Goal: Design a Badge

Welcome to Cycle 7 of The 30 Goals Challenge: Make it Meaningful!

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” – Thomas J. Peters

Goal: Design a badge for your students or another colleague.

Accomplish this goal: For the past 4 years, I integrated badges into my courses and trainings to motivate, engage, add some fun to the curriculum, and build a community. Think about any organizations or groups where you’ve been awarded a patch or pin (e.g. Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, bowling, sports, the military, ROTC, and Speech and Debate). You have to accomplish a task to achieve that honor. Once you achieve that emblem to represent what you’ve accomplished, you can proudly display the emblem on a jacket, shirt, vest, tie, or backpack. When others in your group see your patch or pin they know what you’ve achieved and can also feel a kinship with you because they are part of the same community and have the same mission.

Digital badges are having the same impact. When I started giving badges in my online conferences and in my online courses, I noticed teachers and learners posting all over Facebook and on Twitter. Others who were part of the community left many comments, reflected on the learning with them, and they congratulated each other. Some learners liked their badges so much and strived to earn the badge.

At one point, I encouraged learners to create their own badges with criteria and give them to peers to recognize leadership, helpful resources, mentorship, creativity in work, and other characteristics of being a good person that our students rarely get the opportunity to recognize and celebrate while in schools. We can get students to celebrate citizenship with digital badges.

Try creating a digital badge for this challenge then when you find a platform you like add a badge to project or lesson. When you are more knowledgeable about digital badges, get your learners to design their own. Find some resources in my bookmarks and this webinar recording on how I integrate digital badges (Click for slides).

Meaningful Learning with Missions and Badges von Shelly Sanchez Terrell

Earn a badge for completing this goal!

New to The 30 Goals Challenge? Each year, teachers worldwide aim to accomplish 1 to 30 goals that transform their teaching. Join the movement by accomplishing any goal from any of the cycles then letting us know through a blog reflection or status update on our Facebook community or on Twitter,@30GoalsEdu . At our official site, 30Goals.com, find all the goals, participant reflections, badges, and get your copy of The 30 Goals for Teachers: Small Steps to Transform Your Classroom workbook.