Sharing Good Practice
THE IMPORTANCE OF BADGES TO
EDUCATORS ESPECIALLY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
BY JAMES BUCKINGHAM
and accessible to employers and
prospective employers.
Since their founding in 2011, the
concept of open digital badges has
been growing steadily, especially in
the USA, UK, France and Australia.
Ministries of Education around
the world are waking up to the
prospect of using digital badges to
encourage, recognize and reward
students for learning that has often
gone unrecognized before. Common
targets? Soft skills; IT skills; Life skills.
All skills that are no less important than
the three Rs. Educators haven’t been
forgotten either. Many administrators
are opting to use badges to promote
educator engagement in competency
based
and
evidence
based
professional development
O
pen digital badges are
yet
another
education
technology making waves
right now. But just what
are they and why? And just how are
they relevant to you as an educator in
the Middle East? At first glance, open
digital badges are similar to patches
you may have earned as a scout or
guide, except they only exist digitally.
By being digital, they can be posted
anywhere you choose on the Internet.
That could be Facebook, Twitter, or
LinkedIn, to name but three.
So what’s the attraction? At a basic level,
they can recognize your participation
in an event, association with a club,
or length of service to a cause. On
a higher level, they can recognize
personal accomplishments - perhaps
a student’s consistent attendance,
completion
of
a
challenging
assignment, or great suggestion for
solving a nagging classroom problem.
But where things really get interesting
is on an advanced level. Here they can
be used to recognize achievement
that meets a criteria. That criteria
might be spelled out by an educator,
a principal, board of education, or
professional organization. Wherever a
clear set of criteria is made available,
the potential exists for students,
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teachers, or administrators to use
advanced level open digital badges.
Motivated by such criteria, anyone
can set off to earn a specific badge by
practicing and documenting how they
meet criteria, submitting evidence
of such work, to then be awarded a
digital badge as proof of meeting that
criteria. Now you might say, we do that
now with stars for students and printed
certificates for adults and you would
be right, except there’s one important
difference here. With open digital
badges, it’s possible to have the digital
evidence that you submitted to earn
that badge, “baked” with it. “Baked”
is the expression used for securely
fusing the digital evidence with the
badge. With that in place, badges take
on new meaning. That badge and its
“baked in” supporting evidence can
be posted anywhere so family and
friends now have easy access to not
only what you earned but how you
earned it. It also makes those same
accomplishments more transparent
Class Time
How is this relevant to you as an
educator here in the Middle East?
There is evidence that the use of open
digital badges is already emerging
in this region. Some educators and
schools in the region have begun
offering
badges
to
recognize
desired student behaviours or
accomplishments. At least one non
profit
professional
development
organization in the region, TESOL
Arabia, is exploring ways to use
badges to promote and recognize
engagement in professional practice
among their members.
But what do we mean by open? What
do critics say about these badges?
How easy is it to realize such badges
for my class, school, district, or
Ministry? All are fine questions for
follow up articles. For now, think about
the many skills and accomplishments
that currently go unrecognized at
school and understand that there may
now be a way to address that oversight
- with open digital badges.
James Buckingham is an educator / educational technologist, currently
championing the use of digital badges for promoting the development of soft
skills by students at Sultan Qaboos University (Muscat, Oman) and professional
development by TESOL Arabia members throughout the Gulf region. He can be
contacted at [email protected]