Having completed so many badges in 3DGameLab I have warmed to the idea of development of competency based badges for recognition of learning both formal and informal. I attended this workshop run by Joyce Seitzinger: Open Badge Design – Every Which Way. Joyce is an active participant in the Open Badge Movement and, along with Bron Stuckey and others, participates in OBANZ – a group which runs community hang outs about Open Badge Development, highlighting case studies of projects in development. These Google hangouts are available for further digestion as they are recorded.

The workshop itself was demonstrating the process of how to design open badges and the principles behind badge design.
Joyce told us that she is part of Academic tribe network which is a group of people who are developing further the concept of badges in learning.

In discussing badges the truth is that not all badges are open. Some badges for learning are developed by organisations and kept within the organisation. What begs the question for me is this – if we are going to further develop the use of Open Badges for anywhere, anytime learning, WHO will be the authority awarding the OPEN badge for any particular skills? Mozilla as a community resource wants to try to do things to help everyone. The system they have developed is Open and can be used by anyone. Each badge should take into account who will be the Earner, issuer, displayer and audience for the criteria the badges fulfil. As well as the badges, there is the backpack to consider. Open backpack is not held by Mozilla. Creating the backpack is really important to individuals. One good thing to remember is that Connected Educator badges can be added to current backpacks. (Something I tested!)

Universities are stepping into using the digital badges system of recognition. I also discussed what was happening at schools of participants seated at my workshop group. An ICT staff member from an AISWA school in W.A. discussed the logistics of tapping into current information systems at his school in order to further develop the badges concept. Another person was discussing teacher development attributes and how a particular institution had launched into the badges movement in his district and now everyone was expected to use that particular system which really had no meaning beyond its local context. A lady with whom I worked wanted to create a particular badge for her in-school Tech Angels group as recognition for “expert skills” in solving computer problems. As I facilitated her thinking about the competencies which lay behind the requirements for the achievement of this badge, she began to understand that in a formal badge structure there are many layers and pathways relating to minor achievements which can all be part of a major achievement. The question remains – how many badges do you give the learner on the path to having them achieve a major outcome? 3DGameLab quest constructions have given me a very good foundation in this pathway of learning idea. My main concern as a teacher leader is this – if we are going to award badges for learning which is formal and/or informal through our institutions, who will be the badging authority? Most educators work in a system and identify learning achieved within a specified curriculum. Would we be setting the criteria for badges or would our state Standards Branch be doing that for us? How would we know which competency is seen as being achieved across the whole state or country unless we have moderated understanding across that jurisdiction? Same thing happens with school reporting!

One further resource which I wanted to download while I was in Adelaide but didn’t have time – this is the page from which you can download the guide from which the workshop design activity was taken. I really enjoyed taking the time out to further develop my understanding of the current state of development for badging competencies.