Semester Reflections

Self-directed Learning / Personal Blog Posts

Over the course of the last few months, I’ve been able to explore and even investigate digital culture and its different developing facets. Although it was initially very difficult to wrap my mind around the idea of guiding and directing my own learning (rather than having defined homework assignments and topics to learn about), I have really enjoyed being able to focus on what is particularly relevant to me and my interests as well as what simply interests me.

To demonstrate my own self-directed learning, I’ve blogged about:

Intellectual Property (here)

Adrian Johns’s book Piracy: Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates   (here) 

Cyberbullying (here) 

Anna Karenina and Digital Culture (here, here and here) 

The Media Fast (here)

Social Change (here)

The Open Education Movement, with a particular focus on badges (here, here, here, here and here) 

I’ve also posted to Google + about:

Badges (especially other relevant badge projects and resources)

Relevant blog articles mentioned above

Social Change through technology

Intellectual Property

The Open Movement

Research materials that I’ve found useful and important:

Adrian Johns’s Piracy: Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates

Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

Mozilla’s Open Badge Website/ The Open Badge Forum

Neil Selwyn’s Education in a Digital World : Global Perspectives on Technology and Education

Curtis J. Bonk’s World Is Open : How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education

        The Matrix

        Wreck-It Ralph

Collaboration

I’ve also been very involved this semester with my group’s project, the Mormon Badges Group, as we have explored how online badges can be adapted to meet the needs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have been very active in developing and creating our actual badge prototypes (see here), blogging about what we were developing on our blog, and then going on to present our experiences and what we’ve learned at the Mormon Media Studies Symposium and last week to the head of Social Media for the LDS Church. It has been a fantastic experience to be able to collaborate with this group as we were able to develop our ideas together and ultimately pitch them formally to the Church.

With other projects, I’ve been able to help make suggestions as I’ve followed their projects. I specifically critiqued the Digital Sweet Home group’s project proposal , and I’ve really enjoyed following their work and development. I’ve commented online and discussed in class other projects, with the most interaction with the Educational Badge group as I’ve been able to provide them useful resources and links online and discussed ideas in class.

Others’ assistance

Throughout the semester I’ve followed most closely the work of the two badges groups namely Ellis Dyck, Josh McKinney, Katie Wilkie and Greg Williams due to the close nature of our two projects. But I’ve also enjoyed following their posts and writing about not only badges but larger digital culture themes. I’ve likewise been inspired (and motivated) by Tara Pina, Jason Hamilton, Allie Crafton and Audrey Blake.

Digital Literacy

Explain how you have developed your digital literacy during this semester. Use the categories of A) Consume; B) Create; and C) Connect. Please do more than list tools or services you’ve learned to use. Describe how your understanding of literacy has evolved or how you have become more conscious of and taken more control of your digital life.

Perhaps the most noticeable result of the time I’ve spent learning about digital culture has been developing my own digital literacy through coming to understand and better utilize new media. After beginning the semester with the media fast (http://leesjessica326.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-media-fast-or-what-making-non.html), I’ve learned how important it is to maximize my online interactions to be able to use my time productively and effectively while getting the most out of my time online. This is especially apparent as I’ve learned to Consume, Create and Connect through this class and my own online learning.

As I’ve been consuming relevant content for this class, my blog, the Mormon Badges Project and my Google+ posts, I have been able to better maximize my research time through using social tools as well as more traditional research avenues. I found interesting resources through search engines and the BYU library, but I also found tools through social networking tools such as Good Reads and even through receiving input and suggestions from classmates and contacts online. I have also been able to do more online reading through BYU’s ebrary, which gave me access to a lot of fascinating books about especially the Open Education Movement.

Creating content for this class is where I saw the most obvious increase in my digital literacy. Through this course I became much more familiar with Google resources such as Google docs and Google forms, which made it easy to collaborate as a group (for the Mormon Badges Project). I also used Prezi for the first time through my group project, and I really like that I’m now much more comfortable with this fun and dynamic presentation tool. Although I did blog this summer for an internship, this was the first time that I have had my own personal blog to express my views and opinions. Perhaps the most important concept I’ve learned from this experience has been how important it is to put my ideas out there early, even if they’re still being developed, so that I can get feedback and social proof to determine the validity of following a specific course of research and study. 

Likewise, my digital literacy has drastically improved as I’ve connected to receive social proof about my ideas and thoughts. Through becoming much more familiar with Google +, I've been able to post in an easy and accessible way. I also used my Facebook account for some more limited interactions for this class. The ease of this kind of communication showed me how important it is to use these connections, whether my classmates, friends or even family, to share my ideas and projects. Not only has this begun many interesting conversations online, but I’ve been able to connect in surprising ways with my family and friends. This has ultimately shown me how absolutely crucial it is to not do real research and thinking in the void that is so typical for the average college research paper, and I glad to have experienced the real benefits that come through connecting about academic and personal interests and topics.

Individual Exam Questions

Objective Questions

1. As is discussed in Adrian Johns’ Piracy: Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates, Intellectual property presents many difficulties in the digital age because: (pick two)
a. The complexities of a single system make universal enforcement nearly impossible.
b. Digital Mediums are more prone to theft.
c. New forms of media are constantly developing.
d. Authors online cite less frequently and less comprehensively.
[See my blog post: To Change or Not to Change: Thoughts on Intellectual Property and Copyright ]

2. Online badges are an important example of _____________ as a means of motivating learning based upon the feedback mechanisms inherent to video games.

[See Prezi: “Mormon Badges”]

3. Because of what is described as the current “renaissance moment” due to digital culture, greater ____________ is achievable by each individual through new technologies and mediums?
a. Wealth
b. Social Change
c. Progress
d. Connections
[See my blog post: Accelerating Social Change through Digital Media]

Essay Questions

1. As is seen through numerous examples including badges and different online apps, gamification is an integral part of future educational models and learning as one of the most effective ways to motivate and reward individual learning within an increasingly digitally literate world.
[See my blog posts Authenticity and Badges, Making Gamification Sustainable.

