Yesterday we had a great discussion about digital badges in a session at #EdcampJoplin. I have been hearing about these badges for a few years but wasn’t sure how to implement them. So I started with the kids.
Notes from EdcampJoplin – Badges sesson #EdCampJopin https://t.co/oiRA7sbVrd
— James Sigler (@jsigler) March 28, 2015
Below are some of the badges I created in openbadges.me. This is one of the free services that I found that you don’t even have to sign up for. I may have entered my email in the beginning but don’t remember.
 |
| For joining my Google Classroom |
 |
|||||
| Teachers will decide for this one |
Still working on the workflow for this process. Since I am the principal I had to figure out a way to communicate with the kids without interrupting class all the time. So I created a Google Classroom called “4th Grade Challenges.” Since the teachers are using Google Classroom they can just check my class when they log in in the morning.
When the kids finish the task I share the badge with them in our Google Apps account. This is a bit tricky since we do not have email set up for K-4. I have to email or tell the teacher to have the student check their account. The badge images are getting lost in their account.
Displaying badges: Eventually the kids will have sites or blogs they can display their badge. Right now on of my teachers created a google slide to display all their badges. I can save the slide with the badges as an image and display all the kids slides on the TV in the hallway.
Next steps/ideas:
- Decide on 10-15 badges to start with for the year.
- Try Classbadges.com
- Have students come up with ideas on how to earn badges.
- Have students create badges.
- Improve workflow – maybe a form for teachers to fill out or students to fill out once they have finished their project to earn a badge.
- Check out some of Shake Up Learnings ideas here.
Some of the school management software programs have badges built it. If you are using Canvas, Schoology, Edmodo, etc. check for the badges feature.
