Show me your badgesPaul Treadwell @ptreadwell
November 2012
WHAT ARE BADGES?I’m no boy scout….
badges = visual representations of a skill or achievement
Why should we care?
• Badges offer an alternative method to validate and accredit knowledge gained in non traditional contexts
• Badges can have granularity• Rewarding incremental skills growth with ‘mini’ badges• Cumulative badges can aggregate (and represent) major learning
achievements and objectives• Badges represent knowledge gains that are certifiable• Each badge carries data about the learning• Each badge carries information about the issuer
Increasingly, badges are appearing on the web to indicate (or validate) achievements
Some represent “fun” or social achievements
But there is a move to use badges to represent milestones and achievements across a broad spectrum of learning environments
Badges for Lifelong Learning Competition
Community Organizations: 4-H
Trust, standards and openness
• Interest in badges is growing• The diversity of badge issuers is increasing• Without an open specification, and standard, evaluating badges
becomes problematic• Think of it in terms of operating systems – a windows app may not
run on a mac• How can I, as an evaluator, be sure that your badges are consistent
in evaluation and value?• Validity• Credibility• Reliability
MOZILLA OPEN BADGE INITIATIVEEstablishing a valid infrastructure for badges
Open to scrutiny – open badges• an
open specification and APIs that provide any organization the basic building blocks they need to offer badges in a standard, interoperable manner.
The three participants in an open badge systemThe badge infrastructure supports participation in the system by Issuers, Earners (or
Learners) and Displayers.
Anatomy of an open badgeMetadata attached to a badge insures a reliable chain of trust by linking to evidence of
learning, issuer and contact information.
Badges are collected from a variety of issuers Badges can represent achievements, learning, skills development, interests and
competencies garnered on or off-line. Badges could visually represent lifelong learning.
Once a badge is issued it is collected in a backpack.The badge backpack can then feed a variety of display sites, allowing learners to present
their achievements in a variety of contexts.
Moodle & Mahara • Work is underway to
develop the infrastructure to allow Moodle to issue badges and Mahara to display them.
BADGE ASTRONOMYAn example From Mozilla Webmaker
Building digital literaciesMozilla funded project to develop tools, projects and communities that can “make” the
web.
Webmaker badgesMini, cumulative and peer badges.
Badge constellations
Taking badges seriouslyA few questions and concerns
• Badges have the potential to represent, validate and integrate, diverse and varied learning pathways.• This would require a fairly major shift in worldview for many
players in the world of formal education• Issues of authority and control• Issues of profit
• I am skeptical that this will happen• But….let’s talk about it.
Resources (or who I borrowed from to make this presentation)
Thanks to all for generous sharing.
• The Mozilla blog• https://blog.mozilla.org/
• Erin Knight• http://erinknight.com/
• Doug Belshaw• http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/
• Jess Klein• http://jessicaklein.blogspot.gr/
• Chloe Varelidi• http://
chloeatplay.tumblr.com/post/29356744058/we-are-all-made-of-stars-designing-constellations-for
• Carla Casilli• http://carlacasilli.wordpress.com/
Contact• Paul Treadwell• [email protected]• [email protected]• @ptreadwell• http://www.paultreadwell.com
• My diigo badges bookmarks list• http://www.diigo.com/list/ptreadwell/badges
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