Open Badges, current state of development

I’ve mentioned Open Badges earlier this year. It’s an open standard proposal by the Mozilla Foundation that attempts to create a web-based way for anyone (or any institution) to give accreditation to anyone on any topic. Things have progressed nicely in these few months. Here’s what you can already do with Open Badges, explained as a series of screen shots. Read the rest of this entry »

Fixed a Samsung Galaxy S by replacing the OS with CyanogenMod

Several of my friends have a Samsung Galaxy S. It’s an Anrdoid based smartphone that is still pretty decent. But the phone keeps acting up. Calls stop working sporadically, strange glitches appear, and in general, your trust in the device erodes. One reason for this may be the additional software that Samsung has built into its phone. So when one of the phones was no longer usable, I took a risk and replaced the OS with something else, in the hope that the hardware is ok, and only the software is causing problems. It took quite a bit of work to get it all done, as no instructions online were complete. Here’s a walkthrough: Read the rest of this entry »

Quick roundup of how Open Badges are used in P2PU

Open Badges is a Mozilla project attempting to provide a standard way for anyone to award certifications to others, in a web way. I’ve been playing with P2PU, which is a beta platform for the badges. Here’s a quick roundup.

Currently the Webcraft course in P2PU includes badges. The creator of the course has created the badges (images, descriptions, functionality, where they plug into the course, and how they can be earned). Others can take the course (or the “challenges”) and receive badges. Here are the ways badges can be received that I’ve seen so far:

  • completing something: You need to follow the rules of the badge provider, and once you’re done, the badge is yours. In P2PU’s case, this entails accepting a challenge and completing the required tasks. The system could theoretically do a lot of verification, including administering an online exam to test you, but in this case, it’s just a matter of checking boxes saying you’ve done the tasks. Although it’s good to remember that the badge provider can cancel out your badges if they later learn you’ve not followed the requirements.
  • getting it from someone else: Others in same platform can decide to award you a badge if they think you’re worth it. Such badges could indicate that you helped others with their problems, or provided other additional value to others.
  • applying for it: If you think you’ve earned something, you can apply for it. You give out your reasoning and wait for others to review your claim. The reviewers will also rate your application based on the criteria specified in the badge.

All in all, the functionality seems quite understandable. While P2PU still sufferent from a few UI snafus, the technology seems to be working and can certainly be represented in human-understandable terms to end-users, which is a critical requirement if this is to become mainstream in some distant future.

P2PU, webcraft, and Mozilla Open Badges

Mozilla has been cooking something interesting: a framework for anyone to create and award badges to anyone else. The recipient can then display the badges wherever they want, and the underlying metadata and functionality make the badge verifiable by anone. Is this the future of accreditation? Where do we need traditional schools any more?

Anyways, the Open Badge project is still in beta, and Mozilla has teamed up with P2PU’s School of Webcraft to test the badges in action. I’ve signed up for the challenge and will be posting a few times on that topic in the near future. My interest is seeing how the Open Badges work in practice, and whether they might be leveraged in some of the R&D projects I’m involved in. In terms of the School of Webcraft, I assume it’s mostly just me proving I know this stuff. After 16 years of web development I should know my way around these issues. Hopefully… :)

SNA and learning: density is not beneficial

Example networks with low and high densities.

For background, see my previous article on the topic. Many studies that analyse networked learning (NL) or computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) using social network analysis tend to use density as a metric of interaction quality. Specifically, the studies assume that a high density is something to aim for. However, my data shows otherwise. Read the rest of this entry »

Choosing an open license – a Prezi presentation

If you’re wondering about publishing some creative works online, be they text, photos, presentations, videos, podcasts, or whatever, this quick overview of open licenses may help you in choosing what to do. You can basically not publish at all, publish under the normal copyright rules, or select an of several open licenses that will allow your creative works to travel faster through word-of-mouth, benefit from contributions by others, and basically attract a larger audience. Read the rest of this entry »

H0, null hypothesis – challenge your preconceived notions

After listening to Göte Nyman at TEDxHelsinki about Null hypothesis (H0), I just had to write down some thoughts that arose from it. First a recap:

Göte presented examples from popular news media, such as “coke and pepsi activate different areas of the brain”. Well duh, if they are experienced differently, someone might assume that the experience manifests itself as brain activity. So the null hypothesis behind the news item was that coke and pepsi affect the brain in the same way. So the point was that looking at the assumptions behind “revelations” tells you something about the naïve assumptions people generally have about the topic. I mean, it’s not news unless it challenges current thinking. So each scandalous headline reveals something about the assumptions of the editor about what the audience thinks about the topic. Read the rest of this entry »