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"The OBI is the 'plumbing' of the badge ecosystem. It is a specification for badges, set of repositories ("Backpacks") for storing badges and APIs for pushing badges in and pulling badges out. It's an important piece of this badge experiment because it moves us beyond more silo'd systems, allows the learner to collect badges from lots of different learning experiences and provides the structural components to enable badges to be transferred and leveraged across the ecosystem for real results like jobs or credits."

Of course I followed the roll out of MacArthur's Badges for Lifelong Learning competition quite closely. I have studied participatory approaches to assessment and motivation for many years. Thanks in part to Daniel Pink's widely read book Drive, many worried that badges would trivialize deep learning and leave learners with decreased intrinsic motivation to learn.