Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Thinking About Alternative Credentials

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Both web3 and alternative credentials are motivated by a desire for decentralization. But "while decentralization can be facilitated by technology up to a point, it is also limited by the nature of humans as social animals," writes Michael Feldstein. Working toward this idea, he outlines four types of alternative credentials: as a skills inventory used by human resources, as an affordable alternative credential, as a way to skip MIT and go straight into a job at Google, or as a technological solution like a digital badge platform. But none of these is really new, he argues; the idea has precedents in ideas as old as guild membership and new as automated resume scanners. And in the future we'll see more of the same: alternatives developed at human speed and being created by already established organizations.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 30, 2024 12:24 p.m.

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