Digital badging is a new credentialing technology that has the potential of serving diverse youths and promote equity and social inclusion. Digital badges are designed to make visible and verifiable learning that happens everywhere. From schools to communities, from the workplace to the Internet, youths are gaining skills in a learning ecosystem that expands across contexts. Digital badges provide evidence about the competences and skills that youths are developing as they participate in a variety of learning experiences. Those credentials can later be used to get employment and educational opportunities.
The initiative Open Badges, for instance, has promoted the use of digital badges by allowing anyone to issue, earn, and display badges on the web. Promoting open technical technical standards, Open Badges has led the popularization of digital badges and provided tools for designing and issuing this type of credential.
Although this technology can be leveraged for helping marginalized youth access educational and economic opportunities, it deployment can be challenging. Its implementation requires orchestrating multiple institutions and stakeholders, building and mobilizing a network, and maintaining a complex ecosystem of earners, issuers, and employers. Lack of information, trust, and interoperability can create major barriers for realizing the potential of digital badges.
One strategy to overcome the challenges of implementing digital badging is to map the learning ecosystem. Surveying and interviewing the earners (youths), issuers (formal and informal education institutions), and employers (firms or other organizations) can help to identify the different needs participants have. Furthermore, it can be useful for making visible the complexity of the ecosystem and the different relationships that exists between organizations, institutions, learners, educators, and employers.
Given the complexity of the learning and credentialing ecosystem, it would be key to partner with several institutions and to promote network building across sectors. From after-school programs to city governments, from startups to community organizations, from libraries to maker spaces, it is key to build a network where the digital badges can be exchanged, validated, and trusted.
Badging ya dijiti ni teknolojia mpya ya uthibitisho ambayo ina uwezo wa kuwahudumia vijana mbalimbali na kukuza usawa na ujumuishaji wa kijamii. Badges digital ni iliyoundwa kufanya kujifunza inayoonekana na kuthibitishwa kwamba hutokea kila mahali. Kutoka shule hadi jamii, kutoka mahali pa kazi hadi mtandao, vijana wanapata ujuzi katika mfumo wa kujifunza ambao unaenea katika muktadha mbalimbali. Vipande vya digital hutoa ushahidi kuhusu uwezo na ujuzi ambao vijana wanaendeleza wakati wanashiriki katika uzoefu mbalimbali wa kujifunza. Hati hizo zaweza kutumiwa baadaye kupata kazi na fursa za elimu. Mpango wa Open Badges, kwa mfano, umependekeza matumizi ya beji za dijiti kwa kuruhusu mtu yeyote kutoa, kupata, na kuonyesha beji kwenye wavuti. Kwa kukuza viwango vya ufundi wazi, Open Badges imeongoza kuenea kwa beji za dijiti na kutoa zana za kubuni na kutoa aina hii ya sifa. Ingawa teknolojia hii inaweza kutumika kusaidia vijana walio katika hali ya chini kupata fursa za elimu na kiuchumi, kuitumia kunaweza kuwa changamoto. Utekelezaji wake unahitaji kuandaa taasisi nyingi na wadau, kujenga na kuhamasisha mtandao, na kudumisha mfumo tata wa wapataji, watangazaji, na waajiri. Ukosefu wa habari, uaminifu, na ushirikiano unaweza kuunda vizuizi vikubwa kwa kutambua uwezo wa beji za dijiti. Mkakati mmoja wa kushinda changamoto za kutekeleza badging digital ni ramani ya kujifunza mazingira. Kuuliza na kuhoji wanaopata (vijana), watangazaji (maeneo ya elimu rasmi na yasiyo rasmi), na waajiri (makampuni au mashirika mengine) inaweza kusaidia kutambua mahitaji tofauti ya washiriki. Kwa kuongezea, inaweza kuwa na manufaa kwa kuifanya iwe wazi utata wa mazingira na mahusiano tofauti ambayo yapo kati ya mashirika, taasisi, wanafunzi, walimu, na waajiri. Kwa kuzingatia utata wa mfumo wa kujifunza na kuidhinisha, itakuwa muhimu kushirikiana na taasisi kadhaa na kukuza ujenzi wa mtandao katika sekta zote. Kutoka kwa mipango ya baada ya shule hadi serikali za jiji, kutoka kwa kuanza hadi mashirika ya jamii, kutoka kwa maktaba hadi nafasi za watengenezaji, ni muhimu kujenga mtandao ambapo vitambulisho vya dijiti vinaweza kubadilishana, kuthibitishwa, na kuaminiwa.