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[researcheryearone]

Thing 19: Apps #2

Thing 19 focuses on the benefits app can bring to an individuals learning. For example there is particular focus given to note taking apps such as onenote and word as well as mind map apps such as coggle. 

While I only first heard of coggle through this workshops its benefit for learning is plain to see. Coggle is effectively a mind map that is stored online allowing the user to access the mind map from any device and share the mind map or collaborate the mind map with anyone of their pleasing. This makes coggle for great for individual and group learning.

Apps such as onenote and word I was already extremely familiar with, these apps have immeasurable value to learning as these they allow individuals the ability to make notes, write up documents from any location and collaborate with anyone. This provides all the benefits of note taking by hand and all the benefits of the digital world most important instant sharing, collaboration and ensuring all documents are legible.  

Apps can have an immeasurable impact on learning and I would encourage everyone to make use of apps in any capacity to assist with learning.  

[researcheryearone]

Thing 18: Social Media #2

Thing 18: Social Media #2 had a couple of activities to complete, these were to read ‘Social Care Meets Social Media: What’s Holding the Sector Back?’, think about your own organisations social media presence, look at the SSSC’s social media presence and finally create a blog detailing your thoughts. 

The article (see link at end of blog) that was provided in the workshop to read is very interesting as this article details the relationship between social media and the social services sector. It goes into depth about the hesitation to embrace social media as a result social media being in danger of blurring the lines between professional and private which can clearly be problematic in the social services sector. Furthermore, the article also detailed the benefits of social media particular when it relates to communication. For internal communication the article recommends yammer as this can be used an organisations internal communication platform which is less formal than official comms via emails etc.  

For myself the next two tasks could be combined as my organisation is the SSSC. The SSSC is a large organisation in Scotland as it is the regulatory body for social services in Scotland. It is therefore of no surprise that the SSSC has a vast number of social media accounts. The SSSC is present on Facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube, audioboom, spotify and linkedln. However, despite being present on a wide variety of social media platforms the quality differs greatly from platform to platform.

The SSSC are most present on twitter, facebook and linkedln with fairly regularly activity. The SSSC’s spotify presence appeared to be very regular  before the covid pandemic, however since then has been a lot less active this may then be a logistical issue caused due to covid. However, the SSSC’s presence on Instagram, youtube and audioboom is significantly below par as there has been no activity on audioboom since 2015 and youtube for 5 months with only 87 videos in the 12 years they have been on youtube which is very very low.  Instagram presence has also been shockingly low with only 4 posts since the start of 2020 (however this was much more regular in 2018 and 2019) . 

While there are many interesting, informative and educational posts created by the SSSC on their social media platforms there is a significant disparity between the social media accounts which needs to be fixed to give a consistent social media presence for the SSSC. 

Article: https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2014/jul/10/social-care-social-media-digital-tools

Social Media accounts

Facebook: Scottish Social Services Scotland

Twitter: Scottish Social Services Scotland, SSSC Digital Learning Team

Instagram: ssscnevws

Youtube: sssctv

Audioboom: ssscfm

Spotify: SSSC Learncast

Linkedln: Scottish Social Services Council

[researcheryearone]

Thing 17: Open Educational Resources

The 23 things digital site describes Open Educational Resources (OER) as a form of sustainable educational development. What this basically means is OER provide free educational resources for anyone to use provide provided they credit the content creator (in this case the SSSC). These resources come in many different forms including presentations, modules, entire courses, text documents, videos, graphics, sound and much more.  

This is clearly a fantastic development as it removes a multitude of barriers to enter education as an adult. However, as far as I am aware there may still be a digital barrier as these resources can only be accessed online. Barring that exception OER’s remove most barriers to education.

OER is extremely important to me in my role as a research intern for the digital learning team within the Learning and Development strand of the SSSC. As work relating to digital resources makes up a considerable proportion of my work plan. I have therefore spent a lot of time completing OER and online resources such as the 23 things digital and other Open Badges provided by the SSSC.  Aside from this OER can also be useful to improve and learn new skills I need for job and also help me in my continuous professional development. 

There are several potential limitations to OER. These include; quality control, digital barrier, lack of proper interaction between student and teacher, copyright issues, language and cultural issues and sustainability issues. 