2. The concept of multiple virtual identities, as described by Ellis Dyck, is instead of being harmful and destructive actually conducive to better efficiency and proficiency online. Although questions of responsibility will always exist online, the ability to work around strict concepts of identity through participating in various medium and contexts is ultimately more beneficial than it is negative.

[See Ellis's blog posts The Importance of being What? and Virtual Identities]

Badges and Distance Learning

Indiana University has recently announced that it will expand its distance learning programs through adding badges to their massive open online courses (MOOC). This is a very exciting development as badges are being adapted by yet another major university to expand their online learning programs through using the ideals that are embodied by the open education movement.


The program at IU "will offer educational badges to students who complete the courses and master certain skills but don't enroll in degree programs.'

"IU President Michael McRobbie says the new program, which replaces its School of Continuing Studies, will allow the university "to `project' itself beyond the walls of the campuses, and equally importantly, the walls of the classroom of the 21st century."'

"It recognizes that the distinction between `traditional' and `non-traditional' students is increasingly blurred and that it no longer makes sense to use different strategies to reach them," McRobbie said during his latest State of the University speech."

I think that the idea of blurring the distinction between traditional and non-traditional students is an interesting one when it comes to the increasing development of distance learning and even current education trends. Rather than simply focusing on the traditional learning model where a student attends a class and receives credit that goes towards his or her degree, I think it is powerful to open up university learning to a much wider audience, who no matter their background are able to learn about what interests them. And even more than that badges are a way to create clear credentials for this learning, whether or not a degree is eventually earned.

Although this usage of badges is still relatively new and being developed, I think that this is an essential component to developing accessible online learning in the future. With the ability to earn and display credit, I can only see this increasing interest, publicity and revenue for participating university's and programs, as their programs are then able to more fully stand on their own or work towards a degree.

I find it very exciting to see badges being integrated into this sort program, and I think this will only serve to increase the accessibility of open education and more widespread learning through these credentialing systems.

Making Gamefication Sustainable

Although I couldn’t have succinctly articulated three months ago what exactly gamification is, I have really come to see that it is an essential tool for encouraging online learning (as well as even learning in the classroom). Using the structures for rewarding and giving feedback from video games such as points, leaderboards or even badges, which have becoming so ingrained in youth culture due to the popularity of gaming, just makes sense to me as a way to encourage fun and creative learning. I think open badges are a fantastic example of this, but there are of course many different others ways to reward learning in way that uses gamification.

But today I stumbled upon this study by Gartner, an East Coast research firm, which predicts that by 2014 80% of gamified apps will fail. Now this number is pretty large, and at first glance this is pretty worrying. Gartner suggests in their press release today that, “Poor game design is one of the key failings of many gamified applications today.”

"The focus is on the obvious game mechanics, such as points, badges and leader boards, rather than the more subtle and more important game design elements, such as balancing competition and collaboration, or defining a meaningful game economy. As a result, in many cases, organizations are simply counting points, slapping meaningless badges on activities and creating gamified applications that are simply not engaging for the target audience. Some organizations are already beginning to cast off poorly designed gamified applications.”

Interestingly, they seem to be implying that the problem isn’t with gamification, but instead the issue is with the lack of a corresponding infrastructure to make the gamification plausible. I think this is a very important point: that you can’t just slap a badge onto something just to make it popular. Or just because something will then resemble a video game more can it be expected to work. For the idea of gamification to really catch on, and for it really to encourage learning, these video-game-like features have to be inherent to the system. Not something just thrown on as a cheap ploy, but they need to be deeply embedded within the structure of learning and education.

I would really like to see more gamificationin school settings, with systems such as badges not only encourage students to learn about what interests them but to also begin to discuss it online with their friends and peers. I’ve come to see through the Mormon Badges Projects that it is essential to not only have to give out the online proof of learning but to create a tool to share that proof online with friends and family. Gamification initially may encourage someone to initially learn something, but it is only through well thought out application and design of these elements that an app or badge program can really expect to succeed and have a lasting effect.

Ultimately Gartner asserts that, “While game mechanics such as points and badges are the hallmarks of gamification, the real challenge is to design player-centric applications that focus on the motivations and rewards that truly engage players more fully. Game mechanics like points, badges and leader boards are simply the tools that implement the underlying engagement models.”

The Matrix, Wreck-It Ralph and Identity

 

While I’ve been home for Thanksgiving this past week I finally had the time to see two digital cultural related movies (albeit completely different): Wreck-It Ralph and the Matrix. While I had heard good things about both, and I thought that they would both pertain to themes I’ve been blogging and thinking about over the last few months, I was very surprised at how nicely they actually go together. The Matrix is very much more intense and dark than Wreck-It Ralph, but they both pose interesting questions of identity and how to survive in a world completely dominated by technology.

I should probably begin by saying that I was pleasantly surprised with the Matrix, and Wreck-it Ralph drove me crazy. Going into both movies I expected to not like the Matrix and to enjoy Wreck-it, but it’s nice to be wrong once in a while. Although both movies left me with a lot to think about, I appreciate the mind-bending way the Wachowski brothers approached the questions they raised about reality and where we can draw the lines.

Within both movies there is the central idea of being able to create and mold who we are, especially in video games and virtual reality. I think that its essential that both Ralph and Neo only get power over their own world and situation, whether its their video game or inside the Matrix, as they choose who they’re going to be and how the world will perceive them. It is when Neo finally accepts himself as the hacker Neo, not the safe computer programmer he once was, that he finds his power as the one. Likewise Ralph needs to accept himself as he is, but also realize that he has potential outside of the roles others have prescribed for him, so that he can gain control over his world and his environment.

Now I don’t necessarily think we’re all living in a completely machine controlled world, but I do think that the idea of creating our own identity is still essential to controlling our online world (and the very physical reflections it can have). I highly doubt we’re going to have the types of identity crises portrayed in either movie, yet the way he define ourselves and our relationships online gives them power and authority within our world. As we choose who we’re going to be online, we decide what influences we’re going to let into our lives and the power they will have.

In the end both of these movies echo the same themes of who are we and how do we formulate our own identities in a world that is trying to describe ourselves for us. I don’t know if I’d personally recommend Wreck-It Ralph, but I think that both it and the Matrix provide an invaluable lens for viewing our culture and our increasingly digital society.

Looking at the DM+LC4

I've been meaning to take some time to examine the winners from the Digital Media + Learning competition 4 that I mentioned in a blog post this weekend. Although badges do seem to be relatively unknown, its pretty encouraging to see that a number of interesting a diverse groups are beginning to use badges for a variety of projects.

One of the badge projects that I've found most interesting is the "My Girl Scout Sash is an App" badge system. The project is described as bringing "the Girl Scout Leadership Experience and career development badge program to a digital media learning platform for girls, ages 5-17, with a focus on middle school and high school. Through collaboration with Motorola Mobility Foundation and MentorMob, teams of girls will create apps, demonstrating and sharing the knowledge gained and badge proficiencies. MentorMob's Learning Platform will be scalable to any individual, teacher, or organization as it is free, open, and crowdsourced."

This idea ties very nicely with the system I've been looking for combining Personal Progress with badges. Yet what is perhaps most intriguing is the idea of tying badges (not a new idea with scouting) to a digital media learning platform, which also seems to be linked with digital media learning. It's pretty awesome to be able to inspire girls to learn how to make their own apps and using badges as a means of demonstrating proficiency.

Another interesting badge project is the "Disney-Pixar Wilderness Explores Badges," which again is tied to education although with a focus on wilderness and conservation issues. This project is described as engaging "youth in nature-based explorations, offering them a way to learn about and become advocates for wildlife and wild places. As these young Wilderness Explorers learn about conservation issues, they become teachers and ambassadors, content producers, and change makers. Badges will provide opportunities for Wilderness Explorers to make real connections in their communities that promote conservation locally and globally."

Again this idea is drawing upon the gamification of learning, but here its fascinating to combine such physical and outdoor based learning with digital media, which is a typically indoor activity. This is actually quite an exciting juxtaposition, and I'm interested to learn more about it as the project grows.

Although there are many different and interesting projects associated with this competition, its exciting to see that others are realizing the capability of badges to influence learning through gamification, even if it is of material that is traditionally associated with the outdoors rather than computers!

Digital Culture and Civic Engagement

Last week prompted by the election, I had the chance to think more about digital ethics and how our digital culture is making it easier and easier to become involved within politics and our governments. My first thoughts on this were on all my friends who at the time were sharing their political views and opinions through social media without even having to leave home. While this was often a little too overt for my tastes, I appreciate how my friends typified how our generation is getting involved to try to create the change they feel is necessary in the world. But even more than just sharing on Facebook or Twitter, I’ve come to see that the internet is a powerful tool for true engagement in civic processes whether it’s on a local, national or international level.

This summer I spent time at the United Nations in Geneva advocating for social change for women’s and family rights. While it was obviously very effective to be able to communicate in person with NGOs and member states, I was surprised at the prevalence and importance of social media. Countries, and the UN itself, are making an effort to be online tweeting and posting Facebook updates. No longer do you have to be in Geneva to follow what’s being said in the Human Rights Council or at the General Assembly in New York (check out footage here! ). As the sessions are live, anyone anywhere can be actively following issues that are important to them.

Yes this does take time and effort, but I firmly believe that we need to be following issues that are important to us and our world – whether or not we see them directly affecting us.

Likewise I had the chance to do less personal advocacy within the UK through emails and letters to politicians about the issue of Female Genital Mutilation. While this is a very specific issue, it was empowering to see the kind of response a simple letter or email to a Member of Parliament could generate.  Most of these MPs have information available online with their voting history, and thoughts and experience about very relevant issues, making it simple and not frightening to contact them online or through more formal letters. At first I thought that these sorts of communications wouldn’t make much of a difference, but I am now of the opinion that this is exactly the way to make our voices heard. Even if we just send a short letter or email, it is vitally important that we let our politicians know how we feel about issues that we see as important.

Yes, I think sharing our opinions through social media is a great start to civic engagement. But as digital media brings our world closer and closer together, I know that we need to use all of our resources, whether that’s a webcast, twitter or email, to make our voice heard and start changing the world around us.

While doing some research on badges, I’ve found some more avenues to explore and examine to better understand the facets of the thinking about badges.

 A few interesting websites/articles:

CNBC -- TheInternet May Be the Key to Managing Runaway College Costs

Although the thinking on this article isn’t exactly new, I find the very succinct way that badges are linked with university education as a means for avoiding escalating tuition costs.

 

Digital Media + Learning Competition 4 -- Competition Winners

I’m really excited to take a better look at what these projects actually entailed, and what the results can inspire for the Mormon Badges project. Winners include Girl Scouts, 4-H and Disney-Pixar.

 Fast Company -- Disney-Pixar, NASA, MozillaPartner On Badges To Shape The Future Of Learning

This article dicusses the Digital Media + Learning Competition above and its winners. I like the idea that they emphasize with badges that, "In a digital platform you have an opportunity to connect learning in a way that's organic."

NY Times – Show Me Your Badge

This is one of the most comprehensive explanations of what badges are and why they’re currently relevant that I’ve yet to see. I am particularly interested in the groups they listed such as Carnegie Mellon University, the Smithsonian and Intel.

 

Forbes -- Why Get a Pricey Diploma When a Bleepin' Badge Will Do?

This article again covers the future of badges, but they talk a lot about the future of badges with the career market. A different angle to a familiar topic.

