The CLAVIER (Connected Learning And Virtual Intercultural Exchange Research) network grew rhizomatically as a result of open practice (Blyth, 2019), which is central to the CLAVIER approach. Informed by the field of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), the network has provided a safe space to experiment with the development and implementation of open badges to support sustained participation in Virtual Exchanges (VEs). This case study describes the rationale for CLAVIER’s open badge framework and its links with the Erasmus+ VE (E+VE) badges.
Language education faculty face myriad challenges in finding teaching resources that are suitable, of high quality, and allow for the modifications needed to meet the requirements of their course contexts and their learners. The article elaborates the grassroots model of “produsage” (a portmanteau of “production” and “usage”) as a way of imagining a movement toward the use and creation of open educational resources (OER) for language learning. Through a set of examples of video resources that fill a need for authentically compelling language learning materials, the authors demonstrate the potential of produsage to engage teachers and learners around digital resources, to the benefit of language teaching and learning. In support of this grassroots model, the authors propose practices and policies to address challenges involved in engaging teachers and learners around OER in higher education.
What is it? Open badges are a 21st-century solution to the shortcomings
of paper certificates in the age of digital, online identity management.
These small visual signifiers which carry hard-coded meta-data can be issued
by anyone in order to recognise achievement or participation in formal or
informal activities. They link back directly to the issuer, the criteria for
award, and the evidence. The learner can collect and display their open
badges online to reveal their journey and discover new opportunities. Open
badges emerged from the Badges for Lifelong Learning Competition in 2011
funded by the MacArthur Foundation and administered by HASTAC in
collaboration with the Mozilla Foundation (MacArthur Foundation, 2012). The
aim was to provide a “powerful new tool for identifying and validating the
rich array of people's skills, knowledge, accomplishments, and competencies
[…to] inspire new pathways to learning and connect learners to
opportunities, resources, and one another” (HASTAC, 2020, n.p.). The open
badge infrastructure is based on an open source set of standards which have
enabled the ‘baking’ of meta-data within a digital image through the use of
an open badge platform. Open badge platforms are free to access, at least
initially, offering educators the opportunity to create visual, shareable
micro-credentials which recognise a learner’s journey.
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