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NERJIUS
KRIAUCIUNAS
I was much into ideas of Paulo Freire of
critical literacy, then I got hooked by the
ideas of Marshal McLuhan about media
and technology. During the same years
our association was running the project
“South Caucasus - a part of Europe”.
Together with media experts and youth
trainers we were running media education
workshop with young people from
Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania
and Austria. In Lithuania we cooperated
with UNESCO National Commission.
This cooperation created opportunities
for me to apply for scholarship from
UNESCO Fellowship Programme and
I went for 1 year as an exchange student
to Zurich University. Here I chose to focus
mostly on studying the subjects related
to media and technology.
As a result, I did the research and wrote
master thesis “Non-formal Education for
Critical Media Literacy: The Case of Youth
in Action Programme”.
Nowadays I use variety of digital tools
in my educational practices, but mostly
focusing on Open digital badges.
We are running a multilingual badge
issuing platform that uses a world-wide
standard of Open digital badges to manage
any achievements.3 – When did you start
working with Open Digital Badges?
For awhile I was a member of the Youthpass
Recognition Team. In 2011, during one of
the meetings I was introduced to Mozilla’s
Open Badges. I should admit, Open Badges
were and still are something to be amazed
of! Since then I am very passionate about
this digital solution for recognition.
Badges are visual representation of
skills and achievements. They are more
than an image. They contain digital data
that well describe learning context and
achievements. Learners can include
evidence to support their claim for
achievement. Educators can set the
multiple types of assessment to verify
evidence and achievements.
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