1. Name: Chris Dillon
Role: TiC Digital Technology,
Putaruru College
Digital Badges: an online standard
to recognise and verify learning
1
Woven skill badges (Source:
http://www.adafruit.com/category/70)
onemouse
onemouse
Chris Dillon

2. 2
Digital Badges: an online standard
to recognise and verify learning
Digital badges are a validated
indicator of accomplishment, skill,
quality or interest that can be
earned in various learning environments.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_badges
@onemouse
Badges have a long history: in the Military and Scouting,
and more recently digitally via “gamification” and
then Mozilla & P2P.org
Mozilla Open Badges https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges
Person 2 Person University https://p2pu.org/en/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P2PU
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Korean_Scout_Uniforms_2007.jpg

3. Digital Badges
3
Why Badges? Why now?
It was 2009 and hey I’m a geek
and I like badges!
http://www.nerdmeritbadges.com
On Twitter in 2011 Jeff Utecht was
talking about extrinsic recognition
of Google Apps skills
http://www.thethinkingstick.com/become-a-google-apps-ninja/
@onemouse
Edmodo.com was updating
and had come to the party
with teacher awarded badges
Nerd Badge Sash source: John Young
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tikaro/3497605136/

4. 4@onemouse
Digital Badges
How I implemented Badges
Created an edmodo.com School domain
to share professionally with colleagues, and
administer locally:
• Teacher dashboard can create badges
(including animated .gif)
• Teacher community sharing of badges
…but…
• Badges are limit in that it is a “walled garden” with
no trackable metadata or exporting of Credentials
https://edmodo.com

5. 5@onemouse
Digital Badges
Further developments
Mozilla launched Open Badges v.1 out of beta in June
this year, providing a method for aggregating cross-
platform provider credentials via “Backpack”.
https://diy.org/
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges

6. 6@onemouse
Digital Badges
Further developments
Other resource providers are
beginning to implement
“gamified” environments…
http://www.codeavengers.com/
http://www.codecademy.com/
and provide widgets
to share Open
credentials across 3rd
party environments
http://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post
/23071271279/facebook-opengraph

7. 7@onemouse
Digital Badges
Has it impacted on learning?
Overall, I’d say yes it has:
• Badges are conversation starters about learning
• Badges are connectivist
• Badges are motivators to participation
• Badges are motivators to collaborate
• Badges are recognition and assessment.
Ultimately the information linked to badges will
include how it was earned, when it was issued and
who by and, ideally, a link back to some form of
artifact relating to the work behind the badge.

8. 8@onemouse
Digital Badges
…and it not just for my students…
I am developing my own Backpack.
Linking them to my blog, to MOOC’s
I am participating in, and to my own
Learning Portfolio.
https://www.accredible.com/gallery
http://open.journalismco
urses.org/

9. 9@onemouse
Digital Badges
What were the biggest challenges?
• Validity and authentication of badges
• Earner limitations based on age (Mozilla only hosts
backpacks for users age 13+ for now)
• Confused comparisons to trade-based certifications
(electricians, automobile mechanics, etc.)
• The success of badges in education relies on
educators and trainers exploring their use and
sharing with others
• A risk that extrinsic motivators for tasks that
students already do for intrinsic enjoyment reduces
student motivation and undermines engagement.

10. 10@onemouse
Digital Badges
What I have realised:
• Badges provide an opportunity to reconsider and
reorder what we consider to be of value
• To recognise achievements that could be recognised
but are currently hidden or obscured
• To support lifelong learning,
by integrating both
traditional pathways,
alongside informal and
external alternatives.

11. 11
OpenBadges.org – Mozilla’s Open Badges project http://openbadges.org/
Open Badges Google Group – Forum Discussions
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/openbadges
Person 2 Person University https://p2pu.org/en/groups/the-world-of-open-badges/
http://blog.makewav.es/files/2013/08/Badge-platform-comparison-sheet2.pdf
Associated:
Accredible https://accredible.com/
Make Open Badges: Want to Make Your Own
http://billymeinke.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/open-badges-want-to-make-your-own-badges-
by-hand-heres-how/
Free badging platform called Badg.us http://badg.us/
Develop a badge system for Students http://www.forallbadges.com/
@onemouse
Digital Badges
Links: