#openbadges

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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…

I discovered the 23 Things campaign through researching open badges and I discovered open badges through another person at my work. 

I think I have been using open badges for just over a month now. I really like this approach to e-learning. It makes life a lot easier when looking for training and CPD opportunities. It is also a great way to encourage communication between staff members. 

The Leadership: Storytelling badge encourages you to reflect on a learning experience that involved showing leadership. I chose to talk about child-centred practice and the importance of it. I referred back to my experience in nursery when we made a computer game together. This was the first few steps to allowing children to completely take control and I think, as a result, I have gained evidence on child-led activities and their effectiveness. 

I was also encouraged to talk about this experience with a workmate. I really like this as it is a way of helping me (someone quite to working) speak to staff members to reflect on each other’s experience. As a result, we discuss our past experiences and challenges often at work. 

I also found out about a child-centred planning course. Unfortunately, I did not get an opportunity to complete this course as it was aimed at childminders and not support workers. Despite this, it encouraged me to look for training opportunities related to this and I may not have looked for this if I had not discovered the training through open badges as I was not aware of how accessible these opportunities are. 

I will continue to use open badges as I feel it is a great way of developing and reflecting on my current practice. 

Well here goes, something I never thought that I would do... is write a blog!

I just started working with the SSSC last Monday and after undergoing my induction for the first week, I have been told about #sssc23things and #openbadges and thought there would be no better way to find out more about these learning opportunities than to undertake them myself and get my self familiar with the type of learning resources they are and exactly what we have available here in our learning and development department. Although I am only a proportion of the way into this learning resources I have a feeling it is going to be very rewarding and I am going to learn a lot of useful digital tools and skills that will only help me flourish in my role here at the SSSC. I will try to keep my blog updated regularly and post updates on the most valuable skills I have learned from this programme and try to give you as much information as I can on the learning resource so that you too can make your mind as to whether this would be something useful to you.

Open Badges have become the basis for a common language of learning. When teachers break down what they are teaching into specific competencies, its easier to guide students toward their learning goals. The language of specific competencies also helps connect students with job and internship opportunities. The Open Badges standard was first announced by the Mozilla Foundation in 2010, and since then the education community has learned how they can best be used to support effective learning. The earliest open badges were often issued just for simple recognition or participation. However, as the promise of digital credentials begins to unfold, educators and employers now see badges as meaningful signals of expertise coupled with robust learning evidence.

Seeing the potential for open badges as a powerful learning tool, Knowledgestreem, Inc. launched Badge List in 2014 with the goal of helping teachers and learners to effectively track learning evidence. With this goal at the forefront of our activities, the Badge List team set out to find partners who were interested in using badges to recognize project-based and competency-based learning.

After developing Badge List with various professional development and higher ed organizations, in 2016 we were discovered by Alec Barron of Del Lago Academy in Escondido, CA. Alec is heading up the new Competency X program, which is designed to help High School students on their path to careers in science. Competency X is a personalized assessment system for science and engineering education that is co-developed with industry and college partners. The program is designed to help guide students towards internships and mentorships with science industry companies. 

After learning more about CompetencyX we knew we had found a perfect partner to grow with. The Badge List feature set is closely aligned with CompetencyX’s vision for using badges to help guide student learning. Badge List helps students develop skills and competencies, build portfolios of learning evidence and ultimately connect with internships in the science and technology industry.

I recently interviewed Alec from Competency X to talk about the process of collaboratively developing a badge tool that serves the needs of a visionary educator. We share these insights with with the goal of guiding educators toward a greater understanding of how badges can be used as a learning tool.

Ben from Badge List: As you began to build and launch the Competency X program, what was your high level vision?

Alec from Competency X: Competency X came from a frustration that our students were not transferring what they learned in the classroom laboratory to the real world laboratory in our science-based internships.  We wanted students to be better practicing scientists, not just in industry and college laboratories, but also in their community. Our hypothesis was that if students were given the opportunity to reflect on the practice of being a scientist, they would have a greater capacity to transfer what they learn in the classroom to the performance task demands of the real world.  

We use a digital portfolio for students to curate and reflect on evidence of their competency as a practicing scientist. Digital badges that are co-developed by our industry and college partners are issued when students meet specific criteria for science and engineering practices in their digital portfolio.  These badges act as mile markers that map out a learning progression for how we see students developing the essential skills, knowledge, and dispositions required for workplace success. Students use their digital badges to earn internships and do more intentional skill development work within the internship. The vision for Competency X is that we are a working model for a larger workforce development pipeline in our region.

Ben from Badge List: When did you first realize that a badge software could help you structure the Competency X program the way you wanted?

Alec from Competency X: Initially, we imagined paper certificates that would map out learning progressions and help students earn internships. The problem with these certificates is that they are not easily linked to the evidence a student offers to earn them. Linking evidence with a digital badge is valuable in several ways. First, it allows prospective employers to assess the validity of the micro-credential. When educators or employers click on a badge, the evidence that shows how a learner earned the badge can be viewed.  Our industry partners loved the idea of being able to watch a quick video that shows the learner demonstrating a concrete skill. Second, it allows learners to reflect on what led to success with current and past practices. If a learner wants to re-learn a particular skill set, all they have to do is click on their badge to view the tips and strategies that helped them previously reach success. Finally, it creates opportunities for learners to engage in a larger community of practice. Mentors can provide feedback on formative artifacts that will become evidence used to earn a badge. This allows artifacts of skills, knowledge, and dispositions to be used across multiple digital badges. This practice helps illuminate the interconnections between digital badges and prevents the compartmentalization of skills and knowledge.

