I remember being a kid and wrestling with Charles Barkley declaring, "I am not a role model." He had a point, I thought, that he didn't ask to be a role model so why should he have to be? Why couldn't he just be a great basketball player? Coates, in this passage, helps me see why. Some people who reach greatness don't just reach greatness, they embody the very hope of achieving greatness for whole communities. These greats don't ask for their station but there it is, along with the accompanying responsibilities, and it doesn't matter whether or not it's fair, people are counting on them.

Citation? Especially given the context of this entire page, one might expect a commitment to faithfully demonstrate factual integrity.

This seems presumptuous. The company that was until recently the most valuable in the world has been in a lot of pockets for a decade collecting tons of data. To think Apple would have taken a complete pass on operationalizing that data strikes me as wishful thinking.

Moments that are prime for "Growth Mindset"

How do we reconcile student choice to make learning personal with frequent need to scaffold choice (in this case, through curation) for learners who are still in effect learning how to learn and need support?

Real world validation of ENDORSED credentials

Simply possessing pools of data is of limited utility. It's like having a space ship but your only access point to it is through a pin hole in the garage wall that lets you see one small, random glint of ship; you (think you) know there's something awesome inside but that sense is really all you've got. Margaret points out that it has to be seen (data visualization), it has to be tangible (relevant to audience) and connected at micro and macro levels (storytelling). For all of the machine learning and AI that helps us access the spaceship, these key points are (for now) human-driven.

This is the name of a newspaper in Witchita, Kansas.

Great word that can be associated with anything Colorado Rockies related.

Important to consider what student data is used in seeking connections. If a teacher is credentialed for an SEL competency, for example, do we seek validation in students' reading scores or other metrics like student surveys or cortisol levels?

I'm excited to learn from them how they avoided this feeling like "seat time" equivalent

Begs the question: in designing the process, how do we ensure the needs we are addressing are those of our adult learners WHILE creating sustainable implementation practices? (In other words, how do we check ourselves and designing as though the evaluator is the primary user?)

Is this objective fact or a subjective call?

Granular approach,,,

Worth being aware that this is a choice; how we appeal to intrinsic (and/or extrinsic) motivation is something about which we can and should be intentional.

Important to note that this is not a redundant effort that simply gives a new name to a familiar practice; aim is to notice and name skills and achievements currently absent from the narratives of who we are as learners and achievers.

What's good for the goose... We expect teachers to help students articulate and plan for achieving their dreams. Intrigued by their approach to using Badges to help do the same for teachers

This term is new to me. It really catches my attention while at the same time making me wonder whether there is such a thing as a published text that is not performative. Is the act of publishing - even if as an annotation in the margins of a niche academic journal where it is unlikely to ever be discovered by another set of eyes - inherently performative, regardless of author intent and potentiality for audience?

This strikes me as a key factor in web annotation reaching the mainstream, especially in education. When an educator asks, "How is this significantly different from leaving comments at the end of an article?" it will be helpful to have a concise, comprehensible and convincing response. When I speak about this, I focus on the "contexting" that web annotation facilitates and the potentiality for authentic audience and dialogue. The problem with both of these points is that a critic can (rightly) respond that existing page-bottom commentary can already allow a degree of both of these.

Just as there is ambiguity around defining a word as simple as open this conversation hints at an emerging struggle with a shared meaning of annotation. As Remi points out, the traditional view of annotation is as a tool acting in service of reading comprehension. What we are talking about goes beyond that.

While Merriam Webster and other disseminators of meaning can add extra definitions to their dictionaries under the word 'annotation', I wonder if an easier path to meaning making might be through using different words. There's a risk that it only leads to complications and muddying the waters over semantics but is it worth considering? I describe it as uptexting (not sure if I thought of that on my own or borrowed from someone else). I've heard University of Texas' Carl Blyth describe this as Social Reading and am drawn to this term because it captures the community aspect and might be less confusing because it doesn't seek to reappropriate an existing, commonly held definition.

Allow me to push back a bit here. While the "canned responses" could, in some environments, build fences around student creativity and expression, it does not have to. From my limited play in the Ponder sandbox, I noticed that students could click on the canned responses OR offer their own annotation just like with Hypothes.is (though I am not sure if the annotation is limited to text). Also, I perceive the canned responses as allowing for scaffolding for younger readers and second language learners.

This is such a powerful point. I have a degree from a prestigious university on my CV and it serves me well as a networking device: it raises eyebrows, has gotten me interviews and occasionally impressed others.

While the author leans on this point seemingly to the detriment of Badges/Credentials, I see this key factor in inequity as being precisely why we DO need Badges and Credentials as they can serve to communicate to colleges and employers that earners deserve their consideration (even if they didn't attend a prestigious college). For example, the free language learning app Duolingo is planning to offer English proficiency exams with the hope that they will be able to provide for a fraction of the current cost a trusted and validated credential that college applicants from outside of the United States can use when applying to U.S. colleges.

For the lip service we pay to "college and/or career ready," this stat should give us pause, especially when informing students and parents about their educational options.

One contrarian question I do have to this data point: is part of the low numbers due to lack of skilled applicants? In applied manufacturing, for example, we hear about a surplus of jobs and a shortage of skilled labor so I wonder whether the 99% of jobs going to those with college education is at least a bit misleading on that account.

This is a really profound question and has me doing a lot of thinking. Even more so because I thought this line would be an entry point to discussing the positive potential impacts of Credentials, not a jumping off point to a stance that is far more critical of Credentials.

Interesting! I normally think of literacy as more of an act of consumption and now she is challenging my thinking to expand to include documenting (and curating?!?!) as anessential element of literacy.

Another great resource for ss to actually own the VR content creation is Aurasma

Duolingo is cool on so many levels. After watching the founder's TED Talk, you'll start to see why!

Matt is spot on here that this approach to learning can be powerful in both physical and digital learning spaces.

There is such a huge opportunity for us to help learners shift their thinking of this structure from "free time" to "self-directed" or "inquiry time"...the freedom is not in the time but in the permission learners have to shape the learning.

A player must be retired for at least 5 years before becoming eligible to be voted into the Hall of Fame.

He's not just called Papi (a popular and common expression in his native Dominican Republic), but Big Papi for a reason: He's a big man.

Amazing that apps were not a feature promoted in the first announcement about the iPhone.

I appreciate the way that Ben is transparent about this being the tip of the iceberg.

Grant's points here are great and his reputation in this space is well-regarded. It should be noted that there is also evidence from Gallop indicating that when people believe their supervisor focuses on their strengths, it can almost eliminate active disengagement in the workplace.

Couldn't agree more. That student John mentioned at the TEDx event didn't see himself in the makerspace because our narrow definition wasn't including the Theater (scripting, stage crafting, prop mastering, etc) under the makerspace umbrella.

Learning and achieving need not be limited to the artificial confines of walls and bell schedules. As John points out, this understanding is a more essential resource than any shiny equipment.