As OER’s are free online resources with no guarantee of oversight/regulation the quality of these resources may differ greatly. As while the OER provided by the SSSC are of no doubt a high quality not every OER will be created by a public body such as the SSSC where maintaining high quality is of central importance. There may be many organisations that create OER for a variety of reasons which do not include high quality learning as an important factor. This means OER could become a roulette game as opposed to a guaranteed source of high quality education. 

As mentioned above there is also a digital barrier to OER as an individual must not only have access a computer, tablet or relevant device to use OER but also a reliable internet connection which is far from a guarantee in many parts of the UK for both financial and geographical reasons. 

A vast majority of educators would argue the importance of face to face teaching when educating individuals. These is clearly a concern for many people as OER will almost entirely have no face to face teaching as an aspect of this learning (however this could be incorporated to it by any organisation who wishes to use OER). 

There is also a potential copyright issue, as these are free to access there may be an issue of a company creating an OER that appears almost identical to a pre-existing paid resource. This could clearly create many legal problems which could have considerable financial issues.  

There is also language and cultural issues as there is no guarantee that OER will cater to different languages or cultures. For example this could create an issue of OER being un accessible for non-english speakers and therefore creating a further barrier to equality. 

Finally, as the creators gain no financial benefit from creating these resources there may be little incentive to maintain the resources and keep them up to date. This could create a sustainability problem as many OER may be out of date and not fit for purpose.  

[researcheryearone]

Thing 16: Learning digitally

Alan Clarke identified the following characteristics as ones which a successful learner poses.     

having self-confidence

being motivated

having a positive attitude

possessing good communication skills

being a good collaborator

being a competent user of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Looking at these characteristics the first five are ones which most people would suggest are required if they were asked that question. However, the final characteristic that Clarke identified ‘being a competent user of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)’ is one that perhaps many would not have included. This shows the growing importance and impact of digital learning as now a requirement to be a successful learner includes IT literacy which can often create age and wealth barrierers. 

The SSSC provide strong support for individual development as a digital learner. Since arriving at the SSSC I have been provided with IT equipment and resources to help me navigate all the relevant sites and programing required to fulfil my role as a research intern. Furthermore, I have also been given the space, time and support to learn how to use R studio. This shows the SSSC are committed to ensuring their employees continue their digital development. 

[researcheryearone]

Thing 15: Video chat/webinars

During my (short) time as a research intern for the SSSC video chats has be invaluable in supporting my practice and learning. As I have started my employment during COVID-19 pandemic whilst the Government has enforced work from home rules I am yet to meet any colleagues in person despite being employed for two months. This would not have been possible without microsoft teams as this platform allowed me to complete my induction, meet my colleagues, communicate as if we were in the same room and seamlessly share work with others throughout the day.  Webinars were equally valuable as this allowed me to complete induction training and all the relevant courses online. without this service it would not have been possible for me to complete my induction and begin work at the SSSC. 

As the work from home rules are removed and individuals gradually return the office (either full time or part time) it is important that the flexibility organisations have developed over the past 18 months regarding remote working are not abandoned . As team meetings or supervision sessions which provide an option for remote access (partially or entirely) will be hugely beneficial as it will allow more people to attend and potentially contribute better to the team if they fell more comfortable in a remote work place. 

This will also help improve work/home lifestyle as remote working allows for employees to have greater flexibility which allows them to structure their working day around other important commitments (taking kids to school, looking after a poorly relative etc). This will in turn improve productivity as a happy employee is a more productive employee.   

However, there are potential risks that come with an over reliance on technology. Firstlt internet security needs to be robust as more working from home could result in weaker defences against potential cyber attacks. equally important is that employees deal with GDPR sensitive content with the same level of care and ensure that these standards do not drop when working at home.

[researcheryearone]

Thing 7: Finding resources

Thing 7 workshop focuses on finding resources. 

This workshop first directed me to the SSKS (Social Services Knowledge Scotland) website. This is an online library store containing articles, books, journals etc all useful for who work, study, interested or have any stakes in the social services sector.  This is a very well designed website as everything is displayed and labeled clearly. There are 8 tabs each with a unique function. 

1st - New search - operates as a usual search bar.

2nd -  Journal search - this where journals can be found. Search for the title, author or ISSN number  

3rd - Databases - this provides a link to the SSKS database which has a whole host of information including ‘communities’, ‘current awareness’   and ‘information skills training’. 

4th - Libraries - this links to the SSKS library. 

5th - Help - this links to the help section. 

6th - Fetch item - this is where you can search to see if the library contains a specific source as you can put in the reference information.  

