My world on the web
At their core, all credentials are relational. They represent an attestation from one party to another—a way of saying, “This person did this thing” or “We vouch for this individual.” This relational nature is fundamental to their function, yet it’s often overlooked when people are talking about digital credentials.
Source: Digital%20Credentials%3A%20why%20context%20matters by Doug Belshaw
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Doug Belshaw on the relational nature of credentials and the place of privacy.
In short, micro-credentials represent the latest chapter in the attempt to make the shape of higher education more amorphous and flexible. In this, I am in favour of them, because if you want education to be inclusive and diverse then it needs to come in various formats to meet those needs. Whether micro-credentials are the means to realise that, or another attempt to bend higher ed to mythical needs of employers which turn out to be ill-defined and unwanted, remains to be seen.
Micro-credentials were the culmination of several ed tech developments, but there is also a sense in that they are driven by these very developments in order to validate themselves.
I’ve been working on my website and added a new feature: Badges!
It’s basically like little digital awards you get on Foursquare, Untappd, etc. except I made them myself and award them to myself. It’s a way to get motivated and also share my achievements and skills on my website. Like the “Skills” section of LinkedIn, but self-hosted and DIY. 95% inspired by the kids show “Hey Duggee,” and 5% inspired by the * Scouts.
To see all my badges, check out chrisbeckstrom.com/badges
Our Teaching and Learning Hub started a Level-Up Challenge this fall that challenged faculty to make one small change to a lesson (or course/program) to make it more impactful for learners. Faculty must share their level up experience on our Hub blog and they will earn a Level-Up button. Many of our faculty who’ve already leveled up are asking if they can earn multiple buttons! We are currently working on a program for the winter semester that will continue to challenge our trailblazing faculty to keep trying new things!
Greg McVerry (jgregorymcverry.com)I want to build a way to issue and receive badges in my remixable course template. I tried to spin up an Heoku app but ran into authentication issues and I then tried Ruby but ran into cert issues installing gems
Greg McVerry (jgregorymcverry.com)Over the past few weeks I have discussed this in the #IndieWeb channels with Aaron Parecki and Tantek Çelik if we could use webmentions as a credentialing tool. When you think about it an #openbadges boils down to two permalinks: the task, with criteria and evidence; and the learner artifact with evidence of learning.