Ben from Badge List: What about the Badge List software vision signaled to you that it would be a good fit for Competency X?

Alec from Competency X: We like that Badge List is finding ways to unite digital portfolios and digital badging. These two assessment practices complement each other to support thriving communities of practice for learners. The portfolio framework for curating the evidence to earn a badge matched our vision for what Competency X should provide to students.

Ben from Badge List: How does Badge List help your students to achieve their academic goals?

Alec from Competency X: Traditionally, academic goals for students take the shape of: “I want to earn at least an A or B in this class.” These transcript goals have extrinsic value for students and parents, but don’t have much meaning beyond the title of the course or how it gets classified by a post-secondary institution. Yes, you can say you did well in a Chemistry course if you earned an A, but what does that mean? What does it say about what you can do in a health science laboratory or a pharmacy? Digital badges allow us to highlight skills, knowledge, and dispositions that are far too often underemphasized in schooling, but are significant indicators for successful performance in the workplace. Badges help us fill in the gaps for what gets assessed in school and they create more diverse opportunities for students to set meaningful academic goals. Students can start with a field of interest, identify relevant badges, and then set goals to earn digital badges that can be used for opportunities, such as internships. This allows us to shift from teacher-centered goals to a more student-centered approach. Students can select projects or workplace experiences as areas to set goals and use the digital badges as the identifiers of competency.

Ben from Badge List: How do you see badges fitting in with your goal of helping students connect with industry opportunities?

Alec from Competency X: Our digital badges were developed by industry and college partners that offer internships for students at our school. We view this as a more dynamic vision for how teachers implement standards within schools. Typically, teachers enact a curriculum that was developed and adopted to represent state approved standards. This creates several layers of distance between teachers and the industry advisers that developed the standards. In our summer workshop, we co-created badges with industry and college partners by engaging in dialogue about the qualities they wanted in new hires. We were able to hear important anecdotes about performance tasks that employees struggle with on the job. Many of the badges we created represent the skills and dispositions our industry partners saw lacking in new hires. Badges, such as Skeptic and Elevator Pitch, were created to fill in these skill gaps that are not often assessed in a traditional school curriculum. We feel that the creation of such badges with industry and college partners is a more direct and dynamic vision for standards-based education. 

In addition to our portfolio of badges, students are asked to co-create a digital badge with their internship mentor to represent the goals they have developed for their project. This allows the student and the internship mentor to have deep conversations around how to assess what is needed for success in that industry. The internship process begins when a student reaches out to schedule a meeting with their internship mentor to discuss possible internship projects. Next, the project is used to identify the necessary skills, knowledge, and dispositions that may be badgeable. The internship mentor and student collaboratively create the badges together and use them to define success on their goals for the project. The badges serve as a formative assessment tool on the progress towards internship goals. They also provide highly contextualized learning evidence for that specific work environment. Once the student curates the necessary evidence to satisfy the requirements for the badge, the industry mentor validates the evidence and the badge is issued.

Ben from Badge List: What features of Badge List do you see as being the most important to Competency X students?

Alec from Competency X: We appreciate the flexibility with which Badge List organizes evidence. We like that students can submit multiple artifacts as evidence to demonstrate their competency. Assessment is a conversation. The more flexibility around evidence and feedback, the better.

Ben from Badge List: What advice to do have for other educators looking to build a program that uses open badges?

Posted by Benjamin Roome (@benjaroome).

To kick off our new blog series, “Open Badge Leaders”, I’m excited to highlight the work of Ms. Mari Venturino (@MsVenturino on twitter). Mari is a blended learning coach and 7th Grade science and AVID teacher in San Diego, California. She has done amazing work with badges including creating a badge-based teacher professional development system, presenting on gamifying with Badge List at the San Diego CUE conference, and being the first to earn the Badge List Community Leader badge.

Mari first learned about Badge List during a CUE conference earlier in 2015, and from there she hit the ground running by creating an open badge group called Getting Techy with the goal of helping her fellow teachers acquire blended learning skills. The badges include tutorials on how to get connected on Twitter, bring badges into the classroom, and how to use lots of other great tools like Padlet, Popplet, Pinterest, and Google Classroom. Mari believes that “digital badges encourage teacher learners to try out new technology tools without feeling overwhelmed by the amount to learn.”

Mari’s PD-focused Badge List group “Getting Techy”. If you’re interested in joining the Getting Techy group, Mari suggests that newcomers start with Badge Beginner.

Mari has built groups for her students in both science and AVID classes as well.  She says that one of the main challenges of rolling out badges is the time it takes to get students to sign up and keep them motivated to try more badges.  Once you get over the hump, though, she reiterates that the value is more than worth it for both students and teachers alike, providing valuable insights and capitalizing on students’ innate competitiveness.

Asked for tips for other budding badge builders, Mari suggests: “Just do it! Don't worry about creating the most perfect badge image, create one, add some evidence, invite learners and go!”  Agreed! Get things off the ground quickly and then make little changes as you go.

Helpful Resources

For further reading and learning here are some fantastic resources which Mari has put together for other teachers interested in getting started with digital credentialing:

Video tutorial on creating custom badge images

Mari's presentation at #SDCUE

Click here to open google presentation

Mari’s Hyperlink Resources

Click here to open google docs tutorials on learning gamification