Transforming Learning through Open Technologies, Standards and Credentialing

Transforming learning through open technologies, standards and credentialing

Madrid, 14-15 November 2013

Doug Belshaw, Mozilla Foundation

Wednesday, 13 November 13

Hi everyone, I’m Doug and I work for Mozilla.

"A cat met up with a big male rat in the attic and chased him into a corner. The rat, trembling, said, 'Please don't eat me, Mr. Cat. I have to go back to my family. I have hungry children waiting for me. Please let me go.' The cat said, 'Don't worry, I won't eat you. To tell you the truth, I can't say this too loudly, but I'm a vegetarian. I don't eat any meat. You were lucky to run into me.' The rat said, 'Oh, what a wonderful day! What a lucky rat I am to meet up with a vegetarian cat!' But the very next second, the cat pounced on the rat, held him down with his claws, and sank his sharp teeth into the rat's throat. With his last, painful breath, the rat asked him, 'But Mr. Cat, didn't you say you're a vegetarian and don't eat any meat? Were you lying to me?' The cat licked his chops and said, 'True, I don't eat meat. That was not a lie. I'm going to take you home in my mouth and trade you for lettuce.' "

(Haruki Murakami, 1Q84)


In Haruki Murakami's novel '1Q84' there's a parable that I'd like to share with you:

[STORY]

I'm going to leave that story just hanging there in all of its ambiguous glory throughout this talk. Make of it what you will.

Openness = community


If I had to summarise what I'm going to spend the next 25 minutes or so talking about using as few words as possible, I'd probably go for something like this:

Openness = community

1. Open Technologies2. Open Standards3. Open Credentialing


Today I'm going to be talking about three things - in essence the three things that can be identified in the presentation title: Transforming learning through open technologies, standards and credentialing. But before I go too deep into specifics I want to step back and talk about 'openness', something that underpins all three things.

MOOC?


As an example let's take something very much part of the zeitgeist: MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). I purposely don't often talk or write about MOOCs as I think they're a red herring. We can debate whether or not they are in the Q&A session later if you're really interested. For now, though, I want to focus on ambiguity, a theme I introduced through the opening story.

MassiveOpenOnlineCourse


Let's take the four words that make up the acronym 'MOOC':1. Massive2. Open3. Online4. Course

Each of these words has the potential to be ambiguous. Ambiguity is not in and of itself a bad thing but it's worth noting that the least ambiguous word here is probably 'Online' with 'Massive' and 'Course' perhaps needing some further explanation. The most ambiguous word by far in 'MOOC' is 'Open'. What does this actually mean?

open |ˈəәʊp(əә)n|adjective1 allowing access, passage, or a view through an empty space; not closed or blocked: he climbed through the open window | she was put in a cubicle with the

curtains left open | the pass is kept open by snowploughs.• (of a container) not fastened or sealed: the case burst open and its contents flew all over the place.

• (of a garment or its fastenings) not done up: his tie was knotted below the open collar of his shirt.

• (of the mouth or eyes) with lips or lids parted: his eyes were open but he could see nothing | [ as complement ] : the boy's mouth dropped open in shock.

• (of the bowels) not constipated.2 [ attrib. ] exposed to the air or to view; not covered: an open fire burned in the grate | he crossed the ocean in an open boat.

• (of land) not covered with buildings or trees: the plans allow increasing numbers of new houses in open countryside.

• [ as complement ] damaged by a deep cut in the surface: he had his arm slashed open.

• (open to) likely to suffer from or be affected by; vulnerable or subject to: the system is open to abuse.

• (of a goalmouth or other object of attack in a game) unprotected by defenders.

• (of a town or city) officially declared to be undefended, and so immune under international law from bombardment.

3 with the outer edges or sides drawn away from each other; unfolded or spread out: the trees had buds and a few open flowers.

• (of a book or file) with the covers parted allowing it to be read: she was copying verses from an open Bible.

• (of a hand) not clenched into a fist.• (of a game or style of play) characterized by action which is spread out over the field.

4 [ predic. ] (of a business, place of entertainment, etc.) admitting customers or visitors; available for business: the shop stays open until 9 p.m | parts of

the castle are open to the public.• (of a bank account) available for transactions.• (of a telephone line) ready to take calls.5 freely available or accessible; unrestricted: the service is open to all students.

• (of an offer or opportunity) still available: the offer is open while stocks last | we need to consider what options are left open.

• (also Open )with no restrictions on those allowed to participate: open discussion meetings | each horse had won two open races.

