Groningen Declaration Network

Networking works, sometimes.

In May, an official organising a wallet conference for the Swiss Government  introduced John Harrison to someone working in the education grouping at UNESCO. This chap then introduced John to the CEO of the Groningen Declaration Network (GDN) – which is a Dutch non-profit convening people interested in the subject of learner mobility. Or, put otherwise, they want to give learners control of their qualification data.

GDN then invited John to speak at a regional conference in Manchester in early June, as co-hosted by Jisc and  Manchester Metropolitan University. Present were Americans, Dutch, Japanese, South Africans, Australians, a fair few Brits, and more.

John spoke, inevitably, about the UCD proposal for a managed market of wallet providers, starting in education with a portable, interoperable qualification (and micro-credential) record.  The ideas were well received, particularly by certain Americans, and will lead to further conversations in the near future.

The event also provided a good opportunity to talk to people at Jisc with an interest in the field.

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