Peter Rawsthorne

Task 5.1: (Dec 7th): Designing the badge

9. Identify the visual elements that best describe the learning represented by a specific badge. 
Does the learning represented by the badge have a de facto standard image. Are there elements of your group, team, organization or institution that also need to be part of the badge? Are there visual elements that are well suited to the learner cohort?

10. Describe the skills and knowledge required to design and create the digital badge(s).
Does your team or organization have resources familiar with creating graphics? Are the resources familiar with the design, branding and layering of images? If your badges start showing up all over the internet do they promote a strong organizational brand? Why does this matter?

Task 4: Go earn some badges already!

7. Identify a variety of sites that issue badges.

Spend some time to find two or more sites that issue badges. Are these event based badges or learning based badges? Do the badges exist on their own or are they a part of a hierarchy or network? Earn some badges and figure out how they are displayed. Were the badges easy to earn? How easily can they be displayed outside of the site where you earned the badges? Display your badges or send the link to a friend.

8. Describe the skills, knowledge and curriculum the badges represent.

Can you easily describe the criteria for earning the badges you just completed? Were they part of a bigger curriculum? Were the badges more commercially oriented? Would displaying the badges attract other to earn the badges or participate in related learning?

Consider these sites, there are others...

• Khan Academy - http://www.khanacademy.org/badges
• FourSquare - http://www.4squarebadges.com/foursquare-badge-list/
• BadgeStack - http://badgestack.com/
• Mozilla Open Badges - http://openbadges.org
• Stackoverflow - http://stackoverflow.com/badges
• Wikipedia Barnstars - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Barnstars

Task 3: Identifying the curriculum

5. Identify the completion criteria for any badge you have earned (traditional or digital).
Did you have to complete a series of tasks? Did you have to prove mastery of a skill? How was the mastery described? Was the badge knowledge based, how was the knowledge domain described as a learning criteria?

6. Describe a hierarchy or network of badges.
Does a single badge stand on its own or is it best associated with other badges? Do badges cluster in and around knowledge domains? Do badges exists in hierarchies or networks or both? What other patterns can an collection of badges exist? Should we consider the idea of micro-badges which lead toward (or collectively become) a badge? What issues could you see arising from micro-badges?

It was suggested we complete the tasks based on our own time zones... given the variety of participants from different time zones I felt this was a good suggestion.

Please complete tasks within your own time zone. I will post daily tasks the day before they need to occur... This should open the opportunity for a lively 36 hour discussion on each TASK.

Be Well...

Task 2: The digital badge

3. Identify the digital and internet technologies best suited to create a digital merit badge.
How would you create the digital file (image) of the badge? Is it possible to keep people from copying the badge without having earned the badge?

4. Describe the technologies that could be used to attach (reference or link) the learning to the digital badge.
Is there more than one way of "attaching" learning criteria (or outcomes) to a digital badge? Would this criteria differ from a learners evidence toward earning the badge? Could a badge criteria change through time?