• (also Open )(of a victor) having won an open competition.• (of a ticket) not restricted as to day of travel.• Brit.(of a cheque) not crossed.• Mathematics (of a set) not containing any of its limit points.

6 not concealing one's thoughts or feelings; frank and communicative: she behaved in an open and cheerful manner | I was quite open about my views.

• not concealed: his eyes showed open admiration as they swept over her.• [ attrib. ] (of conflict) fully developed and unconcealed: the dispute erupted into open war.

• welcoming public discussion, criticism, and enquiry: the party's commitment to open government.

7 (of a matter or decision) not finally settled; still admitting of debate: students' choice of degree can be kept open until the second year.

• (of the mind) accessible to new ideas: I'm keeping an open mind about my future.

• (open to) receptive to: the union was open to suggestions for improvements.• (open to) admitting of; making possible: the message is open to different interpretations.

8 Phonetics (of a vowel) produced with a relatively wide opening of the mouth and the tongue kept low.

• (of a syllable) ending in a vowel.9 Music (of a string) allowed to vibrate along its whole length.• (of a pipe) unstopped at each end.• (of a note) sounded from an open string or pipe.10 (of an electric circuit) having a break in the conducting path.11 (of a fabric) loosely knitted or woven.verb [ with obj. ]1 move (a door or window) so as to leave a space allowing access and vision: she opened the door and went in | [ no obj., in imperative ] : ‘ Open up !’

he said.• [ no obj. ] (of a door or window) be moved to leave a space allowing access: the door opened and a man came out.

• undo or remove the lid, cover, or fastening of (a container, package, letter, etc.) to get access to the contents: he opened a bottle inexpertly, spilling some

of the wine | can we open the presents now?• part the lips or lids of (one's mouth or eye).• [ no obj. ] (of the mouth or eyes) have the lips or lids parted: her eyes slowly opened.

• [ no obj. ] come apart; lose or lack its protective covering: old wounds opened and I bled a little bit.

• [ no obj. ] (open on to/into) (of a room, door, or window) give access to: the kitchen opened into a pleasant sitting room.

• cause evacuation of (the bowels).2 unfold or be unfolded; spread out: [ with obj. ] : the eagle opened its wings and circled up into the air | the tail looks like a fan when it is opened out fully |

[ no obj. ] : the flowers only open during bright weather.• [ with obj. ] part the covers of (a book or file) to read it: she opened her book at the prologue.

• [ no obj. ] (open out) become wider: the path opened out into a glade.• [ no obj., with adverbial ] (of a prospect) extend into view: stop to marvel at the views that open out below.

• [ with obj. ] Nautical achieve a clear view of (a place) by sailing past a headland or other obstruction: we shall open Torbay shortly.

3 make or become formally ready for customers, visitors, or business: [ with obj. ] : she raised $731 by opening her home and selling coffee and tea | [ no

obj. ] : the shops didn't open until 10.• [ with obj. ] ceremonially declare (a building, road, etc.) to be completed and ready for use: the Queen opened the power plant on 17 October 1956.

• [ with obj. ] make possible access to or passage through: the President announced that his government would open the border.

4 formally establish or begin (a new business, movement, or enterprise): she began to teach and opened her own school | we opened up a branch in Madrid.

• [ no obj. ] (of an enterprise, meeting, or event) begin or be formally established: two new restaurants open this week.

• take the action required to begin using: they have the £10 necessary to open a savings account | click twice to open a file for the software selected.

• [ no obj. ] (of a piece of writing or music) begin: the chapter opens with a discussion of Anglo-Irish relations.

• [ no obj. ] (open up) (of a process) start to develop: a new and dramatic phase was opening up.

• (of a counsel in a law court) make a preliminary statement in (a case) before calling witnesses.

• Cricket another term for open the batting below.• Bridge make (the first bid) in the auction.5 make available or more widely known: new technologies open up thousands of different opportunities.

• [ no obj. ] (open out/up) become more communicative or confiding: he was very reserved and only opened out to her slowly.

• make (one's mind) more receptive or sympathetic: open your mind to what is going on around you.

• (open someone to/up to) make someone vulnerable to: the process is going to open them to a legal threat.

6 break the conducting path of (an electric circuit).• [ no obj. ] (of an electric circuit or device) suffer a break in its conducting path.

noun1 [ mass noun ] (the open) outdoors or in the countryside: guests were sitting in the open on the terrace.

• (in/into the open) not subject to concealment; made public: we have never let our dislike for him come into the open.

2 ( Open )a championship or competition with no restrictions on who may compete: his victory in the 2003 Australian Open.

