Designing Effective Digital Badges PDF Download

Traditional professional learning opportunities for educators have generally included face-to-face, in-person instruction, with the expectation that educators modify or change their existing practice with little guarantee of effective implementation of the desired pedological skills. The purpose of this curriculum project was to expand the ecosystem of digital badges-a digital icon that represents one's competency through reviewed evidence-by developing a stack of cooperative learning badges. A badge development template was used to write the badges including; a description of the necessary demonstrative skills to earn the badge, key vocabulary related to the badge, a narrative of classroom application, the evidence options to earn the badge, reflection prompts, criteria by which the evidence and reflection will be evaluated, and resources relevant to the knowledge and skills as outlined in the badge. The cooperative learning stack was submitted to the professional learning department for feedback and review. The development of the badges required extensive research about the instructional strategy of cooperative learning and research for reputable resources for educators to gain knowledge for effective implementation of the skills needed for badge acquisition. With the increase of badges into the ecosystem, educators can personalize their professional learning journey with more options for earning badges. As educators continue with formal and informal professional learning, badges value their developed skills by providing representation of learning and practice.