来吧大家，今天我要讨论一个话题关于未来的一种评估体系 - “微证书” or “电子徽章”。
先介绍一下背景思想。我们现在的教育评估体系是按照两个原理来设计的，一个是确定学生是否掌握了某种学习资料并有进步空间。二是比较学生之间的差异。可是这样子能评估出来未来的人才吗？
Hello readers, I’d like to follow up with a topic on the future of assessments on micro credentials and about the reasons for our current assessment predicaments. I’ve recently been reading a book called “Disrupting Classes” by Clayton Christensen (a renown Harvard Business school professor who is the “father” of innovation theories). In this book, he highlights a couple of key points on innovating systems, particularly in the way we assess our students that really got me thinking. Testing (formal assessments) as we know has always been for 2 main purposes, one is to determine if students have mastered a body of material & ready to progress. The other is to compare students against each other.
由于Christensen是一位商业方面的顾问，他比较了美国和日本汽车公司之间的员工培训，并发现了其评估体系的差异。那就是“时间固定，学习多变”vs“时间多变，学习固定”的模式。
For understanding the first purpose, he took a comparison between the way Chrsyler vs Toyota trained their employees and found a significant comparison between this and how our students learn. “Time fixed, learning varied” was the Chrysler model of learning, similar to that of Ford (mass production) vs “Time varied, learning fixed” by that of Toyota, which meant that each person should be tested more frequently to see if they are competent in their task/understanding before moving on to the next learning point (aka competency based learning). In the second, he mentions the importance of comparing students, as most institutions (whether college or firms) are looking at this to make their admissions/recruitment decisions. But as we’ve seen in my last few posts on the changes in the job markets. The question as to how we should assess students would then have to start moving away from standardization would be vital. In a large sense, the way students have to learn & apply their learning has to start differentiating from one another in order for them to move into their own productive area of work. Which means that we should not expect that A+ on that SAT/Gaokao anymore, rather getting a PASS on that biometric scanning technique or that historical artefact archiving method would be key!
什么是微证书(micro credentials)？微证书为学习者提供了对他们在学习或工作中发展的技能的认可，而不管他们在哪里或如何学习这些技能。
So what is this micro credentials about? Well simply put, micro-credentials provide learners with recognition for the skills they develop throughout their studies or careers, regardless of where or how they learned them. A micro credential can comes in the form of simple competencies, such as research skills, idea generation & brainstorming, time management, etc. These are simply competencies that have a list of principles that can be agreed upon by different organizations and institutions. At the moment, micro credentials are more used to evaluate educators rather than their students, as it’s a means to evaluate teacher’s effectiveness and promotion schemes. This will probably also be widely adopted by different industries later on.
电子徽章（Digital Badge）是一种微证书，而你可以获得的成就、技能、质量或兴趣的有效指标。目前，当一个人完成在线教育计划时，他也可以获得这个电子徽章。
One of the concepts of micro credentials is digital badging which is a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality, or interest that can be earned in many learning environments. At the present moment, a person earns when they complete an online educational program such as Coursera, Lynda or Credly (please check out those sites for more information). Professionals use this to prove to their employers or potential clients that they’re accredited, even though it does not state this on their degree. The further truth is having a piece of degree paper does not qualify you to actually be able to complete a specific task, whereas having a digital badge does qualify you in some sense to be able to do so.
未来的评估体系必然会需要数字化-尤其是在于培养学生和在企业方面的人才。我们必然要改变我们对21世纪人才的评估，以及尽快量化这些评估，找出适合的人才技能/能力。
I believe that the future of education may take a turn to accept micro credentials & digital badging, first seeing as technology progresses and more of our learning is captured digitally, this might actually work to most learners advantage as they’ll be able to prove their accomplishments once completing a learning program or task. Secondly, this might be in the schools/policymaker’s interest to establish a new system for evaluating students, namely to be able to spot out those who are competent in understanding certain courses versus just test grades (which is not particularly predictive). Finally, this is absolutely key in corporates/institutions to identify their talents and source the ones that best fit their needs.
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想了解更多关于未来评估体系和”微证书“，欢迎查看以下链接。
For more about micro credentials for educators, make sure to check out Digital Promise.
Another article titled “Competency-Based Micro-credentials are Transforming Professional Learning” by Getting Smart also highlights some key ideas on how micro credentials should support personalized learning.
Last two sources are of digital badging and the players currently developing it, make sure to check them out: Badge the world and Credly (even Harvard is using this now)