3 an accidental break in the conducting path for an electric current.

PHRASESbe open with speak frankly to: I had always been completely open with my mother.

an open book a person or thing that is easy to understand or about which everything is known: her mind was an open book to him.

in open court in a court of law, before the judge and the public.open-and-shut (of a case or argument) admitting no doubt or dispute; straightforward.

open the batting Cricket play as one of the pair of batsmen who begin a side's innings.

open the door to see door.open someone's eyes see eye.open fire begin to shoot.with one's eyes open see eye.with open arms see arm1.PHRASAL VERBSopen up begin shooting: the enemy artillery had opened up.open something up 1 informal accelerate a motor vehicle: Sam took me back on the motorway to open her up. 2 (of a player or team) create an advantage

for one's side: he opened up a lead of 14–8.DERIVATIVESopenable adjective,openness |ˈəәʊp(əә)nnɪs|nounORIGIN Old English open (adjective), openian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch open and German offen, from the root of the adverb

up.


The different ways in which the word 'open' is used in the word of technology - and especially educational technology - leads to a lot of people talking past one another. People mean different things when they're talking about MOOCs, Open Source Software, Open Access, Open Data, Open Government, and the like. 'Open' is an everyday word that's being asked to take on new duties in an evolving landscape.

“Table”

“Mesa”


Words are sounds that we use to denote certain things in the world around us. So if I point to something and I say 'table' in English you might call it 'mesa' in Spanish or Portuguese, but it's evident we mean the same thing. We can point to it. Of course, it's more difficult when there's nothing to point to - for example 'friendliness'. We might be able to point to examples of it in action, but not the thing itself.

Meaning

Implication

Word (e.g. ‘mother’)


One thing that makes communication tricky is that words don't just have meanings - they also have implications. That is to say they have both a denotative aspect and a connotative aspect. A perfect example is the word 'mother'. When someone utters that word I don't just tend to think of the abstract notion of anyone's 'mother' but of my mother. The word has the power to generate imagery and feelings. This, of course, is how propaganda and advertising works, to a great extent. The pen is mightier than the sword.

What's this got to do with openness? And what's it got to do with education? And technology? Well it's important to note that no technology, educational policy or term comes into being in a vacuum. And when money is involved (as it is with the burgeoning education 'market') it's certainly worth digging a little deeper to see what's going on.

“Is openness good in itself, or is openness a means to achieve something else — and if so what? Who wants to achieve openness, and for what purpose? Is openness a goal? Or is it a means by which a different goal — say, ‘ interoperability ’ or ‘ integration ‘ — is achieved? Whose goals are these, and who sets them? Are the goals of corporations different from or at odds with the goals of university researchers or government officials? ”

(Evgeny Morozov, To Save Everything, Click Here)


In To Save Everything, Click Here Evgeny Morozov's presents a much-needed critique of celebratory internet culture. If you haven't read it yet, it's worth doing so - even if you don't necessarily agree with his conclusions by the time you get to the end of the book.

Morozov asks:

[QUOTATION]

Creativeambiguity

Generativeambiguity

Productiveambiguity

Continuum of ambiguity*

“Open”


If we imagine a continuum of ambiguity then openness is a term that I would place in the 'creatively ambiguous' section.

That is to say, to paraphrase William Empson, that two ideas are given through one word but are connected by the context in which they are used.

* More on this: http://dougbelshaw.com/ambiguity


There's more about that in an unpublished paper I wrote with my thesis supervisor Steve Higgins if you want to pursue this further.

To be more specific, let's take take some examples.

EXAMPLE 1


First, Pearson's 'OpenClass'

“OpenClass is a dynamic learning environment that helps educators bring social learning and experiences to their students. It’s open to everyone, easy to use, and totally free.”


Open here is defined as 'open to everyone' and 'free'. As the saying goes, if you're not paying for the service then you're the product. Open for Pearson seems to mean 'open for business'. There's nothing wrong with that, per se.

EXAMPLE 2Wednesday, 13 November 13

Next, let's take OpenLearn from the Open University:

“OpenLearn aims to break the barriers to education by reaching millions of learners around the world, providing free educational resources and inviting all to sample courses that our registered students take – for free!”


Again, 'open' and 'free' are presented as synonymous terms. Bu there's no real problem here yet. The OpenLearn website has the usual 'All Rights Reserved' copyright notice at the bottom of the page, but specific learning resources are released under Creative Commons licenses.

EXAMPLE 3Wednesday, 13 November 13

As our third example let's take Jorum, a repository used by UK Further and Higher Education institutions:

“Jorum is the place where you will find free open educational resources produced by the UK Further and Higher Education community.”


