Julia Hengstler

Hi, Bronwyn.

Any chance that you'll be opening up access to teacher education institutions outside of Australia?
Julia

I don't think that anyone thinking of creating badges should think of a badge in isolation. I think of it like designing a basic label that I may want to tweak and edit to represent additional aspects. I went through this when I helped my husband design his canned fish labels--we needed something to show that each type (we have 14) came from the same business, but also had to include a way to differentiate species of salmon, whether it was smoked or plain--and then we added tuna and had scallops and oysters to integrate.If your design is too narrow at the outside--your badges may be radically different and not "sit" together as a suite or group.

That said, I think if you try to convey too much information, the image gets too visually complex and will not scale down well.

In any case, I do think that the badge is symbolic and must convey a message tied to what is being represented. The question is, what is the most important message to convey--for an institution granting a badge, the iconography of the institution might be of paramount importance and the skills/knowledge represented by the badge secondary. I think this is especially true where promotion of the institution is a key motivator. If a teacher/instructor is generating the badge--free of institutional guidelines and restrictions--s/he might focus solely on the content/skill learned.

Here's a curve ball--could there be audio badges? Where's the accessibilty in a strictly visual design?

Re. skills--I think some basic graphic design skills are necessary to find elements to represent the message of a badge. It's the equivalent of a visual tweet--but I think we've got less than 140 characters to do it in. There are plenty of free higher end graphics programs like www.pixlr.com to work with--or download GIMP or whatever turns your crank.

I'm almost eager to be on the opening forays into badging before my institution begins defining representational guidelines & requirements...think I have a bit more creative freedom. (Though I understand the importance of brand identity...sigh.) While our smaller educational institution has a department for this type of thing in Media & Public Relations--I think if everyone started using badges they'd be overwhelmed. I have to admit, too, that in desiging it myself I feel a sense of ownership and accomplishment.

It would give our Media & Art students something to do though....

I believe that promoting a university "brand" is important to educational institutions--it is a way to get the name out into the public. It's not just a badge, it's a badge from XXXX University. The popularity of a badge could generate interest--look at all the folks with a VIU badge!!! But if they are readily found, it might devalue the badge as well. Should there be a certain exclusivity of a badge??? Not sure. Think I would need to see what happens in some trials & do some focus groups re. response.

I have vague recollections of helping the elderly, building campfires, and possibly knot tying and camping (putting up tents, etc.) merit badges.

I was a Girl Scout and a Campfire Girl in the US as a child. In both, we stitched our merit badges on sashes that we wore with our uniforms when we attended events. I had to complete a series of badges to move up the ranks in status--though often in these organizations, if you were of a certain age you would automatically "level up" in game speak--even if you hadn't completed the badges from the previous level. Also, completion of the badges before a specific age and you did not automatically graduate to the next level.

As a kid, I remember that the "age override"--if I can call it that--bothered me.

I've earned some badges in my Purdue Passport account and in Mozilla.

My Passport ones: http://beta.openbadges.org/share/8c95a6142c3abb0d370677e4bcd65d7e/

My Mozilla one http://beta.openbadges.org/share/03023b1be9631b6220447fbbda21eb79/

These were learning type badges. They have an independent and collective existence. Re. Purdue I felt compelled to complete the set to get off the "compete newbie" level. I don't think anyone told me to do this. Their collective meaning--in my Openbackpack--came from how I decided to group and display them as a collection.

It took me a bit to figure out how to group and display my Open Badges at first--but wasn't completely difficult.

The Purdue Passport badges were very clearly designed in a sequence to lead us through the basic tasks re. interacting with the badge platform first--then how to publish to the Mozilla Backpack second. After these tasks, as an instructor, I have badge development and design badges that took me through the basic tasks and considerations for creating badges.

I think that badges in closed systems have far less opportunities for "attracting others" unless they--like Purdue is doing--are pushed into a more public platform like Mozilla's.

My first badges were in Girl Scouts (grew up in the States). If I recall correctly, they were skills and performance based where the group leader determined if I had completed the tasks necessary to obtain the badge. Those tasks were clearly defined by the Girl Scout organization.

More recently my kids achieved their Master Magi badges--a pin and status --awarded in the MagiQuest game at Great Wolf Lodge.The database records their achievements via some technology embedded in a wand. I'm guessing it's some RFID tech. In this game, my children had to play  (with support), solve riddles, move throughout the building, interact with items in specific sequences and complete specific adventures with "runes" they aquired through quests.