7th - Tags - this is where you can search for topics by searching for a specific tag. This section displays the most popular tags and recently created tags are displayed to provide a helping hand. 

8th - Browse - this is where you can search for a source by subject, author or title. 

It is very easy to find sources relevant to any topic relating to social services. For example, I am a research intern in the digital learning team so I clicked on the ‘new search’ tab and searched the term ‘digital learning’. This loaded 226,696 results, now it is extremely likely a significant proportion of these results are not that relevant to digital learning but from a quick look through the results pages there are many results that are most definitely relevant. 

Google scholar is also a useful tool for finding sources, however it important that with this database the search is very narrow as goggle scholar has a huge library of sources. furthermore, there can often be sub par sources shown. It is therefore important that when using google scholar an extra degree of caution is applied to ensure high quality sores are used. 

[researcheryearone]

Thing 14: Email

Workshop 14 focuses on the use of emails. I use email everyday and therefore quite an experienced email user. Emails are essential for everyday life as in order to sign up to subscription service, buy products online or just to communicate to individuals requires that you own an emails address. Emails are also essential for work, as this is the primary way of communication within organisations and between organisations (even more so in covid times). As you can tell I am therefore a heavy email user and as a result I found most of this workshop less useful as it was providing fairly basic information.

The workshop had three parts, the first part detailed the basic features of emails, the second part gave suggestions of how to organise your emails and third part provided instruction to write a blog.

The first part focuses mostly on the basics of emails, explaining the uses of the message header, message body, attachments section, reply settings and finally the junk and spam sections. Which I did not find very useful as this was very basic information which regular users of email will be well accustomed to. However, part one that is very useful is what to do when sending the same email to multiple people as there three different ways to do this. This was very useful as many people do not realise there is different was to send emails to multiple people and in-particular that there is a difference between Cc and Bc.

There are three primary ways to send an email to multiple people.

1) The first way is to type all the relevant email addresses into the ‘to’ bar at the top of the email. This is used when all the recipients are the primary focus.  An example of this could be sending out an agenda for a team meeting. 

2) A second way is to use the Cc function. This used when you want to include the email address of an individual/organisation which is not the primary recipient. An example of this could be when two colleagues set up a meeting to discuss a potential new project but want to include their managers so they are kept up to date with the progress. The managers would then be put in the Cc section as they are not the primary target of the email. 

3) Third way is to use the Bc section. This is used when you do not want email recipients to see each other email addresses. A common example of this is when sending out survey. Everyone's email will be put into the Bc section as to protect their confidentiality. Alternatively a staff or school newsletter may also use this function. 

The second part of the workshop focuses on organising your emails using folders. one suggestion that is made is to organise emails into the following folders:

Inbox (newly arrived emails which haven’t been sorted yet)

Needs action today

Needs action this week

Needs action this month/quarter

FYI (for information).

I had not previously not thought of organising my emails in this way as I normally sort me emails by either person or topic depending on which one is most relevant. Whilst I will continue to organise emails in my way, I will definitely consider implementing this suggested system into my existing system for bigger projects.  

[researcheryearone]

Thing 13: Professional networks

The thing 13: Professional networks workshop focuses on professional networks and in particular LinkedIn. The workshop included reading an article detailing the benefits of LinkedIn, creating an account and finally joining a LinkedIn group. 

I have found LinkedIn a very beneficial platform, as it was where I successfully found my first job. When I started applying for jobs I initially found it a very overwhelming process as I didn’t know where to start as there are so many websites and email subscriptions available to assist you in applying for jobs. This is where LinkedIn comes into its own as it acts as a one-stop-shop for applying for jobs and connecting with people in your industry. Applying for jobs tool on LinkedIn is very effective as it allows you to be as specific or as vague as you wish. This allows you to find jobs you were specifically looking for but also find jobs you would never have thought of before.

Furthermore, the networking aspect of LinkedIn is also very beneficial as it allows you to feel part of community and connect with old colleagues or potential new colleagues. This also allows you to engage in important conversations and increase your chances of being employed by using LinkedIn to find out what you may need to stand out and to see the career paths of successful individuals in your field.    

I have also requested to join the Open badges in Scotland group and I am keen to see what this brings.

[researcheryearone]

Thing 11: Twitter

Key twitter terms 

Tweet - This is the term used when someone posts a message. A tweet has a limit of 280 characters. A tweet can then be liked, shared and replied to.

