Coaching Retrospective: What impact have we had in five years? A little over five years ago, I sat across the table from seven or eight of our school’s senior leadership team to be interviewed for a newly-created position: Teaching and Learning Coach. “Tell us about a time you helped others be reflective.” “What do you think about when you are planning instruction?” The questions weren’t hard to answer, but I had no idea what they thought of my responses. At the time, I really didn’t have a clear concept of what the role of Teaching & Learning Coach would entail or whether I would be a good fit. I went home thinking I had quite possibly embarrassed myself in front of the whole LLT. I guess I did okay in the interview though, because eventually I was offered the role, and became part of a cross-school team. The team has ebbed and flowed a bit over these five years, but one thing has been very consistent: the group of people I’ve been privileged to work with has been amazing. Th
Do you know how da Vinci became the Renaissance Man? Of course, genius is a large part of it but it was also his growth mindset to seek out information from those who knew better than him. If you take a look at his journals he actively sought out experts to learn from - he leveraged his renaissance learning network to its fullest.
I’ve told a version of this story dozens of times in my classroom and to my own kids. I was reminded of it as I was talking to a colleague about how over the spring break I’ve been watching lectures about blockchain and crypto currencies from MIT and learning from people, in this case the new SEC Chair Gary Gensler, that I would have had zero opportunity to learn from if I lived in a different time and place and I was commenting on how amazing it is to be a learner today. Our conversation quickly turned toward the near future of education in an environment where access to information is no longer an issue as the traditional barriers have been taken down for the most part. We wondered how credentialing, attaining acknowledgement for knowledge and skills acquired, which for better or worse, has been at the heart of our educational institutions for over a century, will adapt and change. Early visionaries in this space, from early Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to badging initiatives, have attempted to create digital standards for credentialing (e.g. certificates, OpenBadges, Blockcerts) that learners can take with them as proof of completion/mastery of a learning experience (which could look like a traditional classroom setting to self-directed learning online or off) and have them recognized forevermore. The unique challenges of finding the technology and implementation that will balance our desire to control information about our identities (GDPR as recent evidence), with the need to have our educational accomplishments verified, and recognized forever (even if an the issuing institution vanishes) is being worked upon, with exciting global standards, decentralization, and many using maturing blockchain technologies (see Cardano’s announcement with Ethiopia to benefit 5 million students and Trybe.id as some recent examples).
From Kim Cameron’s The Laws of Identity (2005)
Kim Hamilton Duffy - Architect, Digital Credentials Consortium & Dean, Digital Learning - MIT
It doesn’t seem that far off when institutions and teachers will be able to create and issue unique credentials to students that will be held and controlled by students to use any time in the future. For some this increase of credentialing will magnify an already serious impediment to actual transformative learning, that is learning for the reward (credential, grade, certificate, etc.) whereby students are incentivized to take the path of least resistance to obtain the reward - often learning just enough and forgetting soon thereafter. For others, this opens up a world that only the privileged few had access to - the recognition of knowledge and skills that didn’t require a plethora of fortuitous life circumstances, outside of an internet connection and a desire and willingness to learn. Top companies have started exploring hiring based primarily on skill with no degree requirements, meaning if you have the knowledge and skill, they don’t care where or if you went to college.
In our own context where we are trying to bridge our unique ISB curriculum with the globally recognized IB curriculum, the ability to issue credentials that can be recognized and taken with students opens up interesting avenues to acknowledge knowledge and skills that might not translate as well to potential employers, selection committees, etc. as a number or letter grade might. I don’t think there is an easy answer as to whether more credentialing is beneficial for every student or institution but I am pretty certain that it is a question that all educational institutions need to be having as the technology is almost here and the appetite for control over our identities and time is only increasing. Taking a peak at our strategic visioning it would seem that these conversations are anticipated as credentialing is already a part of the core, with the exploration of new technologies and procedures potentially rewriting how credentialing fits into an ISB education in the near future.
by Brock Baker
bakerb@isb.be
I love the Leonardo da Vinci 'to do' list and I love the point you make technology has flattened the world such that we have access to so much expertise now. If Leonardo were alive today, I wonder which MOOCs he would have on his 'to-do' list or which experts he would be tweeting at to ask for their help with a problem he was working on.
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