This is noticeably different. Not only are the words 'free' and 'open' used separately (indicating different things) the word 'community' is mentioned. They specifically mention 'Open Educational Resources', often abbreviated to 'OER'.

“OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.”


One of the biggest funders of OER is The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation - in fact they funded the initial work around OpenLearn - so it's worth looking at their definition.

So 'open' here pertains expressly to licensing. OpenLearn might not talk about OER directly, but they are compliant by making educational resources available under a license permitting their free use and (importantly) re-purposing.

OER is what my old colleagues at Jisc used to call a 'supply-side term'. That is to say it's a term imposed by funders with a specific goal in mind. That goal may have been philanthropic and emancipatory, but it's based on ideology nonetheless. And there's nothing wrong with this: without worldviews and opinions the world would be a very uninteresting place, devoid of action.

OER MOOC(~2013 definition)

MOOC(~2007 definition)


Meanwhile in the popular and education press, 'MOOC' has come to mean a course provided by a company like Coursera or Udacity who provide a specific form of online education free at the point of access. In this way they are pursuing a typical startup methodology of gaining users and then searching for a business model. In a different market that's exactly what Twitter did - and they're now a public company with a value of over $25 billion.

(I should probably note that the term 'MOOC' was originally coined by some Canadian educators several years ago to mean something vastly different from what it is taken to mean in 2013. We haven't got time to go into that right now but I'd suggest that they get over it and rebrand. It's a clunky acronym anyway.)

So on the one hand there's a bunch of people using 'open' to mean something very specific - resources that are free to use and re-purpose - and on the other hand there's some people (or companies) using 'open' as a market-specific version of 'free'. While there may well be some examples of companies using 'open' in a cynical way to mislead people it's more than likely a difference in worldview.

</introduction>


OK, that’s the end of my introduction.

(global non-profit)


All of which (at last!) brings me to our work at Mozilla. If you know Mozilla you probably know us for Firefox, the free and Open Source web browser that celebrated it's ninth birthday last week. Ten years ago over 90% of people accessed the web via a closed-source desktop browser that was not built upon standards. Today that's very different. Over 70% of people use a browser that's either Open Source or built upon Open Source technologies. And even the browser that the other 30% of people use is increasingly built upon open standards.

“Open Source is not about freedom, nor is it about licenses. It's about community.”

(Russ Nelson)


You can go and read our manifesto at your leisure, but I think a great deal of the spirit of it is captured in this quotation.

http://opensource.org/node/358

http://opensource.org/node/358

<1/40 are paid contributors


We embody this in the way Mozilla is structured. There are around 40,000 active contributors (and many more occasional contributors) to the project, of which less than a thousand are paid contributors. The rest are volunteers, helping shape the direction of what is a global non-profit organisation. There's a good number of people who volunteer as part of the Mozilla community, become paid contributors for a while, and then go and work for other organisations. When they do so many go back to volunteering. There's a saying: "Once a Mozillian, always a Mozillian."

<!doctype html><html> <head> <title>Open Technologies</title> </head> <body> <p>What Mozilla’s up to with Webmaker.</p> </body></html>


I'm going to spend the rest of the time I've got left to talk about some of the work that I've been doing in the last 18 months since joining Mozilla. I'm hoping that it will spur you into reflection and action once you go back to work on Monday!

“Digital technology is programmed. This makes it biased toward those with the capacity to write the code. In a digital age, we must learn how to make the software, or risk becoming the software. It is not too difficult or too late to learn the code behind the things we use—or at least to understand that there is code behind their interfaces. Otherwise, we are at the mercy of those who do the programming, the people paying them, or even the technology itself.”

(Rushkoff, Program or Be Programmed)


Technologies have built-in biases. One of my favourite thinkers around the impact technology has on us is Douglas Rushkoff. He wrote:

[QUOTATION]

There's a whole debate to be had over what it means to be able 'to program' so let's just agree for the time being that it involves understanding and writing some code. How much is irrelevant for the purpose of this talk, the important thing is the mindset, the approach that people have to seeing code.

Desktop: view source


At Mozilla our focus is on the web. The building blocks of the web are HTML, CSS and JavaScript. If you access the web using a desktop browser and right-click you'll notice that you can view the 'source' of the page you're on. That is to say you can see the code that generated the web page. If you want to learn from that to make your own web page you can do. That's certainly the way I learned a bit of HTML and CSS when I was younger.

