Group items tagged

The idea of "showing what you know" and earning badges instead of degrees? In this economic downswing, could something like this become the new emergent way of learning and of assessing? Thoughts?

Sounds like the digital badge is more lke a digital portfolio- which I would more likely support. I find it interesting that our education system (which strives and struggles to provide consistent, high quality education from coast to coast) is seen as deficient but this badge proposal will be the answer? It's like the flood of support for home-schooling after a home-schooler wins a national competition but no one knows about the tens of homescholers I had to remediate in rural NH. Standardization is the key for any system to be integrated into another system. The variety of education models we have in our country makes it difficult for employers to integrate employees. If this digital badge concept relies on a variety of models, they will have the same problem.

The prospect of digital badges to show what you know is both exciting with its potential affordances and worrisome with some of its limitations and ambiguity. It'd be great if the ideal came to pass that digital badges would allow valid demonstration of super-specific skills and knowledge over a greater range of fields and topics than what having a B.A. or B.S. currently does. Digital badges could represent the most particular concepts or skills at a granular level even-- those that are essential in the real-world (whether that be desired by employers or otherwise). If the task or test or challenge, or whatever else would be the means of assessment for earning a badge, was carefully designed and evaluated to be a truly valid measure of proficiency, then earning a badge for something would be a clear indication that you know something. But like Allison said, standardization would be key. What would these assessments/ badge challenges be- so that they would be truly valid indicators of proficiency? Who would be the purveyors or authorities to determine the assessments or challenges to accomplish a badge? Given the medium (completing badge assessments on one's own computer or mobile device - from any site they're at potentially) - what's to stop a user from going "open book" or "opening another tab" in order to look up answers to questions or tutorials on how to do a task, in order to complete the assessment? Doing this would allow a user to ace the assessment and earn the badge- but would defeat any value of the badge in truly demonstrating knowledge or skill. By imagining if digital badges did reach mass-acceptance and use in the real world, and we were to ultimately find them all over the internet like we're now finding social media widgets, it made me realize that the "prove proficiency anywhere I am in any way I want" won't work. I changed fields and career paths from what I studied in college, so I definitely appreciate the value in being able to truly show e

Coursera announced Signature Track, a new option that will give students in select classes the opportunity to earn a Verified Certificate for completing their Coursera course. 30-100$ per course. Signature Track offers: Identity Verification. Verified Certificates. Sharable Course Records.

Interesting article on certifying teachers for online education. With the current surge of online education, parents and stakeholders might be more assured with such standards - but should they really be?

Through an example of the University of the People (online, tuition-free, non profit university), the article highlights the hardships such organization face to be successful in achieving their vision/mission. Credibility issue for online university issued certificate is also mentioned.   

Similar to the article below from Daniel, this article talks about how edX is making progress on the certification of students and final exams.

"Considering the biggest complaints about online education have fallen under the three Cs - completion, certification and cheating - edX appears to be covering all of their bases."

Taking the next step towards credentialing through MOOC's and establishing greater value for these online classes.

Interesting decision to address a number of common criticisms of online learning: the potential for cheating, the failure of enrollees to complete the course and the lack of certification.

Hmmmmm. For profit? Taking the human out of a human services?

more free online courses from MIT. purchasable certificate for satisfactory completion. grading by fellow students, or computers? will this allow creative, open-ended work to be done for grading?

the access to online courses is great for those seeking affordable education options. My guess, however, is that design of these courses is going to vary -- the design needs to be held up to high standards for course content to be usable.

Here is a highly populated list of open course offerings at various universities on the internet. This is certainly going to be disruptive to the pay-for-learning model of higher education. Some issues: does it make sense to attach some sort of certification of completion? Is it feasible or desirable to offer complete open courses, or would it be better to make the offerings more granular in nature? Should users be able to remix offerings from various courses to create custom courses?

This is fantastic! Thank, Steve.

MIT announcing next Monday that they will launch an online learning initiative called M.I.T.x,which will offer the online teaching of M.I.T. courses free of charge to anyone in the world. This course will not offer M.I.T. deploma, but will offer a M.I.T. certificate of completion. How will this impact for-profit online universities, such as, University of Phoenix?

"This new agreement is part of an ongoing effort by University of Phoenix, the nation's largest institution of higher education, to open the doors to new educational pathways for prospective and current students in the field of Information Technology." Interesting hybrid of college-credit and training/certification programs...

As a foundational pillar in Affnet's Education business, the DotSchools portal is a free online resource that can assist prospective students in search of top online colleges and campus schools find degree and certificate programs best suited to advancing their professional and personal goals.

you can become a google certified teacher by attending the Google Teacher Academy

I'm sure some of you are already aware of this certification program offered through Google -- anybody know what's behind it and how it is viewed by academics and learning scientists?

I know a lot of educators are super interested in the program, but it is difficult to get to training center for an 8 hour training (often they are in random cities across the the US), and to get funding because it ain't cheap. However, a lot of teachers are taking on the challenge of training each other rather than having "google certified teacher" title. Since Google Educator apps are free - if someone in a district takes ownership, then you can kind of get around the challenges of PD. I am working with the IT specialist in a middle school in Newton, who has done a lot of trainings on Google apps for educators. I'll ask her for more info :-)

This is discussed in the Productivity section of the NETP

Arizona is taking an interesting view on seat-time http://news.yahoo.com/high-school-less-four-years-070000848.html Hundreds of schools in Arizona are being given the chance to opt into an initiative called Move On When Ready where students are allowed to graduate after their sophomore year based on proving academic achievement. Some are arguing that it is the same option as getting a G.E.D. after one turns 16 but I would argue that there is a negative connotation to having a G.E.D. versus a high school diploma and that this program provides a way for students to achieve a diploma without "putting in" four years of high school seat-time.

A true next American revolution in education will not be a simple linear extension of our current system. It will involve a combination of lifelong learning and certification, a commitment to teaching students how to learn continually, an equally deep commitment to contextual training

Kind of ironic, but "old tech" using new tech to promote sales of old tech. Basically Elsevier is giving students in an edX course a free, static version of one of its textbooks. Students then see a link to purchase a discounted, dynamic version--and it seemed to bump up sales! Also interesting is that edX gets a cut of the book sales--maybe another avenue for them to become sustainable, in addition to charging for certification.

States are starting to question whether online teachers should be required to obtain additional certification or training for virtual instruction. Some folks think a solid foundation in classroom teaching is enough and that it would present an additional obstacle to the existing challenge of recruiting high-quality teachers. But can teachers be as effective online as in the classroom without some specialized training?

gamification - incentives to learn?

Is a good teacher a good teacher regardless of the medium, or do online teachers need medium-specific training? The "class pet" idea is great.

Good list of free and pay online language learning resources. See the awards list.