I have been thinking about badges for a couple years and excited that this semester I get to try it out. I also appreciated this article, Design principles for creating digital badges to support learning (Horstman et al., 2020).
This study looks at the use of badges to count informal learning towards college credit. Here are a couple items from this article that are still in my mind a day later.
First, I love the idea of connecting extra curricular learning to credit. I am currently offering online content to students while they are completing experiential education. This way they get the "class" knowledge while gaining practical experience. The way it is set up is that it is tied to a fall class. But I wondered, even more so after this article, if we could offer badges in the summer that would then translate for credit in the fall. The way it is set up I can only evaluate their performance on the online components but what if the preceptor could sign off on application and that could be part of the badging.
Second, the authors of the article ask the question, "why badges?" I had the same question, not just for myself but for students. I have seen discussions about badging linked to competitiveness. For me, I don't think that is the drive. For me, it is a feeling of accomplishment. If I complete these items that an expert deems appropriate of a badge. Then I feel accomplished. I believe this is the same feeling I want to offer for students.
The author's response still resonates with me. "...the process of incorporating badges into an educational program can create an opportunity for program developers to rethink, reorganize, articulate, deepen and expand on the program's learning goals and values."
Hmmm, would this shake things up a bit, maybe get away from so much traditional lecture.
How about you, do you think badging would shake things up in your area?
Why do you or would you badge?
No comments:
Post a Comment