President Clinton is Down with Badges!

On Thursday, June 13th, President Clinton announced the Clinton Global Initiative’s (CGI)Commitment to Action in support of the use of badges as a mechanism to create pathways to college and career for two million Americans.This effort is being powered by the MacArthur Foundation, Mozilla, and HASTAC.  Check out this press release, in which our friends Connie Yowell, Nichole Pinkard, and Mark Surman talk about the impact and significance of CGI’s commitment to opening up new avenues of opportunity for individuals across the country.The 2 Million Better Futures Initiative creates: New avenues for individuals to build the knowledge, skills, and credentials needed in today’s economy New mechanisms for recognizing and valuing the competencies that individuals develop through learning that happens everywhere and all the time New entry points for employers to find the talents and skills sets that they need CGI’s commitment makes all the more important Hive Chicago’s collective goal to cultivate and illuminate pathways that connect learning experiences across organizations in the network.  These pathways provide the foundation and infrastructure needed to develop a robust ecosystem of badges. CGI’s call to action also highlights/underlines/bolds/italicizes the importance of Hive Chicago’s collective investment in and support of the success of the Chicago Summer of Learning (CSOL).  CSOL is the largest and only effort of its kind taking place anywhere in the world – striving to significantly change the learning landscape in Chicago moving forward. CSOL makes visible the summer learning opportunities available to youth and acknowledges their achievements through the use of digital badges. These badges provide the shared language and artifact-based portfolio needed to make the rich informal learning that young people engage in outside of school “count” in the formal school arena. What we accomplish this summer, through CSOL, will provide us with the “evidence proof” needed for Chicago to create avenues for more possible futures at scale, from K to 12 and beyond, across school, university, and workplace spaces. Hive family, our work has never been more needed.  Our roles never more clear. Let’s “make” learning count this summer … together! Sybil Madison-Boyd Hive Chicago Learning Network **Hive Chicago is a network of civic and cultural institutions dedicated to transforming the learning landscape by creating opportunities for youth to explore their interests through connected learning experiences.

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