All in all, I'm discovering more and more about how other projects are starting to use badges. There's still a lot of work to be done, but there really are a lot interesting projects beginning right now.

Evaluating Intent in (Mormon) Badges

An interesting topic that came up, while I was at the Mormon Badges’ presentation at the Mormon Media Studies Symposium on Friday, is how do we ensure that badges are being created and used for the right reasons. An astute audience member asked about how we can keep badges within a church setting from becoming a competition, or just earning badges in order to show off and be the most “spiritual.” While this is an issue we’d considered in passing, bringing it up at the conference has prompted me to think more about the issue, and how we can avoid this problem.

Ultimately, I think the answer is that this issue can’t be completely prevented, but we can encourage using badges for the right reasons. As I’ve come to understand and use badges more and more,  I really see that the essential feature is how they are so easy to share, not only the badge itself but also the concepts and learning that is being done. A badge isn’t just proof of credibility. Instead it can be a facilitator for meaningful conversation and sharing, and I really feel it will be a powerful tool for encouraging online learning and eventually online missionary work.

That being said, I think the emphasis with badges needs to be on why we are creating them and what purpose will they serve. Obviously there are possible uses for badges that would just cause problems, like giving public badges for doing your Home Teaching or Visiting Teaching each month. I could really see that escalating into a who is more righteous contest with public “proof” displayed online. But instead of this, I think we need to be creating badges that help people learn more, whether it’s about secular or religious topics, and to talk about what they’re learning whether it’s with friends, collogues or family.

In the end, they may still be abuse of the system, but I really feel like badges have the capability to do so much good, especially within the context of Mormonism and the LDS Church. Badges are able to motivate, educate and facilitate online sharing and proselyting, and by emphasizing these aspects I think much of these problems will be avoided.

Copyright and the Open Movement

This weekend I’ve had some time to think more about a subject I discussed at the beginning of the semester: copyright and the open movement. The more I’ve written and learned about digital culture over the last few months, the more I’ve been able to see the value of the open movement and all that it has to teach us. Through the work I’ve been doing with badges, I’ve been exploring the power of the open education movement and how open learning allows more freedom and diversity in learning.

Yet a topic I’m still learning about is the application of copyright with the open movement, especially through the creative commons license. After talking about some of the specifics of digital copyright on Thursday, I wanted to learn more about how this specific lisence works. Although I found this website , I also appreciate this more thorough description from Open Content Licensing: From Theory to Practice:

“The open source movement has inspired a variety of similar distribution models in the realms of science, culture and art, which are commonly referred to as ‘open access’ or ‘open content’. In fact, the open content movement perceives the current copyright regime as the major obstacle to creative activity. This new licensing model purports to rectify the shortcomings of the copyright regime by allowing, through contracts, increased access to and use of artistic and scientific works. Among the numerous licensing models based on open content, the most successful application so far is the Creative Commons initiative (creativecommons .org), which was set up initially in the United States, but is now rapidly spreading across the globe. While the current copyright regime is serving the needs of intermediaries, the open content licensing model, especially the Creative Commons license, is directed mostly to individual authors. Creative Commons has developed a series of standard-form licenses that allow authors of literary, musical or audiovisual works to permit wide dissemination and transformative uses of their works, without forfeiting copyright. While copyright law creates the default rule of All Rights Reserved, making permission necessary for each and every use of a work, Creative Commons seeks to facilitate an environment in which Some Rights Reserved or even No Rights Reserved become the norm.”

I can only imagine if the Creative Commons License becomes even more popular and prevalent. Although there are still issues, it’s powerful to utilize a system where the most beneficially qualities of the internet are capitalized upon: the power of collaboration and cooperation.  There are still a number of situations where this system doesn’t and won’t apply, but the way it utilizes the best qualities of the open movement, with an emphasis on authority through transparency, is vitally important. I hope to continue to look more at how the internet and copyright can develop to meet each other’s needs, but I feel like the Creative Commons License is a powerful start.

Integrating Badges with Personal Progress

One of the ideas we’d like to see considered for integrating badges within the LDS Church is with the Personal Progress program. I had some time this weekend to look at how the system has already been expanded online, where girls can find the entire program, report their progress, and fill out journals for the different experiences and projects. The more I looked through the new website, the more impressed I was with how easy and accessible the system has become since it has been moved online.

Yet I can also see badges filling a gap in the system that’s already been established. Right now the website allows girls to sign in with their lds.org account, and then they establish their record and they can create a number of online journal entries. The system even allows for projects and experiences to be approved by the girl’s parent or leader. Yet I think if badges where mixed in, perhaps with a quick quiz checking that all the requirements have been met as well as the online journal assignments that are already integrated in the system, the girl could receive a badge which could then be shared across multiple platforms (such as their social media platforms). Badges would then provide authentication for the girl’s learning or experience as well as concrete proof that she could share with her friends and family. Not only would she be working towards her Young Women’s Medallion, but she could also share the different steps in her process and the gospel principles she is learning about.

We decided to make a prototype of what such a quiz for Faith Experience #1 could look like (linked to HERE), since we feel this would be such an important way to use technology to facilitate spiritual growth and facilitate participation. We’ve yet to make the formal badge (such as our previous badg.us badge) since this is such a specilized badge, but we still feel this is an option that must be considered. 

I'd love to hear your feedback on how we can better integrate badges with the Personal Progress Program. It already seems like such a useful tool for making the system even easier, as well as fascilitating sharing the gospel (or progress in the program) with friends and loved ones!

The Future of Badges and the LDS Church

With my time working on the Mormon Badges Project, I’ve already been able to see how powerful a tool badges, and open-educational resources, can be. Although we’re still in the process of working out a lot of the technicalities of badges, I really see them as a powerful and exciting tool for the future. With my work on this project, we’ve been primarily focusing on the power of badges to help correct misconceptions about the LDS Faith, but I think there really is a lot of potential for these types of systems to be applied on a larger scale throughout the LDS church.

