Making the accreditation of IT achievement better - Naace Conference 2016

Editor's Notes

1. I’m Sharon Ashley from Makewaves, and also delivering this session is Matt Roger from DigitalMe We’ve been asked, at the end of the conference, to take a step back from the different approaches and activities we’ve been exploring today and look at how we can recognise the achievement that is happening in and out of classrooms. The: Achievement of pupils and students Achievement of teachers and support staff across the school, including professional development If we take a different approach to how we accredit that achievement, is it possible to add value to the skills and qualities that employers are looking for, which aren’t currently recognised in formal qualifications?
2. Makewaves has been around as a safe social network for schools, children and young people for 12 years. At its heart has always been celebrating pupils’ achievement.
3. Three years ago, Makewaves became the first UK platform, alongside digitalme, funded via a competition in the states to integrate the Open Badge technology. When we added badges in to the community to recognise learning and engagement in a new way, we weren’t sure how the community would react. Age 8-14 loved this idea of being set a badge mission, creating evidence offline, sharing this online by submitting a blog, a video they’d created, some images or any piece of evidence and being rewarded with a badges. Badges are very social and this age range like to see the badges their peers have earned and go an take that badge, or browse the badge library to find badges that reward them for their interests. They like collecting. 15+ much more about what does this badge mean to me? How does it help me in a my path to college / uni / a job. Badges also became important for our project partners that are running activities through Makewaves. For example, DigitalMe were running the Supporter to Reporter project. Research showed that students going through this programme were developing improved literacy skills but also softer skills such as confidence and resilience. However, accrediting this programme was very difficult so students weren’t leaving with an easy way of communicating the skills and qualities they have developed or of being aware that these are something that employers are looking for or are valued. The same (but different) with the Safe certificate in social networking and badges. Children would work through the scheme but had to wait until the end for a printed certificate. Badges offered a chance to reward students along the way at key points – micro credentials.
4. Mapping these kind of programmes to formal qualifications before badges had been a bit like whack a mole in that these qualifications were always changing and hitting the right one was pot luck. When DiDA came along we thought that was something that would be good to map to, and a year or so later it was gone. It was hard to keep pace with the changing landscape of formal qualifications. But what was also becoming clear was that formal qualifications weren’t keeping pace with the needs of employers, students were leaving education with a set of qualifications that were no longer valuing the skills and qualities that employers are looking for in today’s workforce. Badges offer a more felxible, agile approach to accreditation for employers.
5. From our work with employers, it became clear there was a need for a platform that enabled employers to create badge programmes that showed young people the skills that they were looking for. And that enabled young people to find these badges, start earning them and develop connections with the world of work in new ways. It is for this reason that we created Open Badge Academy. (Middle strand). From our conversations with employers, when creating Open Badge Academy, it became clear that badges for career progression once in the world of work were also a key area for Open Badge Academy and employers. One employer we are working with is Siemens and they are approaching their badge journey with all three strands in mind. 7-14 years – tap in to and spark interest in stem, 15+ develop talent pipeline and raise awareness of stem careers, CPD – progression within industry.
6. These are some of the stats and real life facts facing Siemens as an employer.
7. Open badge academy, for 15+ (13+) – employer badges and for lifelong learning. One of the key employers who are keen to harness Open badges as a way to develop a pipeline of talent are O2
8. Soundbite from O2, BBC, school as to how approaching badges
9. Why are Open Badges useful in this way? Information, can be collected, controlled by the earner. Criteria and individual evidence baked in to badge image awarded to earner. Portable across platforms – ownership with the earner once awarded.
10. Open Badge Infrastructure developed by Mozilla. Global non profit behind the firefox web browser with fantastic approach to data, privacy and democratisation of the web. Mark Surman from Mozilla – quote of how badges work best. This is how we are approaching CPD badges with Naace – co-creation of badges with the community.
11. Co-production. DfE – Computing CPD. Approach of technician badges (experience on MW of schools benefitting from Technicians’ input that have voice in schools) , compliment existing vendor quals such as Microsoft Certified Engineer and encourage and develop understanding of impact of tech in the classroom and language of teaching and learning to enable deeper conversations around Ed Tech for the technician in the school, raising the status of the voice of the technician. Being part of the school ecosystem. And now – Ed Tech user badge. Just started on this journey – badge design day – would like to co-create with you. Showcase badge can earn today.
12. Today, all earn the Ed Tech user badge, with Mark Chambers.
13. Once you have earned, using the tools that your students can also use. This is badge on OBA that your students can earn.
14. So it was an interesting step for both organisations to add the Open Badge technology in to the Makewaves community and platform. We didn’t know how they would respond. The interest from C&YP was phenomenal. First badges – Malala, Monster Read, Red Nose Day – range of issues, interests and curriculum focussed. Age 8-14 loved finding badge missions that interested them, completing these independently or as part of class or home work and collecting badges as rewards and recognition. 15+ much more about what the badge meant for them in terms of their potential progression to university, college or future job prospects – what opportunities can it lead to. From this slide can see the range of badges now on Makewaves – starting to work with employers (O2), coding, STEM