Back to programme overview

Register

Introduction

Mozilla Open Badges is a new online standard to recognize and verify learning. The Open Badges Infrastructure (OBI) has been developed to support issuing and earning badges as open micro credentials which can serve as indicators of skills, achievements or credits for all types of learning. Mozilla Open Badges enable any organisation to create, issue and verify digital badges, and any user to earn, manage and display  badges on the web, for example social networking profiles, job sites or blogs. Open Badges can be collected in a digital backpack and put together individually to visualise learning pathways telling the full story of learning in both formal and informal contexts. Open Badges shared standard for recognizing skills and achievements helps make badges count towards job opportunities and lifelong learning. In this workshop we will discuss Open Badges as part of the Open Education ecosystem and design ideas of how Open Badges may be used along with other initiatives such as Open Educational Resources to open up education.

Working methods

We will apply Design Thinking as a method to design scenarios for Open Badges enhancing Open Education.
The workshop will be structured as follows:

• Introduction of participants and their experience with Open Education and Open Badges
• A (very) short introduction to Open Badges including two example projects
• Design thinking process including exploration, ideation and prototyping
• Testing ideas using Badge Design Canvas to make first drafts more explicit
• Summary of ideas and outlook

Facilitators

Ilona Buchem (PhD)

I am professor in residence for Digital Media & Diversity at Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. I graduated with a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw (Poland), Concordia University (USA) and University Duisburg-Essen (Germany) and obtained my PhD degree in Business Education in 2009 at Humboldt University in Berlin. My research and teaching focus on the intersections of digital media and society, especially digital learning and communication. Some of my current research and development areas include digital badges, digital portfolios, digital diversity and digital communities. I am Chair of the Special Interest Group on Wearable Technology Enhanced Learning at the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning (EATEL), the founder of the Europortfolio German Chapter and the German-speaking Open Badges Usergroup.  I have been involved in a number of national and international projects, including the EU project “Badge Europe” dedicated to Open Badges. I am also a member the Association of Media in Science (GMW) and the European Distance Education Network (EDEN).

Grainne Hamilton

Grainne has been involved in Open Badge developments since the early days when the concept was first being researched. Her varied background includes developing an Open Badges framework, leading the development of the Jisc Open Badges Toolkit and working with the Mozilla Open Badges team to investigate badge-based pathways to employment. She also founded the Open Badges in Scottish Education Group which brought together representatives from government, education and industry to consider applications for Open Badges across Scotland. Most recently, she was Senior Consultant at Blackboard, helping a global range of clients with their teaching, learning and Open Badge developments. At DigitalMe, Grainne contributes her expertise to a range of projects and further develops the Open Badges ecosystem in Scotland.