One place I can see badges integrating well is with the Personal Progress program or Duty to God programs, which are geared toward youth ages 12-18. These two programs are already based off of a system of completing a number of assignments and receiving “credentials” based off of set requirements. Why not use badges as a way to formalize this system, especially since it has all moved online? Through linking the actual credentialing, with say their lds.org account, I could see it being really beneficial for the youth to be able to share what they’re learning about with their friends, family and peers online.

Another area that could have a lot of impact is with teaching members how to better use online tools for proselyting. I could really see the Church putting out a number of badges about how to share about the Gospel online, and these could be as simple as creating a Mormon.org profile or sharing a thought about General Conference on their Facebook account.

There are many other places within the Church that badges could be applied someday, and I really feel that this an important tool to consider. Although this system is still relatively new and developing, I really feel that open learning, and badges specifically, are a resource that is going to prove more and more important both for the Church and the future of learning.

Authenticity and Badges

While doing more research on badges this afternoon, I stumbled upon this article on The Chronicle of Higher Education called “A Future Full of Badges.” The author is discussing the new methods of credentialing that are becoming available, and he introduces badges as a potential way around traditional educational structures. I really like how he explains the link between credentials and traditional degrees, as well as the potential badges pose to get around these more restrictive structures.  The author states that:

“Instead, the value of the traditional degree comes mostly from the presumed general authority of the granting institution—and the fact that traditional colleges have a legally enforced near-monopoly over the production of credentials that are widely accepted for the purposes of getting a job or pursuing advanced education. ‘

‘Open systems tend to blow such lucrative arrangements apart. The doomed effort of for-profit academic publishers to maintain their grip on prestigious scholarly journals is one example. The imminent demise of the physical textbook market is another. Open badges won't be controlled by incumbent institutions with a vested financial interest in limiting the supply of valuable credentials.’

‘When that happens, it will create hardship for traditional institutions that now use the revenue generated from their undergraduate-credential franchise to subsidize the cost of graduate education, administration, scholarship, and other activities. But society as a whole will benefit enormously. The store of human capital will be more broadly and accurately represented by credentials that are useful in a mobile, interconnected world. Separating the credentialing and teaching functions of higher education allows organizations to specialize in one or the other.”

While this does touch upon many ideas I’ve already mentioned, I think this is a very good way to describe the future of badges, especially through a separation of teaching and credentialing. This does lead to one of the main questions I’ve heard about the authority represented by badges and how these can have the same weight as an academic degree. While we’re obviously not there yet, I think it’s vital to separate the skills and ideas that are learned within a degree from the actual piece of paper. Badges allow anyone to demonstrate their knowledge through clear criteria, and open access to the requirements and even work, so that it is not just those with a degree that can demonstrate that yes they’ve learned how to do skill x. Instead anyone, anywhere can learn these skills from real experts (whether they have a degree or not), and as long as there is clear documentation of how and where this work was done, badges provide the necessary proof to solidify these skills into something marketable.

While this does lead to potential problems regarding this openness, especially as anyone anywhere can create their own courses, I think this is also the key factor that makes everything work. Through this openness there must be equally open means of verifying authenticity and the depth of the course offered, and this then means that authority can exist anywhere as long as this openness is also there.

Mid-term Reflections

In the course of the last nearly two months of the Fall Semester, I have really enjoyed being able to explore digital culture through BYU’s English 326. Although I have struggled as I’ve attempted to adapt to the classes structure, which is built around the idea of self-directed learning, it has already been very impactful for me to learn more about the potentials (and risks) of new technologies within our digital culture and seeing how I can better adapt these ideas into my own life.

 

The idea of self-directed learning has been one of the most difficult parts of the course for me to grasp and really apply so far, but I have already come to see that this is an invaluable skill that allows me to focus on what’s most interesting to me and what is most meaningful for what I’m interested in. I have really appreciated the freedom this course has given me to research topics that I find interesting such as intellectual property, open content, the open education movement and even a little bit of programming. Rather than being forced into a strict structure, this has allowed me to expand my knowledge and come to learn about a lot of different topics that really are fascinating. I have also been able to build upon the general and often foundational principles that we’ve discussed in class. I’ve been really fascinated to learn about subjects such as crowdsourcing and seeing a glimpse of the potential for this method, as well as the concept of how niche markets are developing through the idea of the “Long Tail”, and also how the Church is applying these technological advancements in new and innovative ways. I hope to be able to learn more about intellectual property (specifically how to use common content licenses as well as copyright material online, specifically through blogging).

 

It has been fascinating to mix more traditional literature based assignments with the identity and exploration I have begun through Google+ and blogging. I began the semester reading the non-fiction book, The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates by Adrian Johns. This book not only has taught me a lot about intellectual property and the different problems and questions it raises, but perhaps more importantly this book helped me to better understand how our technological problems relate to the same issues people dealt with hundreds of years ago. While there are obviously numerous differences, intellectual property is an interesting example because it ties back to the problems with the printing press and copyright throughout print culture. Johns writing really helped me to see how connected we still are with print culture, and how the solutions to our intellectual property dilemmas today really can illuminated through an examination of past solutions.

 

Likewise, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina has helped me to better understand how technology and society relate and how deeply they influence one another. It really has surprised me as I’ve examined this book through with an eye for details relating to digital culture, how deeply Tolstoy’s writing really does relate back to the issues today that arise with our own technological advancements. I really see a connection with the idea of balance and a clear need for moderation and control with our digital lives now, just as Anna’s world required a balance through social interactions and relations with an often corrupt society. With both these works, I’ve appreciated the chance to apply them to my thoughts and writings here on my blog as well as throughout my other assignments (and especially my group projects). Rather than a traditional essay or writing assignment, I like how this allows me to truly incorporate and apply my thinking to everything else I’m doing, which allows me to bring a more interesting context to my other work.