Follow - this is when you like someone's profile. so when they tweet, retweet or like a tweet it appears on your feed.

Feed - this is the main body of twitter where you see other people tweets. 

Direct Message - this is the term for when you message someone directly and privately. similar to a text message or messenger on facebook.

Retweet - the at of sharing someone's tweet on your profile. 

Hashtag - This is used to group you tweet to an issue you are tweeting about. People may follow a hashtag if they want to see tweets on a certain issue. For example, if you are tweeting about the general election you may want to hashtag it #GE2019 so people interested in the 2019 general election can see your tweet.  

Handle - your twitter profile account name. 

Mention - when someone mentions your handle in a tweet. like tagging on facebook. 

Twitter can be an extremely useful tool when used correctly and in conjunction with other platforms, services and forms of communication. The clear benefits of twitter are that it is a free and widely available platform that anyone can use. This means that it is an extremely cost effective way to communicate with anyone and everyone that holds a twitter profile. However amongst this popularity there is also some very clear draw backs. Firstly the popularity of twitter means that many people use twitter therefore, any tweet that is made can quickly fall down someone's feed and be very difficult to find once buried in ones twitter feed. Furthermore, twitter is also notorious for its toxic and punishing environment. This can be very off putting to many people and can lead to people muting their account and not being an active user. Organisations should be aware of this when using twitter to ensure they monitor comments on their tweets to remain respectful. They should also account for the fact that many people don’t use twitter and should therefore have multiple means of communicating important information. 

The SSSC’s twitter presence is quite good as they have multiple accounts covering different aspects of the organisation. This allows for each profile to focus on key areas and avoids the pitfalls of having one account that may suffer from an info overload. Where it is difficult to find the information you want on one account as there are to many tweets. However a problem with this is that i can therefore be to find the specific SSSC twitter account you need as they have multiple different ones. It may be beneficial therefore, for the SSSC to have their various easily accessible from each account, possibly through a pinned tweet or information in the account bios.   

[researcheryearone]

Thing 10: Podcasts

The 10th workshop of 23 things digital is focused on podcasts. This workshops instructed me to listen to a relevant podcast and write a blog detailing the role think podcasts might play in supporting your learning and development. 

Podcasts can play a massive role in not just my own professional development and learning but in everyone’s professional development and learning. As podcasts are a form of learning which can be consumed in many different settings as this can be done whilst completing other tasks, getting up in the morning or relaxing in the evening. This provides for greater opportunity to consume the content as this can be done at any time. Furthermore, podcasts are also a non-daunting form of learning as you do not need to prepare anything to listen to a podcast and can do it on your own so have no need to feel intimated by fellow colleague or instructors. 

As they can be done from the comfort of your home, without any preparation at any time. They are a hugely flexible form of learning which can provide valuable insight in an instructive and informal manner making them an extremely useful  form of learning that all employees and employers should take advantage of. 

SSSC Learncast: Discovering SSSC MyLearning 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/sssclearncasts-podcast/id1433606460

[researcheryearone]

Thing 9: The Cloud

Workshop nine focus is on cloud storage, focusing on the cloud, google drive and dropbox. This workshop focuses on the benefits of cloud technology emphasising its ease of use and cost saving benefits for businesses. However, the workshop does make a point of highlighting the potential risks as there can never be a 100% guarantee that your files stored in the cloud are safe from a cyber attack. 

Cloud storage has a great many benefits for businesses, firstly; as briefly mentioned earlier cloud storage will save businesses a lot of money as they no longer need to purchase their own storage devices such as hard drives which are expensive, smaller and need regularly updating. Furthermore, this also ensures data is not at the mercy of a faulty device as if you computer or hard drive breaks that is ok as the data on to stored there. This will also improve efficiency as multiple people can access the files from multiple devices this will mean multiple people can access and update documents in real time and will greatly reduce the risk of people having different versions of the same documents as they can all access the same one and not have to be sent an email with an updated document every time someone changes something on the document. For example when devising a work rota all staff can put their availability on to a shared document for the rota to be created as opposed to everyone separately sending in their availability. Furthermore, if any changes need to be made to a rota the line manager does not need to send an email out to every staff member with the changes, Rather any changes made to the work rota will result in an automatic notification being sent to all those who have access to the document. 

Cloud storage is an extremely useful tool for businesses and has a number of benefits that should be embraced by all. 

