Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So the idea of badging for institutional accreditation is
actually a little bit new for the world of badging.
Badging was initially kind of aimed at or focused on the
out of school environment. So recognising that, again, all
this learning was happening outside of formal academic
world. Now introducing the idea of peer assessment
shouldn't be that new in the world of academic
accreditation or institutional badging. In some ways I
hope that it can work hand in hand and that's our goal is
to actually have badges work in conjunction with formal
accrediting organisations but then also recognising that
peers might be able to assess each other for work outside
of those environments and so I think the question at heart
too is a matter of 'who owns the value proposition in a
badge?' Is it a formal academic institution or can peers
start to play in this role as well and what role do they
play? I would say from a peer standpoint that in any
formal environment you're working with peers and you're
also working with your professor, your teacher and
understanding that there are lots of different roles in
that environment. It seems almost a little bit strange to
say that 'okay now all of a sudden we are going to say that
peer assessment doesn't really count'. When in fact
there's a whole lot of self balancing that you look around
yourself and you say 'where do I fit into all of this
environment?' I think from an academic standpoint it's
certainly possible to continue with the concept of grades.
That definitely something that Mozilla says ‘we're not
aiming to eliminate grades, we're aiming to start to fill
the gaps where things don't get acknowledged.’ So in
instances of what we might call 21st century skills or
cognitive versus non-cognitive skills or soft skills versus
hard skills, any one of those word type that you want to
use, then, it's certainly possible for a teacher or a kind
of top down assessment to occur but then a peer to peer
assessment is a really valuable assessment as well and is
more likely what people will experience in a professional
environment or interestingly enough we did some research a
while back with the way that people recommended each other
on social networks and in those social networks, typically
people responded with a non-cognitive responses and they
were kind of peer based responses. So they were saying
things like 'this person is really great to work with. I
enjoy working with them or they are a fantastic mentor or
they work really well with people'. You don't necessarily
get that within the formal academic world so what we’re
saying is 'yes let's continue with the way we can assess
each other from an understanding of knowledge gaining but
then let's also start to acknowledge that there are all
these other, kind of, side aspects to the way that people
interact socially and also academically and professionally
and that these things can exist side by side and they can
actually work together and strengthen each other.’
Unbundling of higher education, I think that's kind of a
mouthful and I also think that it's something that a lot of
higher education organisations are very much concerned
about is what happens if there is no locus of control? What
happens when that shifts? I think that badges can
definitely play a role in that. They are not necessarily
aimed at doing that; they're aimed at really starting to,
as I mentioned, filling in where there are different things
that people are not being recognised for. So I think that
there are, you know, within an academic environment you're
going to be acknowledged for 'do you understand the
information that is being shared with you? Can you share it
back with people?' and there’s also new things being added
into that assessment of knowledge but I would say that the
unbundling is already happening through a bunch of
different ways and not necessarily through badges. So
things like MOOC's are kind of definitely one of the
unbundling things that are happening and we actually are
offering a MOOC based on badges. And the idea that you can
learn anywhere at anytime is also really something that has
really been brought about by the internet itself. So
recognising that you can go online and find a tutor to
teach you a foreign language who lives in that country
through Skype. So all of a sudden there’s lots of
different opportunities that you weren't necessarily aware
of before so again there a lot of things are being surfaced
that people can find that were currently kind of hidden. I
would say that badges now can represent those different
opportunities and can now represent those different
learning aspects. So I wouldn't say, again, we're not
necessarily the unbundling aspect but we are in the
acknowledgement of that unbundling.
So again this is the question of out of school and in
school learning and I think that badges can cover both of
those. So, absolutely, extra curricular is really vital
and important. I think when we're thinking about people
who are interacting and just general society, we're talking
about people who are well rounded individuals. They not
only have a certain amount of knowledge but they also
understand the kind of socio-cultural experience that they
need to operate within. I think badges can work in both of
those areas. They can acknowledge what I had called
earlier the soft skills or the non cognitive skills and
those are vital to just, I think the concept of society in
general and then the academic environment, you know, the
recognition of data and information and can you process
things? Thinking, all of those things, those are very, very
important as well and together the extra curricular; so do
you swim? Do you have some kind of physical exercise?
There are lots of different organisations who are very
interested in making sure that people are well rounded,
that they have, that perhaps people volunteer. Wouldn't it
be great to know the work people are doing from a volunteer
standpoint? As I mentioned, maybe people are all fantastic
from a mentorship standpoint. There are lots of different
ways; maybe there’s a civics aspect that you'd like to see
acknowledged that isn't currently acknowledged in let's say
traditional educational environment. Lots of different
ways that these things, what we would consider extra
curricular, what we might in another way call well rounded
individuals and it might be very interesting just for a
sense of personal agency or personal trajectory to know
that. So understanding how all of those things fit
together might be useful only to me and that's perfectly
acceptable. Maybe it gives me a better sense of who I am
just through gathering those or earning those badges,
garnering those badges, and it doesn't necessarily need to
be shared openly, so it's not necessarily something that
everyone needs to see. So badges I think walk this very
interesting line of both personal and public and you should
be able to chose what to make public about yourself. So
maybe in some ways it can give people different avenues of
directions. Looping back to the idea of pathways, starting
to understand how I got to where I am in my career might be
really useful to someone else and maybe some of those
things are actually extra curricular. If I can share that
with someone else and say like 'yes, I went to this
university, yes, I have this degree but yes, I also did
these other things and yes, I also have this other
background'. So thinking about can we capture prior
learning? Can we start to acknowledge things that work that I
might have done prior to some university experience or that I
might have dropped out of university because I needed to
for some kind of health reasons or parental, family health
reasons. Then can we start to capture those other things
that are really still meaningful but don't get
acknowledged. So absolutely, extra curricular things, when
I think about some specific organisations who are badging
right now, they’re primarily aimed at out of school
learning. A lot of institutions in very large cities are
trying to encourage kids who are involved in school but
maybe not totally thrilled to be there but they might be
really excited about doing something in the MAKE movements.
So they might be really excited about doing something with
like a Raspberry Pie and yet that's not reflected anywhere
else so that would be an extra curricular activity but it's
also really informative about where their interests lay. I
think that, thinking about ways to represent personal
pathways but then also interest areas so there's kind of
interest based learning and then also project based learning.
All of those things, and kind of recognising that people can
also get experiences while working. All of those things
make sense. And what we're trying to do is represent through
badges or allow badges to represent people as kind of a
living transcript all along. So there’s lots of different
ways to represent yourself. You get to choose which ones
and how they get shown.