 

As I’ve been able to bring the context provided by my reading to the concepts I’ve explored through my own research and learning in class, I have been incredibly benefited by being able to interact with other students through blogs and Google+. Although I am definitely much more familiar with the research model of doing everything myself without a lot of outside input, it has already been helpful to try out my ideas through online discussions as well as gaining new insights and ideas from interacting with others work. Although I hope to be able to continue to get social proof for my ideas, I’ve already seen how important this idea is. This has been especially true with my part in the group project, where I’ve been able to expand my own ideas through collaboration with my group and the rest of the class.

Accelerating Social Change through Digital Media

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the BYU Humanities Alumni lecture with Aaron H. Sherinian, the vice president of communications and public relations for the United Nations Foundation. In his lecture, “The World’s ‘Renaissance 2.0’ Moment,” he talked about how the changes in technology have created what he defined as a renaissance moment, which allows for greater social change by the individual. He argued that at this point in history each individual has a greater influence, and opportunity for good, through the internet and new forms of connecting and communicating throughout the world. Although he did warn that there are problems and concerns with the prevalence of digital media, he described the power each of us has to make the world care about those issues that need to be changed, whether we are in Provo, UT or in Africa. Through digital culture each person can advocate for causes that matter to them, and their voice can be heard.

I really think that this is an incredibly important and powerful idea for helping to achieve social change throughout the world. This summer I had the opportunity to advocate for women’s issues at the international level with the Worldwide Organization for Women, as well as on a smaller level with a British non-profit, Orchid Project. Although I gained valuable experiences with both of these organizations, including learning a lot about a wide variety of women’s issues, what I was most struck with is how slow larger-scale, international change really is. With all the steps and politics, it really is hard to address major problems in a timely fashion. Yet I saw clearly the power of social media to help raise awareness and get issues out there, through my work with the smaller organization. Orchid Project is particularly good at utilizing every medium they can to raise awareness of their issue, Female Genital Mutilation, and this includes Facebook, Skype, twitter and blogging. Although Orchid is working with a team of people (and a number of interns) to spread their message, I think their model is particularly relevant to each of us as a way to accelerate change through using every tool available to us.

I can only imagine the possible change if each of us utilized our digital media connections (whether it’s a blog or Facebook) to raise awareness and present solutions to social problems. As the lecture taught me, we are at a crucial time in history where things are changing and shifting as technologies grow and develop. I would like to see each of us utilize this momentum to change the world, one individual at a time.

Technology and Society: Connected or Creating One Another??

I posted in an earlier post a quote from Neil Selwyn and his book, Education in a Digital World : Global Perspectives on Technology and Education. He stated that, “we know that technology does not determine society: it is society” (1).  I had used this concept to create a link between Tolstoy’s examination of society and technology in Anna Karenina and the effects of media today, but the more I think about it I think this quote has much more to say about where we are today and how society is changing. And more importantly this raises the question of how technology enables and facilitates societal growth.

Through digital culture, it seems like more and more of our very core functions and interactions within and through our “society” are now directly linked to technology. With everything from communication and staying in touch to school and learning being available and facilitated online, it is often hard to draw the line between where our online interactions end or begin. I’m grateful for the media fast for showing me exactly how much I personally rely on technology and my different “gadgets.” This reinforced for me just how integral and influential digital media is within my own life and the most common and banal tasks.

At the same time I do wonder whether this tie between society and digital culture is beneficial or ultimately harmful. But as Tolstoy illustrates, these links between society and its technological developments are impossible to separate. Although we don’t all have to face the same tragic consequences as Anna herself, I think technology is a vital part of our world that is helping us to grow and change in new and exciting ways.

Digital Sweet Home: Reactions and Critiques

After reading the proposal from the Digital Sweet Home group, I am pretty excited to see what they can actually do to promote technology as a tool to bring families together. I really like their idea of focusing on the benefits of all the new technology and how everything from blogs to twitter can bring families closer together and unify them.

I personally have seen the power of technology in my own family, especially as I have gone to college and lived abroad. While I have been living in Utah, as well as in Europe, it has been so beneficial for my family to be able to keep in contact through Google plus, Facebook and Skype. Even when I have been on a different continent, technology has allowed me to stay in contact and up to date with my family and what is going on in their lives.

So I am very excited to be able to learn more through this project about useful tools and resources for my own family now as well as my future family. Yet I think it is vital to place an emphasis on not only the potential good that can come through technology but also how to avoid the negative aspects. Within the group’s project proposal, they mentioned the importance of addressing concerns such as “hacktivists, malware, and other threatening online presences.” I would also argue that the problem of pornography should be addressed. I really feel that these negative aspects are some of the most important concerns regarding widening our online usage, and I feel that these fears are what hold a lot of families back from harnessing the potential good that can come from online.

My main concern with this project is the proposed size of the actual output as well as the audience. Although I would love to see both a blog and a pamphlet, I really think it would be smart to start with the pamphlet and then expand outwards once that basis has been established. And I think that it is worrisome to address all the “families of the United States” even if they do start with the families the group is directly connected with.

I am really excited to see what this group can come up with as I have seen within my own life how vitally important it is to be able to use technology to stay in contact and unified with my own family. I look forward to seeing the families this group project will inspire as they share the potential good technology can bring.

Badge Bakers for Mormons and Middle Schoolers Project Proposal

 

Project Title: Badge Bakers for Mormons and Middle Schoolers

 

Description: For our group project we will be exploring, creating, and ultimately distributing badges for two venues. The first objective is to create a badge system to certify that individuals have learned basic aspects of our LDS faith (e.g. Polygamy ended a long time ago, 2 year missions, 10% tithing etc.) while the second objective targets an 8th grade English classroom where we will explore the impact and use of badges in a formal educational environment as well as how badges can be best designed to motivate learners of all ages. 

