Doug is a self-professed “Open Educational Thinkerer” and founder of Dynamic Skillset Ltd. He advises clients on issues around new literacies (the topic of his doctoral thesis), new forms of credentialing, and agile processes. Prior to this, he worked on the Web Literacy Map and Open Badges for the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, for Jisc in UK Higher Education, and he was a teacher and school senior leader. Doug holds a B.A. (Hons) in philosophy from the University of Sheffield, an M.A. in modern history from Durham University, and an Ed.D. (also from Durham). His personal website can be found at http://dougbelshaw.com. Doug lives in Northumberland in the north of England with his wife and children.
Doug Belshaw
Articles
September 17, 2015
Taking Another Look at the Digital Credentials Landscape
Recently, I’ve been having some interesting conversations about the digital credentials landscape. On the surface, it’s a bit messy. There are arguments over whether the term “Open Badges” should be used over the...
Category: EdtechJuly 13, 2015
Setting an Agile School Rhythm
When I moved out of the classroom a few years ago, one of the things I missed immediately was the imposed rhythm of the school year. There's something inherently useful about knowing...
Category: EdtechMay 28, 2015
At the beginning of this month, the Badge Alliance published version 1.1 of the Open Badges specification. This is a technical reference for developers. However, it has exciting, far-reaching pedagogical and social...
Category: EdtechMarch 30, 2015
Peering Deep into Future of Educational Credentialing
I recently attended Nesta's FutureFest event in London. It was a heady mix of everything related to what's next: from food to technology to economics to politics. What really caught my attention, however, was...
Category: EdtechJanuary 29, 2015
Learning Pathways: Descriptive or Prescriptive?
A few months ago, in a post entitled Scaffolding Web Literacy Through Learning Pathways, I differentiated between training pathways ("a series of steps that lead to the individual being able to reproduce knowledge or...
Categories: Edtech, Educational PracticeDecember 1, 2014
A Brief History of Web Literacy and its Future Potential
"Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future." — George Orwell Part of history is telling stories. It's about privileging some type of...
Category: Digital CitizenshipOctober 23, 2014
If you’re anything like hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people around the world, one of the first things you do in the morning is check your social media feeds. These...
Category: Digital CitizenshipAugust 28, 2014
Scaffolding Web Literacy Through Learning Pathways
Learning is messy. It starts. It stops. It's prismatic and elusive. Learners make progress, regress and then make giant leaps forward in understanding and ability. Some concepts and skills come quickly and easily, while...
Categories: Digital Citizenship, EdtechJune 12, 2014
Reclaiming the Web for the Next Generation
Around this time last year, thanks to the whistleblower Edward Snowden, U.S. citizens found out just how little online privacy they have. For those outside the U.S., the revelations were potentially even...
Category: Digital CitizenshipMarch 31, 2014
“Badges are plots by for-profit institutions to disrupt state-funded higher education. It's all about money and trying to turn a public good into a privatized for-profit revenue stream. You need to get...
Category: Edtech