Posts made by Mary Pringle

Your post reminds me of some button envy I experienced in my days as an apprentice technical editor. Someone who admired my boss gave her a pin that said We never guess; we look it up. The person who gave her the pin treasured it as an emblem of her membership in the unofficial guild of editors. Giving it to my boss was a tribute that I wanted for myself. I really wanted that pin, but of course I never got it. My boss treasured it, too. It signified membership and recognition of a special skill set. Kind of like the ring that professional engineers wear. Badges can be quite powerful that way. To this day that saying We never guess; we look it up reminds me to uphold my personal editorial standards. Badges and mottos--good stuff.

  1. I can think of only one thing like a merit badge I earned, but I don't recall the physical evidence. I know I barely got credit for one year of sewing in 4-H. I was too arty for 4-H even as a child.

    I do remember the certificate for completing a stage fright workshop I got when I was 25. It had a motto something like "Fearum non showum". That was fun, and I felt like I had actually made some progress with that workshop.

  2. I didn't have any badges to display. I kept the stage fright certificate to myself.

    I found it interesting that one of the artefacts in my late brother's safety deposit box was a medal for grade 10 typing (see image below).

typing medal

On the back it says   

   JIM PRINGLE

 TYPING OPTION

There was a dearth of fun in our lives growing up, and motivation was a grim affair.

Hi--I work as a learning designer at Athabasca University. I live in Athabasca, Alberta. I earned some badges from Codeacademy this year. They are both fun and motivating, which are elements that I would like to increase in the courses I work on (undergraduate, online, self-paced). I'm thinking specifically that badges could be used to encourage students to complete learning activities--there is a tendency to do only what they need to complete assignments for credit. Badges might also encourage social learning--I'm thinking about how that might work. Maybe I'll get some ideas here.

Mary Pringle

I really like the idea of a bartering system. Badges are okay, but not a big motivator for me. The first would be the satisfaction of helping students; next would be something of more practical use, like a skills exchange.