 

Project Members:

Katie Wilkie

Greg Williams

Josh McKinney

Jessica Lees

Ellis Dyck

Social Proof:

a. Social Proof: Badges, general

Leah MacVie

Active P2PU user and course designer, PhD student and Instructional Designer. She has been active in researching Mozilla Open Badges and in wanting to forward their progress.

http://leahmacvie.com/home-2/

Chrissi Nerantzi (took Leah MacVie's P2PU course on Open Badges)

Academic Developer for teaching and learning at the University of Salford. She works with instructional design and has been involved in a project with badges for the university.

http://chrissinerantzi.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/joint-open-course-on-open-badges/

Carla Casilli

Project Lead for Mozilla’s Open Badges. She blogs here fairly regularly about the project and especially about badge system design in an effort to narrow in on best practices.

https://carlacasilli.wordpress.com/

Sunny Lee

Project Manager and Partner Manager at Mozilla Open Badges. She is an active Twitter user and often discusses Mozilla’s efforts in promoting badges.

https://twitter.com/soletelee

Peter Rawsthorne

Contractor for the Open Badges and Ignite Learning Labs at Mozilla. Spends some time on this blog discussing the open badges concept.

http://criticaltechnology.blogspot.com/2012/09/integrating-with-open-badges.html

P2PU Blog

From VanessaG on the progress of the DML badges competition and other aspects of P2PU’s involvement with and promotion of badges.

http://info.p2pu.org/2012/09/24/update-from-digital-media-and-learning-duke/

James Sanders

Innovation manager for the Bay Area schools. Creator of classbadges.com. Class badges project can also be followed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/classbadges.

https://twitter.com/jamestsanders

b. Social Proof: Mormon-non-Mormon Relations

J. Spencer Fluhman

Mormon history professor at BYU. Specializes in Mormon-non-Mormon relations. He wrote the book A Peculiar People: Antimormonism and the Shaping of American Religion. Recently he’s appeared on NBC to talk about Mormonism and also authored an opinion piece on anti-Mormonism in the New York Times.

Simon Critchley, author of “Why I Love Mormonism” in the New York Times

Wrote the opinion piece “Why I Love Mormonism” in the New York Times on September 15. He’s surprisingly well informed for a non-member and reportedly corrects friends when they make misinformed comments about the church. Teaches philosophy at some university.

The More Good Foundation

A non-profit organization run by church members to help other members spread the gospel over the Internet. They probably have a lot of good ideas of how to publicize our project. They run several websites that host information about the Church, including http://www.understandingmormonism.org/. Their content will probably be useful to us as we write our badge curricula.

Dr. Matthew B. Bowman

Recently authored the book The Mormon People: the Making of an American Faith. He also made an appearance on NBC’s show “Rock Center” to correct some misconceptions about Mormon doctrine from the Broadway Musical The Book of Mormon. He is a church member and currently teaches religion at Hampden-Sydney College.

Literature Review  

a. Blog Posts exploring related topics:

Katie Cannon Wilkie -- My Digital Blog

“Badge Fest”

“Badge Prototype #1”

“Claim your Media Fast Badge”

“More on Badges”

“Using the New Media in the Classroom “

Greg Williams -- The Relevant Classroom

“Flipping the Classroom” 

“Making Progress”

Ellis Dyck-- Digital Northwest Passage

Ideas for Mormon Info Badges

Evaluating the Credibility of Badges 

Open Badges: the Future of Learning

Jessica Lees -- Finding Meaning in a Digital World

Badges and Adapting Education for a Digital World   
 

b. Books as potential resources:

1.  Education in a Digital World : Global Perspectives on Technology and Education -- Neil Selwyn (2013) (ebrary). Within this book, Selwyn discusses the necessity of technology in education, whether it is related to formal education or more informal pursuits (aka general interests, pursuits and hobbies ). Through making this separation, this paves the way for resources like badges as a means of addressing multiple kinds of learning and situations online.

2.  Looking Toward the Future of Technology-Enhanced Education : Ubiquitous Learning and the Digital Native -- Martin Ebner and Mandy Schiefner (2009) (ebrary). Looks at how technology and specifically web 2.0 can be adapted to meet the needs of a growingly digital world and increasingly “native” generation online. Discusses the need for open educational resources (aka badges) as a means of addressing the needs of students formally or informally.

3. World Is Open : How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education -- Curtis J. Bonk (2009) (ebrary). How learning through online open tools of education can become a key driver of world economy, and how the principle of being able to learn “anything from anyone” will lead to a more robust and connected economy and world.

Relevant Literary Works

1. The Importance of Being Earnest

Misinformation or lack of information about Mormonism causes problems for the Church and can be frustrating to members. In Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, misinformation and lack of information about the characters creates problems. 

As a baby, Jack was found abandoned inside a handbag in a train station. Lady Bracknell is unwilling to let Jack marry her daughter Gwendolyn because she doesn’t know who his parents are. Even though she has known him for some time, she doesn’t feel she really knows him because she lacks basic information about his identity.

Similarly, the LDS church often faces mistrust, as Jack did, because many people are ignorant of basic facts about our religion. Some people may even casually know several Mormons, but be distrustful of the religion because they don’t know what it is about.

In the play, Jack has made up a fictitious wayward younger brother named Earnest as an excuse for going to town often to “help his brother.” His ward, Cecily, falls for this fake younger brother without ever having met him. Later, Algernon meets Cecily and pretends to be Ernest and they fall in love. However, because she is misinformed about his identity, Algernon must keep the name of Ernest or lose his relationship with her. Some of his problems might have been solved if Cecily had not been misinformed about his identity.

Likewise, misinformation about the Church also causes problems. False information, when believed, can scare, anger, or disgust non-members. And a lack of information, like Cecily’s lack of information about Algernon, allows misinformation to continue spread. 

