How to create a digital badge program in your classroom

 

 

Educators often hear about new classroom strategies but have difficulty adopting them. If you're wondering how to get started with badge implementation in the classroom, this guide is meant to save you some headaches and research time. Consider this the bridge that helps you bridge the gap between "I've heard of badges" and "I'm going to create a badge program in my classroom."

Implement digital badges for your students in five  steps

 

1. Know the terminology

Reading articles and websites that provide information is helpful, but some specific terminology can be confusing.

• Public badges can be digitally viewed by anyone and awarded for an achievement in a skill area that has been graded.

• Private artifacts cannot be seen publicly and are used in a fair measure (usually a rubric) as evidence of the effort made to earn a seal.

• Badge authorship refers to the visual creation of the badge. This can be done through an app or digital platform.

• Badge issuance is done by an authorized and reputable distributor. Sometimes a school official or a third-party issuer. To preserve its value.

• Badge portfolios are like storage facilities for collected badges. These collections of public verifications (such as artifacts, samples, projects, etc.) and official certifications connect a person's skills and accomplishments in one place.

• Badge paths are collections of knowledge/experience needed to pass a particular academic course or acquire general skills. (Check out Minnesota's Badge Pathway program to get a better idea of ​​how they work.)

2. Familiarize yourself with seal best practices

Learning from others will help you implement the emblem correctly. These best practices will (hopefully) save you valuable time:

• Understand the criteria for earning a badge. Your seals must be relevant, accurate and verifiable (by third parties). Don't take the weight off your badge program by simply replacing stickers with badges. They are not the same. Focus on making your hard work visible to others.

• Carefully choose the relevant artifacts for evaluating a public badge. People can see a seal, but they won't know how it was achieved. If school badges are tossed around like candy in a parade, they lose meaning. Strict, enforceable and fair criteria are essential to justify issuing a badge. In other words, make sure a student has outstanding samples of work before awarding a badge.

• Carefully plan the end goal. How will you know that students have reached the goal behind the seal? It is critical to consider both quantifiable and intangible skills when evaluating a student's performance. Consider what makes the student competent at the assigned task. What skills, knowledge and attributes are needed?

• Know the real purpose of badges. Badges are not notes. Students already have a centralized gradebook to assess their performance. Bagging should not rename notes. Instead, badges communicate the story behind how the grade was achieved.

• Go beyond the classroom. A badge certainly doesn't have to remain just a measure of classroom performance. Consider collaborative partnerships with local corporations, businesses, technicians, extracurricular groups, etc. Companies that need employees who have a certain skill set can have great ideas about rigorous and relevant artifacts. During the planning stages, contact some of these organizations for additional ideas for your badge acquisition process. You can even invite them to be badge issuers and partners for your classroom.

• Make sure students understand how the badge works. Teaching and modeling badge best practices is essential for relevant student buy-in. Show them examples to help them understand how the badge can (and might be) used in their future as a tangible measure of their accomplishments. Articulate how badges will go beyond the classroom and what the benefits are for students.

3. Familiarize yourself with badging platforms

Before implementing your badge program, you need some practice with what the platforms look like and how they work. Here are some ponitsto check out depending on your budget, experience and goals:

4. Consider your classroom and context

Look around

Clearly, you better know the age range of your students and the content you teach. You know the technologies available to your students and the joys and difficulties of your local learning culture. You are also aware of the potential partnerships you may create with companies, industries or others in this process. Think about your classroom and context first. See a clear  picture of your reality.

Look forward

Now that you better  know your current situation, look to the future. Imagine what skills your students need will have by the time they complete your course. Know where you are now and choose an end goal. What do you want your students to accomplish when they purchase a badge? Success is more likely if you set the purpose and objective from the start.

5. Use an implementation checklist

Now that you are empowered with more knowledge about emblems, it's time to get to it. Here's a checklist to make sure you're considering some of the general items to keep your badge program on track:

• I analyzed my classroom and context.

• I have determined the overall objective of badging.

• I have a schedule in mind for specific planning requirements for me.

• I have considered which artifacts/projects/samples will be used for badge measurement.

• I chose a digital badge platform or portfolio site that meets my needs. I know if it will issue automatically or require individual issue.

• I know who will review the artifacts my students create.

• I have a rigorous, fair, rubric-based grading system for badge assignments.

• I have no plans to include the badge as a substitute for the letter grade.

• I designed the visuals for my badges and sent them to an issuing tool.

• I have a plan to measure the success of my school badges program.