Jeffrey Keefer

Thanks for sharing this, Verena. This looks quite interesting.

I thought your blog post was interesting, Peter, and decided to reply here for potential discussion with our little learning community we have at SCoPE.

I am not sure that a learner = a lurker, which is how I am reading the first level (goodness, suddenly there are levels of learning, as if all learning needs to be externally quantifiable). Perhaps this can be tempered to express that personal learning is  wonderful, but for it to be seen as something other than lurking (where others in the learning group cannot see or otherwise experience any of its happening) then there needs to be some external sign or expression of it (which would then lead to Participant).

Again, the Participant badge is a nice idea, but it seems to require a real-time involvement that seems to be at odds with an asynchronous discussion (and also seems focused on the facilitator's timezone that may not work with work or sleep or anything else in a global community) and otherwise privilege real-time discussion (which is not even required as written now, only showing up and "participating,' whatever that means) over a rich threaded discussion and such.

Does Contributor include all 4 of those items or only 1? Yes, this leads to a legalism that make "learning rubrics" a series of check marks that try to approximate internal development and learning, though in turn are challenging to be crystal clear while still being open to the wonder of transformative and other unexpected learning possibilities.

No, I am not trying to play the advocatus diaboli, but as I have to use rubrics in one of my courses (and have had to had this minute splitting of hairs discussions with students that I prefer to simply toss them) I want to see flex how they can be used if they are chosen to be used, as my experience is that they often lead to problems later on if they are too prescriptive.

I am not sure if I ever earned any badges, though if I did I cannot recall any of them if I did. Immediately I feel inadequate (I have none and everybody has lots). Ok, I exaggerate a touch, but it was the immediate childhood reflex kicking in here.

Hmm, I wonder how this relates to motivation and what is valued? I am not motivated by them and thus do not value them? However, I suppose other people are, so if I were designing a program or the like perhaps it could be something I could use to help reward people (like a behaviorist?) or motivate them (if perhaps the content or the experience and what about it is worth doing were not enough)?

Hey, Peter, thanks for facilitating this discussion for these two weeks. I have been reading along with all the posts yesterday and this week and was planning to just quietly read along, learning on my own by reading all the great ideas and sharing that is happening here (with a number of people I have read and spoken to over the years) but some of these topics have me yelling out to the computer, and as that doesn't reap any interaction or benefits of any kind, I decided to join in a bit in a way that may move the discussion along, or rather at least the one that has been heretofore in my mind.

First off, I am not a fan of external lists of credentials or badges or any of this sort, and decided to share this with the group here for the sake of transperency. I am also saying this as I am trying to be open to seeing some benefits to this, though I have not found motivation when considering these in the past, so decided to try to see their value in another way, namely discussion with such an interesting group of people  here (I love the people that SCoPE attracts).

I feel these sort of things (online badges) breed competition (something problematic at times when regarding learning), a focus on them for their own purposes (let me do x,y,z and only x,y,z, to get a badge in a similar way to doing only what is required to "meet" a learning objective for its own sake), and a sign of social inequality (I have more than you do, ergo I am better than you are / Why should I pay attention to you, you are only a xxx level /  etc.). That I work in healthcare that lives and breathes by levels of initials after one's name, often related to certification, continuing education units, and salary differentials, is all very related to this.

Of course, these are my experiences and I am sharing them here partly as a way of demonstrating that not everybody is on the badge bandwaggon. However, as I am indeed putting myself out there, I want to be clear that this is where I am now, and does not at all mean I will not move forward or into a new direction after 2 weeks or so.

Almost forgot, my name is Jeffrey Keefer, I live and work in New York City, study at Lancaster University in the UK, get paid to manage education projects in healthcare, teach at New York University and Pace University, and I Tweet a bit from time to time. 

Ahh, with that and with giving myself enough rope to hang myself, let me crawl back into my Sunday shell (i.e. begin writing my thesis discussion chapter).

I agree completely. Lurking seems to have the feel of the dirty old man in a raincoat watching children in a playground, where I believe levels of participation in open online discussions around issues of interest may provide value for many people in unexpected ways.

I read a large amount throughout the day, and while I wish I could make more of a presence in many conversations, there are limits to time and resource. However, I do think it is important to at least drop by and send a hello, if for no other reason to affirm that conversations make a difference and are beneficial, not to mention the value that communication and contact has with others in a distributed network.

With a wink and a nod, I shall now return to working with my thesis . . .