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Really interesting article about the potential of a lifelong and nonlinear path through college - reminiscent of Prof. Dede's lifelong and life-wide learning propositions/models.

Jennifer Dick shared this on the TIE2012 Facebook page.  Looks like a great forum to check out on topics relevant to T-561.   Topical groups included "Badges for LifeLong Learning," "Pedagogy", and "Semantic Web."  check it out.

James- I had a really interesting conversation about badges for lifelong learning yesterday, and as I'm sure you know it's a controversial topic, especially among academics who resent the premise that people need extrinsic motivators like badges as incentives to be lifelong learners. One major advantage to badges, according the the people I was talking with, is that they can be used as a kind of shorthand validation of somebody's credentials. So, for example, if you wanted to hire a freelancer to build you a website, write you some content, or re-tile your kitchen, you would be able to get a quick idea of how good they were by seeing what kinds of badges they had earned. I found this to be an interesting application to the badge system, whereas I was quite against the idea before of incentivizing lifelong learning. What does everyone think of HASTAC badges?

Business still early in development. They are trying to provide solution for this problem: 'it's extremely difficult to track, quantify and contextualize the diversity of experiences in informal lifelong learning." Too early to say if this is even a sustainable business model but we will see. 

More about badges

I'll be working on this project through the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at MIT Media Lab this semester

This is very cool...I haven't seen much on cross-generational learning, but I think that there are very valid benefits to it (as well as multi-generational living). Anyways, it seems not so different from the research that Uche is doing in the class. Look forward to hearing how your semester goes!

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

This article introduces an online resource for giving and earning badges. It addresses the debate surrounding earning badges in education.

I see similarity in what CEEO is trying to achieve with MIT's Scratch project. Emphasis on creativity, learning from others, reflecting on process. Figuring how to assess its performance remain as an issue here as well. 

Badge learning video - I've started the challenge to earn a badge in badge learning over at P2PU. :-)

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