ELI Webinar | Digital Badges and Meaningful Microcredentials

Special Guest

Jonathan Finkelstein
Founder and Executive Producer of LearningTimes and Director of the BadgeStack Project

Jonathan Finkelstein is founder and executive producer of LearningTimes. He is also the director of the BadgeStack Project, the first system designed for badge-empowered learning and community building and the first to issue Mozilla Open Badges. Finkelstein is author of Learning in Real Time (Wiley), contributing author to The Digital Museum, board member of the AAM Media & Technology Committee, and host of thousands of pioneering online events for education, museum, and library audiences. The son of two New York City public school teachers, Finkelstein is a certified synchronous trainer and graduated with honors from Harvard University.

Summary

Join Malcolm Brown, ELI director, and Veronica Diaz, ELI associate director, as they moderate this webinar with Jonathan Finkelstein, founder and executive producer of LearningTimes, and director of the BadgeStack Project.

We will explore how informal and nontraditional learning environments are impacting how we think about education. In particular, we'll discuss peer-to-peer learning trends and unpack the need for microcredentials and badge-empowered learning, which Finkelstein is pioneering as part of major initiatives with groups such as the Smithsonian Institution, the New York City Department of Education, Yale University, WCET, and programs for schools, museums, libraries, and other nonprofit organizations across the globe. Finkelstein will share examples of new educational programs and online communities that leverage digital badges to build ongoing relationships with learners, foster engagement, and acknowledge learning that often goes unrewarded or unrecognized. Badges also help learners showcase discrete skills and competencies that have value in their current professional and social lives. We’ll look at how even formal educational programs can leverage the benefits of microcredentials.

Additional Resources

• LearningTimes
• BadgeStack Project
• BadgeStack