Of course, while more correct information can help correct misconceptions about the church, misconceptions will always exist. Some people just aren’t willing to check facts or to give up incorrect preconceptions. In the play, both Cecily and Gwendolyn who insist on marrying men named Ernest; the actual identity of their husbands is unimportant. There will always be people who insist the Church is a cult, no matter how much evidence is offered to the contrary.

2. Anna Karenina

          Tolstoy within Anna Karenina provides a useful framework for understanding the change in our world, whether he was addressing yesterday’s problems or the problems of one hundred years ago. His vividly depicted characters, who are torn between right and wrong, and change and tradition, become the watermark for seeing our own culture and its unique problems. Through each difficult, conflicted decision that Tolstoy portrays, the author’s voice reaches across the years with a voice of warning, caution and hope.

          Now while Tolstoy definitely wasn’t writing about the digital age, I see that he was providing clear guidelines as to how to deal with the social aspects, as well as the other symptoms of change, that occur within our rapidly evolving digital society. The most noticeable of these social aspects is different family and marital relationships around which the book is based. Most obviously is the failing relationship between Anna and her husband, which is contrasted with Levin and his new wife. Interestingly these relationships strengthen or fail in response to the degrees of cultural isolation or over-exposure from the rapidly evolving world of Russia in the late nineteenth century. I think it is very telling that Anna ends her own life through the means of one of the most important technological innovations of her time: the train.

         Just as Anna’s tragic fall and ultimate death reflects a need for balance in our relationships with technology, the same could be applied to the need for balance in our methods of education and the use of new forms and mediums of technology.

Anna, and the other main characters throughout the novel, must learn to navigate an increasing technological and confusing world which is exemplified through their chaotic social lives. The same problems and challenges can be applied to the need for adapting to our world of education and digital literacy. Through examining how to harness the new digital mediums, whether it is the open education movement or the idea that we’re championing of badges, it is vital to be able to navigate how to learn and connect online. The idea of badges becomes a new way to gain information, without complete immersion in a full traditional educational course that allows for people to explore the digital world without being overexposed.

            The need for balance is absolutely crucial as new educational means become part of the increasing digital literacy movement, such as badges, which are an attempt to find the balance between utilizing digital capacities while still harnessing the traditional patterns of education. Within the “society” online, badges are a means of exploring without the overexposure to technology and the changing social world that becomes so fatal to Anna herself in the novel. These new ideas are important as they attempt to bridge the gap of online education and offline traditional school experiences. As we explore these new education ideas and movements, they are a powerful way of avoiding the tragic side effects of overexposure to technology and social change, which ultimately become the downfall of Anna and her social world.

3. Peter Pan

           One of the big questions the digital age has brought with it is whether our time spent online and using digital media is distancing us from reality. If this were not a valid concern, fewer people would be thinking and talking about it. The truth is, it is a serious concern that should be periodically considered.

           But while iPhones, laptops, and online networks are all recent developments in our world, the problem of humans distancing themselves from reality is not. Humans have long found ways to isolate themselves from those around them, and people have for years discovered methods of distancing themselves from their problems in "real life." James Barrie, in his well-loved book Peter Pan, discusses this concept of distancing. Neverland is his representation of the escape back into childhood, back into the imaginary life that seemed so tangible before adult responsibilities settled in. In many ways, Neverland can be viewed as a parallel to the internet--a venue for escape from reality.

           In Peter Pan, after Wendy, John and Michael have flown with Peter to Neverland and have met the lost boys, Wendy becomes concerned that John and Michael are losing reality--losing all their memories from back home. John seemed to remember his parents only as people he had once known, and Michael had begun to believe that Wendy was his mother (68). In order to combat their forgetfulness, Wendy begins holding lessons and tests them on their knowledge of home. Her tests include questions, such as "What was the colour of Mother's eyes?" and essays, prompting the children to "Write...on How I spent my last Holidays" or to "Describe the Kennel and its Inmate."

           Although Wendy's lessons (which usually fail) seem silly, there are things here we can use in thinking about losing reality in the digital age. How do we keep ourselves grounded?

           The internet is not going away. Because of this, it may be wise to consider solutions within digital media, rather than outside it. Maybe the solution is to stop thinking of digital media as the problem and start thinking of it as the solution--as a way to enhance interactions in reality rather than damage them. A good example of this is education. Many school teachers and administrators in the past have thought of electronic devices and digital media as a distraction and hindrance to education. But what if these mediums and tools could enhance educational experience and actually serve to ground students more fully in reality?

           If teachers can begin to use social media, blogging, and other online tools to involve students more fully in their schoolwork, and to invite them to think about learning outside of school, they will be providing more links from the online world to reality. The more students have their "real life" interactions and tasks paralleled in and connected with the online world, the more teachers can use the internet as a helpful tool rather than fighting it as a bothersome distraction.

Format(s) and Audience(s)

Success Criteria 

Success Criteria: Mormon Badges Project

1. Create at least 4 Mormon badges offer basic information about Church doctrines and clarification of common misconceptions. Each badge should take between 5 and 15 minutes to complete.
2. Create a Youtube video to promote Mormon badges and make other efforts to publicize the project, using the enormous Mormon presence online as an asset.
3. Reach a minimum of 200 people, the majority non-members, who have earned at least one badge.

Success Criteria: Education side

              Perhaps the most poignant indicator of success for the educational aspect of this project is if the 8th graders seek out, do the work for, and accumulate a variety of badges. Beyond this objective, if there is a noticeable rise in knowledge aptitude from the teacher for a given student (e.g. they are scoring better in areas where they previously struggled) or an increase in student self-directed learning, we will feel successful too. 

              Another criterion for the success of this project (regardless of the success of the badges themselves) will be the quality of our reports of the experiment as we go along. The better we document the project, the more use our experiment will be for future badgers.

 

            Our success for this project can be determined judging by the percentage of students (out of 150 students) seeking out and earning the badges, as well as by discussions with the teacher to know if students earning the badges are performing better or at least enjoying their online learning. How will this be measured?

Prototypes