Mozilla's Open Badges Project
The project has been in the works for a while, but today marked the official announcement of Mozilla's Open Badges Project, a way to rethink how we demonstrate skill mastery online.
I have covered the Open Badges project several times over the past year: in an article for MindShift and most recently with an interview in O'Reilly Radar with Project Manager Erin Knight.
In the storify below, I've collected some of the resources about the project, as well as some of the reactions via Twitter to today's announcement -- Mozilla's announcement as well as the Digital Media & Learning's badges competition.
The Mozilla BlogToday we announced Mozilla's Open Badge Infrastructure project, an effort to make it easy to issue and share digital learning badges across the web. More and more people are looking at badges to show skills and achievements online. Mozilla is currently developing its own badges for things like Javascript courses at the School of Webcraft.
Badges in the real worldHow do we explain Mozilla's Open Badge Project to beginners? These user stories - drawn from Erin Knight's "Open Badge System Framework" paper - are meant to illustrate through everyday scenarios. This post is a first draft only and needs your feedback. Please add your comments here.
Master a new skill? Here's your badge - O'Reilly RadarEarning badges for learning new things is an entrenched idea. Legions of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have decorated their sashes with badges, demonstrating their mastery of various skills. A badge is a symbol of personal achievement that's acknowledged by others.
Anyone can learn anywhere, pull together their badges, & display where they want. If have an open infrastructure. #dmlbadges #openbadges
Let's not lose sight of the idea that badges represent LIFELONG public learning opportunities. #dmlbadges #openbadges #opensource
Can an online identity that's different from one's offline identity earn #dmlbadges? Can we certify our multiple /virtual selves?
#dmlbadges are a tool, not an end! @irasocol: @budtheteacher "the work isn't about creating badges, its changing school/political culture"
How do we keep focused on the disruptive potential of digital badging systems and not consumerist end-games of badge collecting? #dmlbadges
@msurman Intended consequence : put learners in driver's seat. Might mean unintended consequences but still exciting #dmlbadges #openbadges
There is the digital equity question: how tech-intensive will #DMLbadges be? Can people w/ only low end (SMS) tech or no tech be part of it?
I do like the potential of badges to validate learners who achieve on their own and follow their own passions #dmlbadges
All I will add about #dmlbadges, is that I have fond memories of badges in Girl Scouts. They were signs of my interests. They have history.
Just read the white paper and I still don't see how the metadata makes them different than our 20th century stickers. #DMLbadges
@amichetti this is the essential question. Is extrinsic motivation the point of #dmlbadges or alternative certification?
The big thing about Mozilla's part of #openbadges is that there's a peer-to-peer element. *That's* what makes it different. #dmlbadges- I think this blog post (with #awesome hand-drawn images) is a good, sane way into the #dmlbadges debate: t.co/nIexDVMt
@mozilladrumbeat Using badges to show what you know...easy. Using them to show *who you are*... notsomuch. #openbadges #dmlbadges- @willrich45 All the best ideas feel a bit weird to begin with because we're so used to the status quo. #dmlbadges
So, if FourSquare gained popularity in late 2009, I'd say the tide is running out soon, don't invest a lot in it at this time. #dmlbadges- How do I represent myself/skills online and tell my story? Badges offer solution leading to new learning and new opps #dmlbadges
For those of you that were unable to join us for the live webcast, an archived version will be up later at http://bit.ly/r60n59 #dmlbadges