Now try right-clicking and doing view-source on a mobile device. You can't. And it's even worse than that. We've got a situation where while we can access the web on our smartphones and tablets the dominate ideology is around apps. There's no particular reason for this other than the logic of the market. Those with longer memories may remember Steve Jobs announcing the original iPhone in 2007. The focus was on web apps, not native apps.

FirefoxOS: the web is the platform


The next billion web users are likely to be mobile-first, so it's an important battleground for the ideologies I've highlighted. At Mozilla we believe that the web is the platform and so we're doing a number of things to promote that. One thing is that we've launched Firefox OS, something that anyone who lives here in Spain will no doubt have seen. This is a mobile operating system - not just a browser - built on open standards and with HTML, CSS and JavaScript at its core. If you know how to build a website, you know how to build apps for it.


Why is FirefoxOS relevant to education? I see schools, local authorities and even states clamouring to issue tablets and other mobile devices to school-age children to 'transform learning'. Wouldn't it be great if the devices they received weren't just magical black boxes? And wouldn't it also be awesome not to repeat the debacle (from which we're only just recovering) where pupils are taught to use a particular vendor's software?


Another thing we're doing at Mozilla is teaching people how to both read and write the web. I'll talk more in a moment about the Web Literacy Standard we've been working on, but in this section I want to mention Mozilla Webmaker. This is a suite of three tools that are both free and open.

goggles.webmaker.org


The first is X-Ray Goggles (used to be called Hackasaurus) which is a bookmarklet allowing people to view and edit on-the-fly building blocks that make up web pages.

http://goggles.webmaker.org

http://goggles.webmaker.org

thimble.webmaker.org


The second is Thimble, a two-pane code editor with the HTML, CSS and JavaScript on the left and a preview window on the right. You can start from scratch or 'fork' other people's projects. There's a real community building around it.

http://thimble.webmaker.org

http://thimble.webmaker.org

popcorn.webmaker.org


The third is Popcorn Maker which is an non-linear video editor. This enables you to take multimedia (video, audio and images) from around the web and put it together in realtime to make something new. There's been some really creative uses of this, from young people through to established media outlets.

http://popcorn.webmaker.org

http://popcorn.webmaker.org


There's many other tools on the web that potentially do something similar, so why does it matter that Mozilla's tools are 'open'. Well, again, it's about the community. The first two languages that our army of volunteers decided to localise into weren't French or Spanish or German - they were Thai and Russian. We get 'pull requests' on GitHub from people wanting to add new features all the time. It's a democratic way to build tools that teach people how to use the Web.

OpenStandards

OpenStandards



There's a body called the World Wide Web Consortium (usually shortened to W3C) that is the main international standards organisation. It was founded by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web and he serves as its current leader. The W3C ensures that the technologies that serve as the building blocks of the Web - HTML, CSS and JavaScript, but also image formats, video technologies and more esoteric things - are developed to ensure cross-browser compatibility.

webmaker.org/standard


The W3C looks after technical standards and develops them in the open so that anyone can give their opinion. That's a stark contrast that with the way that most educational standards are developed, unfortunately. So when we at Mozilla started to develop a Web Literacy Standard, we focused on the community, ensuring that they were involved every step of the way. This group of stakeholders, that continues to grow, includes teachers, academics, industry professionals and other interested parties who come together to discuss the skills needed to read, write and participate on the web.

http://webmaker.org/standard

http://webmaker.org/standard

The Web Literacy Standard comprises a map of competencies and skills that Mozilla and our community of stakeholders believe are important to pay attention to when getting better at reading, writing and participating on the web.


We released the first iteration of the Web Literacy Standard at the Mozilla Festival just a few weeks ago. Although we did kick things off with a framework and white paper based on the work of Michelle Levesque and I, it took only nine months to get to a position of agreement on the fundamentals. The Standard will develop as we refine it and as the web itself develops, but right now there's a map of the territory out there for educators, businesses, parents and non-profits to use to inform their work.

Web Literacy ≠ Digital Literacy


Interestingly, I think we can have a Web Literacy Standard while we can't have a Digital Literacy Standard. I'd be happy to discuss this more in the Q&A session afterwards, but let me put it this way: the web is something you can draw a circle around, at least at the moment. While we're moving towards an internet of things, it's not unreasonable right now, in 2013, to state that the web is the thing you access through a web browser. As a consequence we can define the skills and competencies required. Contrast this with digital literacy. To what does 'digital' pertain'? A digital watch? The thermostat in my house? The internet? It's almost impossible to identify the common thread here. Returning to that Venn diagram in the introduction, the connotative element of 'digital' swamps the denotative element.

