(PRWEB) November 08, 2013 -- Leading online skills non-profit DigitalMe coordinated the open badge pledges as part of Badge the UK, a new national initiative supported by Nominet Trust, which aims to create a currency for young people by using Mozilla Open Badges to recognise skills and connect talent with opportunities for work, training or enterprise.
Tim Riches, CEO of DigitalMe, said: “We started with a physical map just to share with the delegates at Mozfest but quickly agreed with Mozilla that we would create an online ‘worldwide pledge map’ where we could see people’s plans coming together globally, so a coder and a designer came together to develop Badge the World.”
Over the Mozfest weekend pledges came in from countries including Columbia, France, Czech Republic, India - beginning the emergence of a worldwide movement around badges. A wide range of badge ideas were suggested by people at Mozfest - demonstrating how Open Badges can capture and recognise all types of learning - including those for working abroad, bushcraft skills, as well as digital making and coding skills.
"We were really excited to see the increase in international interest for Open Badges captured through DigitalMe’s 'Badge the UK' program within only two days,” said Erin Knight, Senior Director of Learning and Badges at Mozilla. “The Open Badges pledge energy was so great at MozFest that we decided to develop ‘Badge the World’ as a means to further expand the badging momentum across the globe in collaboration with DigitalMe. We will officially launch 'Badge the World' in early 2014, but in the meantime, the prototype built at Mozfest is available at http://www.badgetheworld.org.”
Tia, a student from Ormiston Venture Academy, spoke about why badges are important to her: “I love to show them off and they can help me in my future career. Earning the badges is a great motivation to develop even more skills and experience."
To find out more about DigitalMe and Badge the UK visit http://www.digitalme.co.uk.
Sally Molineaux, DigitalMe, http://www.safesocialnetworking.org, +44 1132456445, [email protected]
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