Colleagues,
In a bulletin today in the Career Pathways group, moderator Michael Cruse pointed out that:
"The authors of Training for Jobs for the Future focus on three promising approaches to certifying skills:
1. A “verified resume”*** chronicling a worker’s skills through the endorsements of past employers and educators.
2. Increased reliance on competency-based education that measures skills rather than seat time.
3. The development, validation, and promotion of a broader ecosystem of stackable skills-oriented credentials such as micro-credentials, badges, and short-term certificates."
Michael hopes to have comments there about the Verified Resume. He wrote,
" ***The verified resume is a concept developed and promoted by Arnold Packer, formerly of Johns Hopkins University. A verified resume is a document that records the skills and knowledge that people acquire through their lives, both as students and workers. Packer describes the verified resume as “midway between LinkedIn and a credential.” Interest in verified resumes has grown in recent years with developments in blockchain technology that can reliably document skill verification by a distributed network of actors." and added,
"What is your experience with verified resumes? Do you teach learners about them? Employers, are you seeing more of them for middle-skill job openings?"
I would like to focus in the Integrating Technology group on one aspect of the "broader ecosystem of stackable skills-oriented credentials such as micro-credentials, badges, and short-term certificates" in particular, digital micro-credentials, often referred to as digital badges.
I have several questions I hope you can shed some light on:
1. Do you, or do your students, use digital badges in some way now? If so, how, and what do you see as the opportunities and challenges in using them?
2. Have you found a relatively easy website for posting digital badges?.
3. I have heard that the migration of badges from the Mozilla badging site (now closed) to the Badgr site that was anticipated to be completed in the spring has not yet been completed. What is your experience with this? Are you using Badgr?
4. Do your students' employers or potential employers now recognize the value of digital badges? If so, what was the process that lead to this recognition?
5. What questions do you have about digital badges?
Thanks for your help!
David J. Rosen, Mloderator
LINCS CoP Integrating Technology group