its approach to using Open Badges. The journey passed through four major milestones detailed in a series of 4 articles: Authoring: Open Badges will work wonders! Reality check: Open Badges don’t work as expected! Adjusting creatively to…

Adding insult to injury, @OECDEduSkills advice to girls: “if you want to be a successful girl, be a good boy!” #OpenRecognition

Monday March 9, as part of March on Gender – FAST FORWARD TO GENDER EQUITY, Andreas Schleicher presented the results of OECD studies related to gender equity. What the studies clearly elicit is the fact that girls on almost all accounts score better than boys, whether in terms of creativity, willingness to take a risk (I will come back to that later), literacy, sciences etc. In short, take at…

Competency #OpenBadges: the tail wagging the dog? #OpenRecognition

Introduction

More than three decades ago, I started a journey exploring how technologies could contribute to making one’s competencies more visible, especially for those who didn’t have the chance to receive a formal qualification. Started in the world of formal[efn_note]I group under formal what in the field of education the OECD distinguishes between formal and non-formal(both planned), as…

It's about Trust, Stupid! Why #Blockchain -based #BlockCerts are the wrong solution to a false problem (2/3) #OpenRecognition #OpenBadges

Are blockchains to credentials what the embalming fluids are to thanatopraxie, a means to keep the appearance of life to the dead?

In the previous post, we examined some of the blockchains shortcomings: over-hype being second to their defective and noxious relationship to trust—and the human race in general. In this post we are looking at one particular application of the blockchain technology…

It's about Trust, Stupid! Why Blockchain-based BlockCerts are the wrong solution to a false problem (1/3) #OpenRecognition #OpenBadges #Blockchains

Metaphor for blockchain-centred systems—when a part becomes the whole

Why Blockchains?

The rationale for the initial development of blockchain technologies like Bitcoins, was to solve the problem of double spending while simultaneously:

Getting rid of regulatory bodies — the dream of the proponents of anarcho-capitalism also called libertarian anarchy, one of the ideologies widely shared…

It's about Trust, Stupid! Why Blockchain-based BlockCerts are the wrong solution to a false problem (0/3) #OpenRecognition #OpenBadges #Blockchains

Prolegomena

Blockchains have become both a kind of a fashion item and a religion. Not having one on display can be considered as a sign of bad taste, ignorance, misplaced skepticism, luddism or heathendom.

This series of posts (3) is a rebuttal of the blockchain bandwagon on to which so many are willing to jump without engaging their brains: remember Farmingdale (link), a $24 million iced…

Are micro-credentials the mortal enemy of culture? Reflections on #OpenBadges and #OpenRecognition

The title of this post is inspired by a text written in 1932 by the French poet Paul Valéry which I received from my friend and colleague Philippe Petiqueux (@misterppqx).

The opening words of Paul Valéry’s text are:

“I never hesitate to declare that the diploma is the mortal enemy of culture. The more important diplomas have become in life (and this importance has only increased because of…

Kirkpatrick and Open Badges: Can do better!

Ensuring that the competencies acquired during training are actually transferred to the workplace—what the “Kirkpatrick methodology” defines as assessment level 3-—is a classic human resource management problem. How to address it? And more specifically, how could Open Badges contribute to its resolution?

Open badges according to Kirkpatrick … In an attempt to address this question, I went to Kirk…

The World Brain Experiment #OpenRecognition #OpenBadges

“We want a reconditioned and more powerful Public Opinion. In a universal organisation and clarification of knowledge and ideas, in a closer synthesis of university and educational activities, in the evocation, that is, of what I have here called a World Brain, operating by an enhanced educational system through the whole body of mankind, a World Brain which will replace our multitude of…

Towards an ethical framework for #OpenRecognition #OpenBadges

“Open Recognition” is the association of two words that, when taken independently, cover such a wide range of connotations and values that they can easily become confusing, while, when combined, they provide a powerful concept to discriminate between open/closed, recognition/rejection, inclusion/exclusion. For example, the very first Open Badge technologies were designed in such a way that…

The #OpenRecognition and its Enemies (5) — Saved by #OpenEndorsement! #OpenBadges #Openepic

“On the social plane, the understanding that identities are formed in open dialogue, unshaped by a predefined social script, has made the politics of equal recognition more central and stressful.” —Charles Taylor, Politics of Recognition.

In my previous posts I tried to elicit the dangers associated with the increased colonisation of the world of (informal) education and recognition by…

#OpenBadges for #Quality and Quality for Open Badges — #OpenRecognition

Following yesterday’s post I’ve tried to structure some elements for an overview of the relationships between Open Badges and quality. This is just a rough draft, an ice breaker to open a conversation.

How do Open Badges and Quality Relate?

Open Badges and Quality can be related as in:

Open Badges for Quality, as a means to achieve quality, e.g. using Open Badges as a vehicle for issuing quality…

#OpenRecognition and its Enemies (4) — Quality Assurance of #OpenBadges

“There being no recognition that each individual constitutes his own class, there could be no recognition of the infinite diversity of active tendencies and combinations of tendencies of which an individual is capable. There were only three types of faculties or powers in the individual’s constitution [reason, passion and appetite]. Hence education would soon reach a static limit in each class,…

#OpenRecognition and its Enemies (3) — Informal recognition in the Walhalla of #OpenBadges

In my previous post I tried to find resources on how recognition works within the field of informal learning. Unfortunately I felt as though I was swimming against a strong current that kept me away from the shore. The ideas of recognition, validation, standards and accreditation of informal learning, not to mention quality assurance, are so entangled that we tend to forget that recognition has a…

#OpenRecognition and its Enemies (2) — No Informal Learning without Informal Recognition - #OpenBadges #OpenEndorsement #OpenEpic

MONSIEUR JOURDAIN: By my faith! For more than forty years I have been speaking prose without knowing anything about it, and I am much obliged to you for having taught me that. —The Middle Class Gentleman (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme). Molière

In the previous post, I (briefly) explored the dangers associated with the formalisation of informal learning, how these dangers might be increased with the…

#OpenRecognition and its Enemies (1) — The genesis of #OpenBadges

Why have I not published lately?

A number of important events have occurred since my last post, starting with the disfiguration of planet Earth when a big orange blob fell and spattered across its surface. The fascination for this phenomenon has been a major distraction from my daily routine. I probably spend at least one hour a day trying to follow and understand what’s going on — why do people…