Category: #openbadges

Why digital credentials?

In my opinion, interviews are a very poor way of judging whether someone will perform well in a job. Some people have figured out the game – how to interview well. And why not? But standing in the shoes of as employer, I want to employ the person who’ll do the best job (and even that’s…
Chicken and Egg…

I couldn’t make it to ISTE 2016, so instead I joined Doug Belshaw, Noah Geisel and Ian O’Byrne remotely for some off-the-cuff thinkery on Open Badges. Rich dialogue is where the ideas are waiting to be unearthed…
Badge Pathways

Here’s some thinking on using visual metaphors for badge pathways as a result of some remote workshop thinkery at ISTE.
A weblike existence

“The web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect — to help people work together — and not as a technical toy. The ultimate goal of the Web is to support and improve our weblike existence in the world.” — Tim Berners-Lee Created for “3 ways…
Properties of Open Badges

What distinguishes Open Badges from other types of badges? Did I mention that they’re open, so you can take them with you? This graphic was created for the City & Guilds Group, as part of the comms for their recent acquisition of DigitalMe and Makewaves. A clever move I say…
Open Badges – can you take them with you?

How do we capture a richer picture of our skills and abilities, so that you can take them with you on your next journey? Open Badges may have the answer. For a collaborative community-built resource, check out the all new Badge Wiki. Why not jump in and add your badge related stuff to the wiki?
Credentials big and small…

Every time I find myself on a beach, I’ll be looking for a pebble that catches my eye. I’ll pick a few contenders, and over the course of a two week holiday will end up with maybe 100 pebbles. At the end of the holiday, I’ll take maybe two or three home. I have attached…
Open Badges (P.S. there’s data inside…)

Open Badges seem so simple, don’t they? But wait – don’t make assumptions – ask questions! They’ve got stuff inside. Data. Authenticated data. But the big news? – you can take them with you because they’re built on an open standard. They can be connected together to form a learning pathway. The data structure inside the…
Let’s just badge everything

This week, the team at the University of Southampton organised an excellent Open Badge conference, which I really enjoyed taking part in. Doug Belshaw (his slides are here) and Carla Casilli were keynoting. “Let’s just badge everything” is probably not the best strategy in getting up and running with micro-credentials. Here are two questions worth…
What’s inside an Open Badge

It’s easy to talk about open badges without really understanding what’s inside (it’s just a digital badge, right?) There’s actually a whole bunch of stuff inside. The badge class is like the template. All badges issued from a certain badge class will inherit those properties. The assertion relates to the recipient of the badge and…
Digital Skills Sandwich

Sandwich anyone? I do love a good sandwich. If potatoes are the king of carbs, then surely bread is its queen? As an Irishman, I am of course very biased. Anyway, I digress… The Digital Skills Sandwich is an idea that’s been rumbling around in my head for a while now. It’s seed germinates from the fact…
Open Badges paint a better picture…

Dr. Doug Belshaw and I got together to think visually about Open Badges resulting in the blog post “3 reasons open source needs Open Badges” which featured this piece of thinkery. Macro credentials are like broad brushstrokes on the canvas, whereas micro credentials could fill in the detail. Oh, and I wish I had wallpaper like this…