Hi,
Wanted to get anyone's opinion on the NEW Open Badges by Mozilla. We are thinking of putting them on our VLE but we wondered has anyone else? are they worth it? do employers recognise them as much as the website say employers do?
Any thoughts welcome.
Interesting question! My ex boss (in my former school) is not convinced; students love badges and he uses badges both real and virtual in school and his Moodle courses and they are popular - and he will be very happy to get them in Moodle 2.5 - but he reckons outside of school they don't have any kudos simply because -well - you can have a badge for anything, can't you? (I think) I will be pleased to see what others say.
I've created a new forum in this course - Open Badges - for discussing their use, so I'll just move this thread there then people can find it easily.
Remember to subscribe to the new forum if you're interested in receiving notifications of forum posts.
I don't think your ex-Boss is right Mary. After all 'badges' take all shapes, forms and meanings. It could be argued that a degree certificate from a University is a 'badge', it's just Open Badges are proposing a new way of displaying, collecting and managing 'skill set achievement statements'.
Look at the badges that Moodle has on the left. These have to be earnt and have true non-trivial value in an entity outside of school age participants.
Whilst teaching I found that my A-Level students (16-19) liked badges / stickers (did I ever give you a sticker Claire? ) and those outside of teaching would criticise and say that the students 'should' have grown out of them. But they worked and were a true incentive for achievement.
The kudos comes from the 'value' of the skill and credibility of the validator. So as long as badges are not trivialised and issued for anything then they will hold value. Is there / should there be a badge level? Like in the UK, GCSE's are Level 2, A-Levels - 3, Degrees 4-6, Masters - 7 and PHd - 8 (I think).
I also particularly like the idea of transferrability and the potential as a CV saving entity to reduce the administration effort in the job application process / consultant credibility.
Cheers,
Gareth
P.S. I'm proud of the 'badges' I've earned both virtual and on paper .....
MSc. BSc(Hons)(Sndw). MBCS. CEng. CITP. PGCE. Particulary Helpful Moodler. Moodle Developer.
I would hope we would use Open Badges for our workforce rather than the children. I know it seems demoralising and childish for an adult to receive a child's badge but some poeple do embrace the thought that someone could even be their manager has recognised good work, because lets face it sometimes we are all busy people and sometime fail to praise the good work done.
Open Badges is still in public beta and so the software infrastructure for integrating it into existing systems is at an experimental stage. Nevertheless, "NASA, Disney-Pixar, 4H,[1] and DigitalMe[2] have developed badges for the Open Badges project. Mozilla has additionally stated that PBS, P2PU, Intel and the US Department of Education all plan to issue badges through the Open Badges project.[3]" --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Badges
I'm sure there'll be a lot of frivolous badges (just check for all the diplomas you can buy online these days to get an idea) and I bet even some online games may adopt them. On the other hand, I can see Open Badges' benefit for ongoing in service professional development, which can be difficult to give its proper credit in current traditional systems. I could also see them being used as an electronic diploma system alongside existing paper diplomas at some institutions, i.e. attach badges to your CV/resume for job applications, immigration, etc.
I think, as with traditional paper diplomas, what matters more than anything is the public reputation of the issuer. If it's a government, a public education institution, or even a training department of a well known company. NGO, or other agency, then Open Badges would be a convenient way of answering a lot of particular questions that often get asked at the interview stage about the exact nature of the training/education cited on your CV/resume. I think some employers would like to get that information from an independent 3rd party while their short-listing candidates, and it could be as persuasive as professional references.
We'll see what happens and who adopts and recognises them as the project evolves and matures.
This link is well worth looking through to see the involvements of organisations in open badges - http://openbadges.org/community/
I particularly liked Microsofts entry - http://dmlcompetition.net/Competition/4/badges-projects.php?id=2246?
As someone who was heavily involved in NOF ICT training for teachers many moons ago this is something I would have jumped at. Using badges as evidence of standards that have credence and value outside of your organisation works for me. It do think there needs to be some sort of hierarchical structure or maturation model where badges have a limited lifespan and have to be renewed/re-evidenced.
Need to be careful that badges have meaning and worth at all levels/ages/establishments. At my school I see them having multiple purposes eg validating, rewarding and motivating -something I think many others teachers may agree with.
My worry is that for many, open badges are seen as the digital/21stC equivalent of guides/scouts/cubs/brownies. This perception needs to be countered fairly quickly.
Oops your microsoft link doesnt work. Would you be able to re post?
I agree with you the badges need to hold meaning and outside companies need to follow a standard hierachy for a set of badges, so they can compare fairly candidates at job interviews.
I do think maybe the backpack needs to hold a file, where the work to get the badge is uploaded and then after the expiry date for the badge, to get it reinstated they need of improved on the previous evidence given or be able to prove the piece of evidence in their new environment (whether it is a new job or new school attended to the previous expired badge) to gain the badge again.