Written by Lauren Valenti, Director, Mainframe Education, Vitality Program and Customer Engagement at Broadcom
Encouraging a new way of learning for Teachers, Managers, Students, and Professionals through a series of new Mainframe Open Education Digital Badges
If you’ve ever wondered how to prevent your achievements from simply being reduced to abbreviated bullet points on a resume, you’ll want to learn about Digital Badges – a form of recognition that can redefine how we showcase our skills and accomplishments.
Imagine painting a visual of your mainframe journey through learning and mastery. It’s not simply a linear path but a dynamic narrative that tells a compelling story of demonstrated growth and expertise. Painting a picture of your accomplishments sounds excellent, doesn’t it? This is the world of digital badging and credentialing –where traditional certificates transform into interactive credentials and your professional story gains visual credibility and enables you to stand out from the crowd.
Mainframe Open Education (MOE) recently became Open Mainframe Project’s newest Active Stage Project. The transition from incubation means it is fully mature and operating as an open, transparent and sustainable project with an active community. As a new active project, Mainframe Open Education is excited to launch our first series of digital badges.
A new series of digital badges for content creators
Badges can unlock the true potential of your achievements and open doors you never knew existed by bridging the gap between learning and opportunity. It can be used to showcase your competencies and verify your new skills, abilities, and knowledge that can be shown via social media.
This is particularly exciting, because we are launching our 1st series of 3 badges: Contributor Level 1, 2, and 3.
In order to earn these Digital Badges, you will need to meet a series of criteria demonstrating what content you have created for Mainframe Open Education and how much you are engaged in collaborating with the MOE community. See the criteria and form here.
Contributing to MOE is a great way to polish your mainframe skills and earn badges. It will also help grow and manage knowledge in the Mainframe ecosystem. As a contributor, let’s explore how you can make a difference at each knowledge management level.
3 Levels of Knowledge Management
Knowledge management involves consciously organizing, retaining, and sharing an organization’s employee knowledge and experience. The primary aim is to connect those seeking information with those who possess it, enhancing operational efficiency and expertise within the organization. Through the Mainframe Open Education project, this is precisely the end-goal. Let’s dig into three levels of knowledge management, and how MOE contributes to them. In fact, as you consider these three areas, you may uncover ideas for contribution that result in earning digital badges!
- Accumulating Knowledge:
- MOE operates as a user-friendly Gitbook platform, structured into distinct sections. Whether you’re new to Mainframe or seeking to enhance your expertise, you’ll find a range of informative content to read and explore. Take Mainframe foundations, for instance – it provides an excellent entry into the Mainframe, perfect for both beginners and those looking to build on existing knowledge.
- While it’s a common belief that Mainframe education resources are scarce, the reality isn’t quite that stark. Immersing ourselves in the Mainframe ecosystem reveals the wealth of content offered by companies invested in this field. By leveraging this existing material and aligning it with MOE’s educational sessions on Gitbook, we can effectively grasp the content and accumulate knowledge around fundamental concepts.
- Storing Knowledge: Crafting content for classroom instruction, mentorship sessions, or even synthesis exercises holds significant potential in solidifying previously accumulated knowledge. This strategic approach forms the core of MOE’s Gitbook framework. Our objective is to connect with Mainframers who are eager to learn and exchange their stored knowledge and expertise. Creating content or becoming a mentor allows you to study- and retain- accumulated knowledge effectively.
- Sharing Knowledge: Leaders, people managers, and educators consistently seek new approaches to inspire and motivate individuals in their pursuit of knowledge. The MOE Gitbook platform offers an avenue for you to integrate your educational initiatives within your organization. It caters to both beginners embarking on their learning journey and seasoned professionals eager to share their expertise, providing a versatile resource that spans all levels of proficiency. By contributing new content across the defined categories within the platform, we can work together to foster a vibrant learning community.
Being an active participant at all levels of the knowledge management framework is critical- but, without sharing, the chain is incomplete. MOE serves as a platform to facilitate the sharing of both accumulated and stored knowledge, which enables community-wide learning and improvement, encourages organizational retention of expertise, innovation, and more.
How will you contribute your knowledge to support the future of the Mainframe Community and earn your own digital badges?
If you want to learn more, check out this TechStrong TV video of Mainframe Open Education TSC members chatting with Alan Shimel, CEO of the TechStrong Group, and John Mertic, Executive Director of Open Mainframe Project. J.J. Lovett (Broadcom), Viviane Sanches (Kyndryl), Paul Newton (IBM) and Tiiso Senosha (Open Mainframe Project Mentor) provide an overview of Mainframe Open Education, milestones since inception, mentorship program opportunities and more. Watch it here.
Ready to contribute?
Sign up for Gitbook here and begin your mainframe journey through learning and mastery.