[researcheryearone]

Thing 8: Facebook

Workshop eight asks us to consider the pro’s and cons of Facebook. This workshop has three tasks. First; review your own privacy settings on Facebook and make changes if/where required. My Facebook is very private all ready so I felt no need to make any adjustments to my privacy settings. 

Task two involved viewing a mock facebook profile created for the workshops and identifying any potential problems with it. This was a very effective tool as it allowed me to provide an unbiased view of someone account and judge whether it was appropriate or not and then gave me the opportunity to compare this to my own profile or other people I know and decide whether I needed to make any changes to my profile. This particular profile was deeply flawed for an individual working in the social services sector as she had it publicly available where she worked Posts where she works; made Inappropriate posts about work complaining about colleagues and the service users’ families, This increases the chances of users being identified and will have likely damaged team unity as she publicly criticizes her colleagues.

Task three, required me to read two articles about facebook groups - however the link to the first article was broken so I could only read the second article. This was beneficial as while the first two sections were largely negative and cautious about facebook, this section was a lot more positive as it detailed the benefits of facebook groups both for personal and professional use.

Facebook group is not something I have used all that much in the past however after reading that article I plan on using it a lot more often now.

[researcheryearone]

Thing 6: Digital security

The sixth workshop of the SSSC’s 23 things digital focuses on security and passwords. I personally did not find this one very helpful as I recently decided to review my online security and had therefore taken many if not all the steps this workshop recommended.  

However, that does not mean I do not see the value in this workshop as for those who have not recently reviewed their online security this workshop should be very beneficial. This workshop broke down digital security into five sections - A-E, I shall quickly summarize these now. 

A) PASSWORDS 

The workshop covers password security in the greatest detail of the five as it suggests that to have strong password security you should do the following; Use three random words to create a strong password; Never use personal details for your password such as a pets name, your favourite sports team etc. The workshop also recommends you should create a password from a memorable phrase so you don’t forget, they give the example, ‘Euan got married on a Saturday in July 1995’. The password could then be ‘EgmoaSiJ1995’ or ‘Egmoa$iJ1995’.  Furthermore you should also change passwords regularly and use a password manager to store your passwords.

B) APP PERMISION 

Make sure to regularly what your apps have access to eg your bank details or location, so you can know what is at risk if you are being hacked. 

C) UPDATES

 Be sure to check your settings after an update as settings can often go back to default settings and result in details being uploaded to the cloud or details you don’t wish being shared being shared. 

D) SOCIAL MEDIA GAMES 

Avoid playing social media games which ask you personal questions which are commonly used to create passwords - such as what’s your detective name which requires putting your maiden name and pets name together.

E) WIFI

The final section focuses on the dangers of using public wifi as your data can be easily accessed by hackers from these wifi servers, furthermore it is common for fake hot spots to be created to trick you into logging on to them so you share passwords etc. The simple rule is don’t share sensitive material over public wifi, and only use networks you can be sure to trust. 

Whilst there was personally nothing in this workshop that was new to me, I can definitely see the benefits this workshop could have to many many people as it goes into sufficient detail about the importance of digital security and how to take simple but important measures to greatly reduce the chances of being hacked. 

[researcheryearone]

Thing 5: Social Media#1

The fifth workshop of 23 things digital by the SSSC focuses on your social media activity. It first asks you to watch a short 3 minute video on the SSSC social media guidance for those working in the social services sector and then asks you to read your own organisations social media guidance. 

I found this very helpful as the social media guidance was very clear and left me with no doubt about what is and is not acceptable. With the over riding message being we value freedom of speech, however you should conduct your online behaviour with dignity and respect for others.  

The workshop the directs you towards two articles to read. The first article provides advice on how to navigate social media to satisfy your personal and professional needs while the second article instigated a discussion of the pro’s and cons of social media in the social services sector.

Since taking up my new position I have made a conscious effort to post less on social media - in particular avoiding using twitter of facebook to make political posts or comments in order to avoid any potential trouble or controversy. I also set my social media accounts to private to further create a barrier between my professional life and personal one. 

[researcheryearone]

Thing 4: Digital footprint

Write a blog post that reflects your thoughts about the above activities, and detail the ways in which you think having a good understanding of digital footprints can support you and your practice.

The digital footprint workshop as part of the SSSC’s 23 things digital series was very insightful. As it detailed the way in which your digital footprint can negatively impact upon your career and future emphasising the often forgotten fact that once you post something on a social media sight it is there forever. 

