|
Open Badges in 2020: What’s next, based on distance travelled in 2019?
Last year felt like a significant year for Open Badges. I think a shift took place. As I followed developments through my work editing The Learning Fractal, I noticed there seemed to be increased usage, awareness and engagement from a wider variety of actors. It felt like the Open Badges movement accelerated, leaving me wondering what is in store for us in 2020.
Overall I spotted 7 trends that I thought were signficant in 2019. These developments in 2019 made me wonder if we had moved onto a new stage, as defined by the Gartner Hype Cycle. The Gartner Hype Cycle suggests new technologies will go through peaks and troughs of excitement and disillusionment during a ten year cycle, ending with the “slope of enlightenment” leading to the “plateau of productivity”. Since the Open Badges standard was first proposed in 2011, I have seen the movement go through the initial stages the Gartner Hype Cycle suggests, with the period between 2015–2018 in particular appearing to fall into the ‘trough of disillusionment’. However, during 2019 it felt like we moved on, prompting the questions: could we reach the “plateau of productivity” with Open Badges in 2020?
Read more from the editor of the Learning Fractal, Gráinne Hamilton...
|
