USDoE’s Digital Promise and Facebook Team Up for Student Data Badges while the Gates Funded Data Quality Campaign is Lobbying Congress to Weaken FERPA, Again.

Original Title: USDoE’s Digital Promise and Facebook team up for student databadges. And Gates funded DQC group is lobbying Congress to weaken FERPA, again. Reposted with permission from Missouri Education Watchdog.

Now, onto the mega announcement made today on Tom Vander Arks’ Getting Smart blog, that Digital Promise is working with Facebook to develop student data badges. We have written about student micro credentials (also called data badges) here and here and NEPC wrote about them here. As for Digital Promise, we wrote about how Digital Promise is a nonprofit created by the US Department of Ed, they have a global arm and they promote Schools of Innovation, competency based ed, data badges, Relay Grad School to name a few. So, this new announcement shouldn’t be a surprise; it will no doubt be a wonderful data collection and marketing tool for Facebook and the US Department of Ed, but it is incredibly alarming for students’ privacy and security.

Trick or treat Two-fer today.

The Data Quality Campaign, funded by Bill Gates is lobbying Congress to further weaken FERPA. You can and SHOULD read all about that here. We urge you to call or email your Congressman and Reps Todd Rokita (IN), Paul Mitchell (MI) to tell them NO. Stop sharing students’ personal data with researchers and marketers, corporations and “nonprofits” without parental consent. We need to fix FERPA, strengthen student data protection and privacy, not further weaken it. Please do take the time to read this and send an email. Thanks.

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Now, onto the mega announcement made today on Tom Vander Arks’ Getting Smart blog, that Digital Promise is working with Facebook to develop student data badges. We have written about student micro credentials (also called data badges) here and here and NEPC wrote about them here. As for Digital Promise, we wrote about how Digital Promise is a nonprofit created by the US Department of Ed, they have a global arm and they promote Schools of Innovation, competency based ed, data badges, Relay Grad School to name a few. So, this new announcement shouldn’t be a surprise; it will no doubt be a wonderful data collection and marketing tool for Facebook and the US Department of Ed, but it is incredibly alarming for students’ privacy and security.

We have reposted the getting smart announcement below.

October 30, 2017 By getting smart staff

Digital skills are skyrocketing in demand, and that is a trend that will only continue to increase in impact. More than 8 in 10 middle-skill jobs (82%) require digital skills, and tech companies everywhere often have trouble finding candidates with the right know-how.

One recently announced effort to address this challenge that has us excited is Digital Promise’s partnership with Facebook, in which the two groups have collaborated to create a set of micro-credentials (a form of digital badges) focused on helping adults in the workforce learn these “middle” skills in the area of digital marketing.

We think that this new set of micro-credentials, the pursuit of which will include successive series of in-person workshops organized and implemented by local partners (Digital Promise will train organizations across the state of Michigan to deliver the workshops to their local communities starting in November), is a great way to address the challenge of reaching those who need this type of adult education the most.

Facebook has pledged to train 3,000 Michiganders in digital skills focused on social media over the next two years through these workshops. In the workshop, students will learn some of the basics of social media marketing, and have the opportunity to earn four micro-credentials that demonstrate the skills they have learned:

Social Media Marketing Basics

Marketing with Facebook Pages

Marketing with Facebook Ads

Marketing with Instagram

Over four weeks, students will develop a Facebook page and Instagram account for a local community organization or business of their choice; use that page to create awareness, drive traffic, and/or attract customers; and create advertising campaigns in support of that page. We think this approach is exactly the kind of authentic, real-world PBL that will encourage adults to seek these new skills.

In our recent analysis of adult entrepreneurship education (a big upcoming trend), we found that a lack of respected micro-credentials was one of the biggest missing components of entrepreneurship education. The program being developed by Digital Promise and Facebook appears set to provide a model for those looking to address this challenge. Our team is looking forward from hearing more from Digital Promise when we attend EdSurge Fusion later this week.