‘Standard’?Web Literacy


Another question that people ask is why we need a 'Standard' for Web Literacy and not just a framework. My answer stems from the difference between web literacy and digital literacy I've just mentioned, but also from something I observed in the research from my doctoral thesis. Many frameworks appear to have been created by an individual researcher sitting in a darkened room with a wet towel over their head thinking very hard. Don't get me wrong: there's a place for thinking hard about knotty problems, but it's unlikely they can think of the multiple ways and different contexts in which that framework will be used.

Instead of coming with just another framework, Mozilla decided to work on a 'Standard'. This is a call to action for the community (of which anyone can be a member) to define something that can be adopted worldwide. As a former teacher and senior leader, I've seen extremely well-meaning but, ultimately, Procrustean efforts being made by my colleagues to retro-fit curricular and frameworks. The aim wasn't just to create a framework to 'inform' work in this area, but to help provide the bedrock for further work.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Learning/WebLiteracyStandard/Calls


If you're interested in this, I'll hope you'll join us. We meet every couple of weeks to talk synchronously and we work asynchronously through forums and various online documents.



Open Credentialing

This thing I did

Another thing

Showing what we know in a web-native way

And this one time I did this...

Check this out


22 Acacia AvenueSomewhereD15 N3Y

To whom it may concern,Letter of recommendationI really can’t recommend more highly such-and-such a person. They have made me several cups of tea and each one has been magnificent.

Not only was the water hot, but the teabag was fresh. Any organisation would be fortunate to have this person.Yours faithfully,Harold Squigglebottom

This is to certify...

Some person

did this thing

Signed: Iggle Piggle of Upsy-Daisyland


So now that we've defined what it is that people should be able to do with the web and provided some of the tools to learn how to do it, how can we ensure that people can show what they know? Traditionally, people have only a few ways of doing this quickly to someone who wants to check their credentials. They can show certificates from a school, college, university or after-school programmes. They could produce letters of recommendation. They could get out something they've made that's relevant to the situation.

?Wednesday, 13 November 13

The trouble is that none of these work well with the web. There's no easy way to validate that university degree certificate, that letter of recommendation or that you actually made the creation you've been shown. There are websites, of course, including a very famous one, that allow you to list your job history and academic credentials in a way that's similar to a social network. This website in particular allows you to 'endorse' people for particular skills.

Existing ‘endorsements’


Let's see how that works out in practice, shall we? This is what someone I know is endorsed for:

Less than optimal. True, my version of this is more relevant, but some of the people who have endorsed me have never even met me!

Wouldn't it be great if we had a way of exchanging and displaying credentials in a way that worked well with the web? And wouldn't it be fantastic if we could quickly and easily verify these? Finally, a real bonus would be if we could somehow democratise credentialing so that people didn't necessarily have to go through traditional gatekeepers.

What if we usedbadges for learning?


What if we used badges for learning?


Most people when they think of 'badges' think of the scouting movement, or swimming badges, or something like that. This is actually a great analogy as those badges are representations of something that a trusted organisation has issued based on achievement or affiliation.


Digital badges are almost as old as the web. People have used badges on forums to indicate their experience or the gaming clan that they are affiliated with since the 1990s. And even nowadays, most blogs have some kind of digital badge that demonstrates achievement or affiliation in the sidebar. People even add similar kinds of things on social networking profiles. What these digital badges lack, however, is validation. Where's the proof?

Image CC BY Kyle Bowen


Enter Open Badges. The difference between a digital badge and an open badge is that the latter have metadata baked into them.

Things like who issued the badge, the criteria for it, a link to evidence for the achievement or affiliation - even affiliation to standards, whether the badge expires, and of course tags. Anybody can issue a badge for any purpose. I could be issued a badge for my doctorate, for this presentation, for attendance at this event. It's an open, emergent ecosystem. Mozilla is looking after the plumbing, but anyone can contribute to the project, anyone can issue a badge, and like a YouTube video, they can be embedded anywhere on the web.

http://chicagosummeroflearning.org/


That leads to lots of interesting possibilities. Such as, for example, all of the summer youth programmes in Chicago joining together this year to issue Open Badges as part of a city-wide system. Or universities who have started to develop Open Badges to credential the non-academic skills young people learn during their time there. Or Open Badges for things that don't usually get credentialed very well, like professional development. The opportunities are endless.

http://chicagosummeroflearning.org

http://chicagosummeroflearning.org

Global platform for innovation


The thing I'm most excited about with this kind of credentialing is the way in which it provides a global platform for innovation. And if we connect that to open standards we end up with the potential for a distributed curriculum that can be contextualised as needed. There's still work to be done here, but it's exciting times and, if you're interested, you can be part of it.

