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Mark Bradshaw posted an update in the group Open Badges 11 years ago
Having an online discussion about Open Badges on our national learning/social network and facing the inevitable point of view that they are childish, trivial and unnecessary.
There are lots of arguments against this of course, but what would you counter it with if you could make only one point?
Mine might be to ask who is judging the recognition of achievment trivial or unnecessary? The recipient of the badges or the jaded old L&D person?
I like the concept of Open Badges. It’s their value I am not clear on at the moment outside of the institution that they are issued from and I think the whole idea of moderating needs to be considered. I will hold my hands up and probably be shot by #ocTEL, but I sometimes am not taking everything in that we are doing but grabbing the badges as a reward! So long term Open Badges need to be recognised as a fully accredited award and moderated by external verifiers to ensure that they keep their worth.
Understood completely.
The badges used here are certainly not fully configured Open Badges taking advantage of the Mozilla OBI, and that’s not a criticism, I haven’t ‘baked’ any real OBI badges yet either.
An important part of that OBI is the hard coding into the badge information and links to the issuer, the standards, the evidence etc. Doug Belshaw wrote an article explaining a bit of that in the latest Learning Technologies magazine.
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/658352e7#/658352e7/36
Phil Vincent (who I see is a member of this group) suggested recently – on Twitter I think – that the criteria for badges issued for staff development should be mapped against external standards such as the UKPSF. I think this is a good way to add value and credibility.
I agree Anne, they could evidence microskills which are only honed by regular use such as online moderation skills and digital literacies.
I think my one point would be: badges are no more childish or trivial than a certificate. However they can be more powerful with correct metadata and validation.
I have put down my thoughts on the ocTEL badges here: http://edcmooccthomson.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/octel-badges/. I agree with Anne that if we are to take badges as a concept further then they need to be mapped to something concrete but I still feel that a learning focus over a tick box focus should be the aim. Maybe I am influenced by the lack of clear professional development routes for those of us involved in TEL as opposed to those careers with set promotion systems with clear requirements/steps on the ladder, such as teaching, academia, medicine, sales etc.