Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

6 things you need to know about digital badges

Today’s classrooms use a variety of learning approaches, some formal like lectures and some informal like watching videos. As a teacher, your learning is no different and your continuing professional development (PD) should provide you with credit for both informal and formal learning. You should get credit for online chats, reading articles, and watching videos because each of these experiences provides you with the knowledge to build your teaching practice.

So, what if I told you that you could show this informal learning to your administration, colleagues, and parents? Well, you can with a digital badge. Think of them like badges earned in scouting, demonstrating a unique skill or accomplishment. You can share digital badges on your LinkedIn profile, your website, and in your email signatures so that your learning is visible for others to see and acknowledge. The people who view your badge can also see the organization who awarded the badge and what you did to earn it.

Like all good students, I’ll bet you have questions. Let’s see if I can answer a few of them here.…Read More

The New Librarian: I started a digital badging movement for my students

They said it was boring and it broke my heart. How could something I felt so passionate about be boring to my students? Creating citations is where it’s at! But still, my students labored through the inquiry process, looking forward to getting it over with.

I struggled with how to engage students in extremely important skills like finding, evaluating, and citing scholarly sources; weeding through J.U.N.K. to find gems; becoming global citizens; making informed actions; and exploring digital tools. Then in 2015, my teaching partner and I decided to go one step further with our learning management system. Instead of simply delivering content, we would front load the entire year’s work and allow students to choose what they wanted to work on and when. We also created a rubric for students to evaluate their own work and decide for themselves if they have mastered specific skills. Finally, we created paper and digital badges for students to earn to record their achievements.

We have had success over the last three years empowering our students to choose what they work on and decide if the work they did meets the standards agreed upon with the class. Students are motivated to ask questions, find answers, and share their learning with classmates, teachers, and the Colchester (CT) community.…Read More