Open Badges, a new online standard launched in March 2013 by Mozilla, is open source, free software, which any organization can use to create, issue and verify digital badges to recognize and verify learning.
Many of us are familiar with and likely earned some kind of physical badge in our lifetime. Who can forget all those colourful badges sewn or pinned on a sleeve, jacket or hat of a Girl Guide or Boy Scout? These badges represent the accomplishment of various achievements and are often proudly displayed by the recipients.
Digital badges, originally introduced in games, are also used to recognize achievements and completion of specific tasks, but they are issued and shared digitally.
They are often treated as rewards and recipients seek them to:
Digital badge issuers use digital badges for:
To provide a common system for the issuance, collection, and display of digital badges on multiple instructional sites, Mozilla Foundation developed Mozilla Open Badges – free software and an open technical standard any organization can use to create, issue and verify digital badges.
Many educational institutions and learning management system providers, such as Blackboard and Moodle, quickly partnered with Mozilla to enable online teachers and administrators to issue Open Badges for course and activity completions.
From June to July 2013, the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) On-line Field Trial was undertaken by the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC)1 and the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities (MTCU) in Ontario.
PIAAC On-line is also known by the title The Education and Skills Online Assessment. It was developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as “an assessment tool designed to provide individual-level results that are linked to the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) measures of literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments.”
In September 2013, AlphaPlus gathered feedback from participants in the Field Trial, specifically to explore the perspectives of adult literacy practitioners on the impact of digital technology in individual assessment on-line such as PIAAC On-line.
Project officers from MTCU and CMEC indicated their interest in general feedback from participants. A short survey was designed that included items related to the perceived impact of technology as well as items based on communications provided by MTCU during the PIAAC On-line Field Trial.
This short report summarizes the results of two independent surveys.
The first was undertaken by AlphaPlus, surveying literacy practitioners about their own and adult learners’ experiences participating in the PIAAC On-line Field Trial.
The second was undertaken by PTP Adult Learning and Employment Programs, surveying the learners in their program who participated in the Field Trial. We hope to contribute to the discussion about PIAAC On-line by providing some quantitative but foremost qualitative data that speaks to the data collected through the Field Trial.
E-learning is becoming an increasingly important component in our work, in further education and training and in our daily life.
In this OALCF Goal Paths and E-learning e-bulletin, we take a look at the transitional competency requirements in each of the OALCF goal paths related to e-learning and the opportunities currently available to adult literacy students in Ontario.
As we undertook this brief review of e-learning in the goal paths, we had the following questions in mind:
Much of what we learned is information already familiar to experienced adult literacy practitioners; however, we want to highlight the ever-increasing reach of e-learning in workplaces and in education.
This package of instructional resources was developed in 2012 and includes sample tasks and learning activities to support practitioners using digital technology in Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) programs within the context of the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework (OALCF).
As this is an older document, you may find the links to resources have become outdated.
The sample tasks and learning activities are organized by theme:
Package 1 (PDF) includes:
Package 2 (PDF) includes:
These instructional resources were developed in collaboration with Anne-Marie Kaskens and Tracey Mollins. Instructors and learners at The Literacy Group of Waterloo Region reviewed many of the tasks and provided valuable feedback. We thank them all for their invaluable support.
This research report is based on the study of the perceptions and experiences of ten adult learners with digital media as they work through small group sessions to create their own digital texts and then reflect on whether and how they think that digital media might help them build digital literacy skills and whether they might be able to apply these skills in their daily lives.
The purpose of this small scale study was twofold:
The report explores the following four themes:
A report on a short-term project conducted in partnership with four self-selected, community-based, adult literacy agencies in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Although over the years we have worked closely with many adult literacy programs across the province, we wanted to look more closely at the realities of using digital technologies for adult literacy teaching and learning.
Specifically, we wanted to:
Social Networking Sites and Adult Literacy Learning: Raising the Issues, explores how educators and adult learners might harness the full potential of Social Networking Sites (SNS) and other social media in the service of adult literacy teaching and learning.
This paper, commissioned by AlphaPlus, is a synthesis of the critical analysis of the issues that we uncovered from the literature, policy documents, web-based sources and, more importantly, from literacy learners and educators themselves.
Acknowledging that informal literacy learning is occurring in the process of using SNS, the paper addresses various factors that influence literacy learners’ use of these sites such as 21st Century skills, social and civic engagement, marginalization, the digital divide, and digital citizenship. Noting the ubiquity of digital technologies in today’s society, the authors argue that literacy programs have an important role in helping adult literacy learners keep pace with others in society. However, the paper also raises important issues that will need to be addressed if SNS are to be incorporated into literacy programs.
“Social networking sites and adult literacy learning go hand in hand, in our opinion, yet the issues and questions we’ve raised require careful consideration if they are to be brought together in non-formal and formal educational contexts.”
This technical paper explores the skills needed for the use of digital technology within the context of curriculum frameworks such as the OALCF, skills frameworks such as the Essential Skills, and more generally in the workplace and for lifelong learning.
Ultimately, the paper aims to spark a national discussion among educators, program administrators, researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders, about the use of digital technology as an essential skill for all adults in Canada.
Finding Our Way: Digital Technologies and E-Learning for Adult Literacy Students, Educators and Programs Literature Scan: 2005-2011, presents a global snapshot of how technology has been used to enhance teaching, learning and professional development.
Given the ubiquity of digital technologies in today’s world and the pressure on educators to keep up, the report explores how they are and could be supported to integrate technology into their practice.
Ultimately, the report aims to spark a national discussion about what is happening, what needs to happen, and how AlphaPlus can, in collaboration with the adult literacy field, begin to harness the full potential of digital technology and e-learning in the service of adult literacy teaching and learning.