The first section of this workshop required watching a YouTube video (Link at bottom of the blog) in which a teenage girl is applying for a weekend job at a local clothes shop. she appears on the surface to be the perfect candidate as she is confident, sociable, had good grades at school and is involved in extra-curricular activities such as the athletics club. However, the potential employer who is conducting the interview had in preparation for the interview conducted a search of her social media history. This was very damaging as it appeared the teenage girl had setup a hate group about fellow student and had posted some fairly disgusting and hate-filled content online. This clearly resulted in her not getting the job. Whilst this video was slightly crude and dated it does highlight a very key point. That our digital footprint is forever and no matter how private you think it may be there is always a chance that something you say online may become public and as a result be very damaging. Therefore it is extremely important that when using social media you remain calm and considered as you may regret it years to come otherwise. 

The workshop then asks us to search for your own name and see what you find and then to visit this website (Link below) which provides hints and tips to manage your digital footprint. This provided me the opportunity to reflect on my digital footprint and to take action if needed. 

This was a very insightful workshop as it highlights the dangers of your digital footprint and provided me with the relevant resources and time to make changes where necessary. 

https://youtu.be/JJfw3xt4emY

https://justcreative.com/8-tips-to-effectively-manage-your-digital-footprint/

[researcheryearone]

23 Things Digital - Thing 3

In this blog I will give a short oversight of the 23 Things digital - Thing 3 workshop and then conclude on how I think a digitally capable workforce can help to improve the lives of people who use services.

This workshop focuses on the confidence of the adult social care workforces digital capabilities,  the benefits of a digitally capable workforce and asks you to evaluate your own digital capabilities based on three metrics; capability, confidence and relevance.

Thing 3 provides an infographic detailing the Digital capabilities of the adult social care workforce. This is an extremely revealing graphic as it finds that while 90% of staff are either confident or very confident in their own basic online skills. Yet only 52% of managers believe they are confident or very confident in their own basic online skills. This provides a stark contrast in the digital confidence of staff and managers suggesting that in order to fully embrace the opportunities of the digital world will require ensuring managers have the training and confidence to pursue digital avenues as the staff on mass clearly have the confidence and skills to embrace digital avenues to assist them with their work. 

This workshop details the SSSC’s views on why it is important to take advantage of digital learning. The SSSC believe the workforce should be enabled to take advantage of the huge range of learning opportunities afforded by embracing digital learning. However, that in pursuit of exploring digital learning it is important to avoid the emergence of a two-tier workforce, with one tier digitally confident and one tier not digitally confident. Furthermore, the SSSC believe service users should expect and be enabled to take advantage of the digital opportunities in society, in a safe manner

Reviewing my own digital skills was positive aspect of this workshop as it forced me to understand where my strengths and weaknesses are and asks me what I should do to improve them. For example, I believe that I have high digital capabilities however, I recognise that I should improve my digital capabilities in relation to Microsoft excel.  

Finally, I think a digitally capable workforce can help to improve the lives of people who use services. As being digital capable means that things such as learning, record keeping and communication becomes much more streamlined and accessible. For example, rather than having to attend a course in another city or across town at a specific time, this can now be done digitally at any coinvent time. This clearly benefits services users as staff would be able to take such courses on a rotation as to not upset a service user by changing routines. Furthermore, being able to change shits or plan days out via digital means is far more beneficial as allows actions to be taken immediately and doesn't rely on face to face communication which has been very hard during a pandemic. This provides a small insight into the ways being digitally capable can improve a person's ability to work.

[researcheryearone]

Open Badges

The SSSC Open Badges platform is an extremely useful platform. As it is a tool that individuals can use to legitimise their informal learning. 

This also allows individuals to easily document their learning and just as importantly share their learning with peers, managers and potential without any hassle. 

Furthermore, to achieve an Open badge requires more than simply completing a multiple choice quiz at the end of the course (which happens on far too many other courses). To achieve an open badge, you must provide proper evidence of how you achieved the badge and is then assessed by a real person not just a computer. Your evidence is then available to see to whoever you share your badge with. This is extremely important as it provides legitimacy to your learning and ensures those who put more effort into their learning are rewarded as it marks them out as better than those who put in minimal effort. 

Since starting at the SSSC I have found it an extremely useful tool to provide a record of my learning and help me value the importance of informal learning. 

If you can use open badges it is great