Name: Chris Dillon

Role: TiC Digital Technology, Putaruru College

Digital Badges: an online standard

to recognise and verify learning

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Woven skill badges (Source: http://www.adafruit.com/category/70)

onemouse

onemouse

Chris Dillon

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Digital Badges: an online standard to recognise and verify learning

Digital badges are a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality or interest that can be earned in various learning environments. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_badges

@onemouse

Badges have a long history: in the Military and Scouting, and more recently digitally via “gamification” and then Mozilla & P2P.org Mozilla Open Badges https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges

Person 2 Person University https://p2pu.org/en/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P2PU

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Korean_Scout_Uniforms_2007.jpg

Digital Badges

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Why Badges? Why now?

It was 2009 and hey I’m a geek and I like badges! http://www.nerdmeritbadges.com

On Twitter in 2011 Jeff Utecht was talking about extrinsic recognition of Google Apps skills http://www.thethinkingstick.com/become-a-google-apps-ninja/

@onemouse

Edmodo.com was updating and had come to the party with teacher awarded badges

Nerd Badge Sash source: John Young http://www.flickr.com/photos/tikaro/3497605136/

4 @onemouse

Digital Badges

How I implemented Badges

Created an edmodo.com School domain to share professionally with colleagues, and administer locally:

• Teacher dashboard can create badges (including animated .gif)

• Teacher community sharing of badges

…but…

• Badges are limit in that it is a “walled garden” with no trackable metadata or exporting of Credentials

https://edmodo.com

5 @onemouse

Digital Badges

Further developments

Mozilla launched Open Badges v.1 out of beta in June this year, providing a method for aggregating cross-platform provider credentials via “Backpack”.

https://diy.org/

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges

6 @onemouse

Digital Badges

Further developments Other resource providers are beginning to implement “gamified” environments… http://www.codeavengers.com/ http://www.codecademy.com/

and provide widgets to share Open

credentials across 3rd party environments

http://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/23071271279/facebook-opengraph

7 @onemouse

Digital Badges

Has it impacted on learning?

Overall, I’d say yes it has:

• Badges are conversation starters about learning

• Badges are connectivist

• Badges are motivators to participation

• Badges are motivators to collaborate

• Badges are recognition and assessment.

Ultimately the information linked to badges will include how it was earned, when it was issued and who by and, ideally, a link back to some form of artifact relating to the work behind the badge.

8 @onemouse

Digital Badges

…and it not just for my students…

I am developing my own Backpack. Linking them to my blog, to MOOC’s I am participating in, and to my own Learning Portfolio.

https://www.accredible.com/gallery

http://open.journalismcourses.org/

9 @onemouse

Digital Badges

What were the biggest challenges?

• Validity and authentication of badges

• Earner limitations based on age (Mozilla only hosts backpacks for users age 13+ for now)

• Confused comparisons to trade-based certifications (electricians, automobile mechanics, etc.)

• The success of badges in education relies on educators and trainers exploring their use and sharing with others

• A risk that extrinsic motivators for tasks that students already do for intrinsic enjoyment reduces student motivation and undermines engagement.

10 @onemouse

Digital Badges

What I have realised:

• Badges provide an opportunity to reconsider and reorder what we consider to be of value

• To recognise achievements that could be recognised but are currently hidden or obscured

• To support lifelong learning, by integrating both traditional pathways, alongside informal and external alternatives.

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OpenBadges.org – Mozilla’s Open Badges project http://openbadges.org/

Open Badges Google Group – Forum Discussions https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/openbadges

Person 2 Person University https://p2pu.org/en/groups/the-world-of-open-badges/

http://blog.makewav.es/files/2013/08/Badge-platform-comparison-sheet2.pdf

Associated:

Accredible https://accredible.com/

Make Open Badges: Want to Make Your Own http://billymeinke.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/open-badges-want-to-make-your-own-badges-by-hand-heres-how/

Free badging platform called Badg.us http://badg.us/

Develop a badge system for Students http://www.forallbadges.com/

@onemouse

Digital Badges

Links: