Float | The Coming Rise of the Independent Skill Certification & Personal Data Locker
Chad Udell wrote the following post regarding what happens when learners own their data (and can prove what they know and are capable of). An excerpt is as follows:
Learning is everywhere. People learn by watching and doing. We do this every day and may not even realize this. The 70-20-10 rule may not be provable, but itโs certainly palpable. It just feels right. It makes sense.
[...Many] experiences are all well and good, but what about verification? How do these things you say you do get proven? A diploma or masterโs degree is verifiable. What about the fact that you say you went through 25 courses on Web design by yourself and say you are capable of handling the job that you are interviewing for?
Enter Open Badges. The Mozilla Foundationโs foray into educational software is an interesting one, to say the least. Part Boy Scout badge, part digital certificate/signature, the Open Badges is an attempt to award a recognition of mastery or skill acquisition and also verify the skill via a third party (e.g., an educational institution or a publisher such as OโReilly). These badges are earned by completing curriculum, attending workshops, passing assessments, performing tasks or any other sort of benchmarks set forth by the issuing body. It may be easy to initially dismiss these badges as trite examples of gamification gone wild (with all the backlash you would expect). However, with a measured approach, it is easy to see just where something like this could be taken in a positive light as well.
Want to make a career change? Take night classes in a MOOC, pass it and earn badges. Go through an apprenticeship or internship successfully and earn badges. Attach these badges to your resume or CV, and offer a simple verification process to HR professionals and interviewing companies to prove you have the skills to make the cut to the next round of discussions or interviews.
Read the post in its entirety here.
