Category: #gathering

Soft skills aren’t so soft

I liked this thought about "soft" skills by Beverley Oliver, at #epforall Barcelona Indeed, as Scott Wilson commented, they are hard to define, hard to acquire, hard to assess, hard to evidence – there’s very little that’s soft about them…
Levelling the Playing Field

This is a thought inspired by the Open Badges conference organised by @szerge in Barcelona recently. I am increasingly aware of how privileged I am, and how easy it is to accept the state of the playing field as just “how it is” as opposed to questioning it’s unfairness, and doing something about it. An…
Social Fabric

Here’s a thought from a conversation with @szerge at the EPIC conference in Barcelona. The underlying message points to the network of trust relationships that exist in a badging ecosystem, and how each assertion forms a relationship between two or more people or bodies. These relationships weave together to form a social fabric. I’m not…
Awesome Awards

Some very wise words from Charles Kennedy that I came across the day he died. In the last couple of years I’ve been amazed at how much pointless Education System tinkering goes on by politicians with a certain view of how education should be.
A Constellation of Pathways

“When you are deep into designing your badge system, pause. Look outward: consider the bigger picture that your earner will see. Imagine the thrill of being a learning explorer charting new territory with badges as your guideposts! Now with that new perspective, rough out some potential badge pathways that do not solely include your badges—that…
Open Badges – now with Endorsements

This thought was created for Doug Belshaw‘s DML blog entitled “Extending Badges“.
I am more than just my grades

When you hire a person what do you look for? I look for what I would call character, and a spark… Yet grades are so big that that although voices say that other qualities matter, its hard to hear them. Could Open Badges be a game changer in terms of recognising value, in all its…
Education Technology

I love Lego, and I wonder how much it played a part in feeding my creative (and constructivist) side. Problem solving, learning to pivot and change direction, creating new worlds with others. Needless to say my kids are all over it…
Badge Taxonomy

As part of our work for City and Guilds, Doug Belshaw and I decided to formulate a Badge Taxonomy – not in order to classify badges per se, but to evolve our understanding of how badges (and their intended purposes) differed. After a whole bunch of stickies and some brain crunching, this was the (half-baked)…
Why I love my MOOC

The last MOOC I completed (the science of everyday thinking, University of Queensland) was one of the best learning experiences I have ever had. Arguably, its the first course I have done solely for the learning as opposed to the credential…
Why can’t we be tested on what we learn?

This comment by a student at a college was overheard by Martin King – and so well put that I had to turn it into a drawing. The whole “teaching the test” vibe I find an unpalatable one, even though it suits game-playing strategic thinkers like me. I believe it ruins learning.
What makes good evidence?

I’ve learnt a lot about what makes good evidence from talking with people at City & Guilds (who are a knowledgeable lot). This drawing came out of a conversation with Patrick Craven, head of assessment.I’ve learnt a lot about what makes good evidence from talking with people at City & Guilds (who are a knowledgeable…