Listen to the 17 minute audio here.
Interesting conversations are one of my favorite pasttimes and one of the best ways I have to formulate new ideas. The quotes are unedited transcriptions but this is a thought I plan to explore more:
“We are seeing all kinds of exciting developments in alternative accreditation. There are two major trends and they sort of work in complimentary directions. The first one is, this more atomized, very specific skills based orientated kind of accreditation which is best encapsulated by the badge. … On the opposite end of the spectrum, I think in a very intriguing way, you have sort of the person, the whole life, life as certification. The idea of a portfolio based assessment, things that allow you to document your learning that has taken place in various stages and aspects of your life, create a narrative around that learning, reflect on that learning, and develop metacognitive skills and document the learning you’ve done as well.”
As is this:
Merely making things available for free doesn’t necessarily lower the barriers to access. In fact we are actually in danger of recreating many of the same privileges that exist in the Ivory Tower world online, simply because people online tend to work through more informal networks that go back to sort of an idea of an old boys network. It can be more meritocratic in some ways, it can be more open in some ways, but in the bottom line you need to have more onramps, ways to make these structures visible to people who wouldn’t necessarily know how to use them.
re onramps: http://books.google.com/books?id=qYAmfUBPN-UC&lpg=PA101&ots=x4MMXdQodY&dq=cryptonomicon%20on-ramps%20information%20superhighway&pg=PA101#v=onepage&q=cryptonomicon%20on-ramps%20information%20superhighway&f=false