Conclusion


I started this talk with a parable and ended it with specific examples of technologies. I tried to start with ambiguity and provide some clarity, and I'm looking forward to answering your questions in the Q&A session later . For now, though, I want to reiterate a few important points.

open |ˈəәʊp(əә)n|adjective1 allowing access, passage, or a view through an empty space; not closed or blocked: he climbed through the open window | she was put in a cubicle with the

curtains left open | the pass is kept open by snowploughs.• (of a container) not fastened or sealed: the case burst open and its contents flew all over the place.

• (of a garment or its fastenings) not done up: his tie was knotted below the open collar of his shirt.

• (of the mouth or eyes) with lips or lids parted: his eyes were open but he could see nothing | [ as complement ] : the boy's mouth dropped open in shock.

• (of the bowels) not constipated.2 [ attrib. ] exposed to the air or to view; not covered: an open fire burned in the grate | he crossed the ocean in an open boat.

• (of land) not covered with buildings or trees: the plans allow increasing numbers of new houses in open countryside.

• [ as complement ] damaged by a deep cut in the surface: he had his arm slashed open.

• (open to) likely to suffer from or be affected by; vulnerable or subject to: the system is open to abuse.

• (of a goalmouth or other object of attack in a game) unprotected by defenders.

• (of a town or city) officially declared to be undefended, and so immune under international law from bombardment.

3 with the outer edges or sides drawn away from each other; unfolded or spread out: the trees had buds and a few open flowers.

• (of a book or file) with the covers parted allowing it to be read: she was copying verses from an open Bible.

• (of a hand) not clenched into a fist.• (of a game or style of play) characterized by action which is spread out over the field.

4 [ predic. ] (of a business, place of entertainment, etc.) admitting customers or visitors; available for business: the shop stays open until 9 p.m | parts of

the castle are open to the public.• (of a bank account) available for transactions.• (of a telephone line) ready to take calls.5 freely available or accessible; unrestricted: the service is open to all students.

• (of an offer or opportunity) still available: the offer is open while stocks last | we need to consider what options are left open.

• (also Open )with no restrictions on those allowed to participate: open discussion meetings | each horse had won two open races.

• (also Open )(of a victor) having won an open competition.• (of a ticket) not restricted as to day of travel.• Brit.(of a cheque) not crossed.• Mathematics (of a set) not containing any of its limit points.

6 not concealing one's thoughts or feelings; frank and communicative: she behaved in an open and cheerful manner | I was quite open about my views.

• not concealed: his eyes showed open admiration as they swept over her.• [ attrib. ] (of conflict) fully developed and unconcealed: the dispute erupted into open war.

• welcoming public discussion, criticism, and enquiry: the party's commitment to open government.

7 (of a matter or decision) not finally settled; still admitting of debate: students' choice of degree can be kept open until the second year.

• (of the mind) accessible to new ideas: I'm keeping an open mind about my future.

• (open to) receptive to: the union was open to suggestions for improvements.• (open to) admitting of; making possible: the message is open to different interpretations.

8 Phonetics (of a vowel) produced with a relatively wide opening of the mouth and the tongue kept low.

• (of a syllable) ending in a vowel.9 Music (of a string) allowed to vibrate along its whole length.• (of a pipe) unstopped at each end.• (of a note) sounded from an open string or pipe.10 (of an electric circuit) having a break in the conducting path.11 (of a fabric) loosely knitted or woven.verb [ with obj. ]1 move (a door or window) so as to leave a space allowing access and vision: she opened the door and went in | [ no obj., in imperative ] : ‘ Open up !’

he said.• [ no obj. ] (of a door or window) be moved to leave a space allowing access: the door opened and a man came out.

• undo or remove the lid, cover, or fastening of (a container, package, letter, etc.) to get access to the contents: he opened a bottle inexpertly, spilling some

of the wine | can we open the presents now?• part the lips or lids of (one's mouth or eye).• [ no obj. ] (of the mouth or eyes) have the lips or lids parted: her eyes slowly opened.

• [ no obj. ] come apart; lose or lack its protective covering: old wounds opened and I bled a little bit.

• [ no obj. ] (open on to/into) (of a room, door, or window) give access to: the kitchen opened into a pleasant sitting room.

• cause evacuation of (the bowels).2 unfold or be unfolded; spread out: [ with obj. ] : the eagle opened its wings and circled up into the air | the tail looks like a fan when it is opened out fully |

[ no obj. ] : the flowers only open during bright weather.• [ with obj. ] part the covers of (a book or file) to read it: she opened her book at the prologue.

• [ no obj. ] (open out) become wider: the path opened out into a glade.• [ no obj., with adverbial ] (of a prospect) extend into view: stop to marvel at the views that open out below.

• [ with obj. ] Nautical achieve a clear view of (a place) by sailing past a headland or other obstruction: we shall open Torbay shortly.

3 make or become formally ready for customers, visitors, or business: [ with obj. ] : she raised $731 by opening her home and selling coffee and tea | [ no

obj. ] : the shops didn't open until 10.• [ with obj. ] ceremonially declare (a building, road, etc.) to be completed and ready for use: the Queen opened the power plant on 17 October 1956.

• [ with obj. ] make possible access to or passage through: the President announced that his government would open the border.

4 formally establish or begin (a new business, movement, or enterprise): she began to teach and opened her own school | we opened up a branch in Madrid.

• [ no obj. ] (of an enterprise, meeting, or event) begin or be formally established: two new restaurants open this week.

• take the action required to begin using: they have the £10 necessary to open a savings account | click twice to open a file for the software selected.

• [ no obj. ] (of a piece of writing or music) begin: the chapter opens with a discussion of Anglo-Irish relations.

• [ no obj. ] (open up) (of a process) start to develop: a new and dramatic phase was opening up.

• (of a counsel in a law court) make a preliminary statement in (a case) before calling witnesses.

• Cricket another term for open the batting below.• Bridge make (the first bid) in the auction.5 make available or more widely known: new technologies open up thousands of different opportunities.

• [ no obj. ] (open out/up) become more communicative or confiding: he was very reserved and only opened out to her slowly.

• make (one's mind) more receptive or sympathetic: open your mind to what is going on around you.

• (open someone to/up to) make someone vulnerable to: the process is going to open them to a legal threat.

6 break the conducting path of (an electric circuit).• [ no obj. ] (of an electric circuit or device) suffer a break in its conducting path.

noun1 [ mass noun ] (the open) outdoors or in the countryside: guests were sitting in the open on the terrace.

• (in/into the open) not subject to concealment; made public: we have never let our dislike for him come into the open.

2 ( Open )a championship or competition with no restrictions on who may compete: his victory in the 2003 Australian Open.

3 an accidental break in the conducting path for an electric current.

PHRASESbe open with speak frankly to: I had always been completely open with my mother.

an open book a person or thing that is easy to understand or about which everything is known: her mind was an open book to him.

in open court in a court of law, before the judge and the public.open-and-shut (of a case or argument) admitting no doubt or dispute; straightforward.

open the batting Cricket play as one of the pair of batsmen who begin a side's innings.

open the door to see door.open someone's eyes see eye.open fire begin to shoot.with one's eyes open see eye.with open arms see arm1.PHRASAL VERBSopen up begin shooting: the enemy artillery had opened up.open something up 1 informal accelerate a motor vehicle: Sam took me back on the motorway to open her up. 2 (of a player or team) create an advantage

for one's side: he opened up a lead of 14–8.DERIVATIVESopenable adjective,openness |ˈəәʊp(əә)nnɪs|nounORIGIN Old English open (adjective), openian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch open and German offen, from the root of the adverb

up.

1Wednesday, 13 November 13

First, we can't assume that just because we're using the same word as someone else that they mean the same thing. I used to get annoyed when reading Plato's dialogues for this very reason: Socrates is a bit of a fundamentalist when it comes to word usage. There's no particular problem with people using 'open' for different reasons, so long as we are aware of this and don't conflate meanings.

2Wednesday, 13 November 13

Second, the way that we at Mozilla talk about openness is by stressing the community aspect. The two go hand in hand. We're developing our technologies, standards and credentialing systems in the open with community members. And anyone can be a Mozillian, a member of the Mozilla project's community.

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Third, and finally, what really 'revolutionises' anything, anywhere, isn't finding a new way to sell things to people or commoditising things. Revolutionary activity is about bringing ideas into action. We're doing that at Mozilla by working with the community to realise the principles enshrined in our manifesto. You can see exactly what we mean by looking at that.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Transparency.

Openness.

Community.


Transparency. Openness. Community. These are the things that will make the world a better place. If we're going to transform learning, let's build it upon these principles, shall we?

Oh, and if you still don't understand that parable, ask me about it later. ;-)

dougbelshaw.com


http://dougbelshaw.com

http://dougbelshaw.com