Social discussion of CS in K-12

[Travis Faust <tnfaust AT gmail.com>]

I have a love/hate relationship with badges, because they're a double-edged sword:  they can be an effective tool when used well, but they are very easy to implement poorly.  Like any tool, by itself it just sits there, and it's all in the technique.  Badges tap into our basic motivation for mastery, so the first pitfall to beware is that the badge itself becomes the point (when they're more properly a guide or trail marker).  You hit upon the second basic pitfall with your remark on "packetizing" instruction, which is that badges can both provide and strip context from instruction - done poorly, lessons become too compartmentalized and disconnected from each other; but done well, you provide a useful framework for both the student's own sense of mastery and for students to informally compare with each other.

In practice, what this looks like done well is that students will occasionally refer to the structure of your badge system to find lessons related to where they're struggling, or to find new areas to progress; new and struggling students will look to more experienced/knowledgeable students for guidance ("Oh, she's got this badge I'm struggling to get, so I'll ask her how she got it."  "Oh, he's got this badge that's a ways down the road for me, so I'll ask him what's helpful to get on the way."), and the short-term motivator of the badge will be closely tied to the long-term sense of accomplishment from completing Projects That Matter.  Bonus points if a student who goes for a bunch of easy badges winds up with lots of general knowledge and then plans a way through your curriculum without even realizing that Serious Business has begun.  :)

When done poorly, you get all kinds of nastiness and apathy.  Some of it is culture that you have to work on, like making sure students don't lord their accomplishments over each other; other parts are more closely related to structure and design, as fancy badges won't fix boring curriculum and material.  Does that all make sense?  Like video game achievements, you want a solid game that people will play anyway; you give a few achievements just for playing (one or two early on, one for beating the last boss, a few sprinkled along the way), but most of the cheevos are for pulling interesting stunts that show you play the game quite a bit and you're good at it.  And like modern online games, your badge structure should be iterative:  it should change over time as new content is introduced, and also be responsive to user feedback.  And finally, don't be afraid to have a joke or two; little Easter eggs are treats for studying your system - say, "Never Gonna Give You Up" for succeeding at something after failing a first attempt (don't actually use this, nobody likes Rick Astley).

TL;DR version:  Badges, when done well, will not make your job easier.  Implementing a well-designed badge system is more hard work, not an easy improvement to slap on to an existing system.  But when done well, the payoff is more student enthusiasm and commitment.

On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 8:37 PM, <katrina.kennett AT gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Charles! Someone who has helped me think about games and education is Scott Nicholson - http://www.scottnicholson.com/ - he focuses a little less on badges and more on various types of play and learning that games support. He writes about games in different spaces (libraries, classrooms, online) and uses the term “gamification” often - like this one on gamification techniques.

The Digital Media Lab also published a working paper in 2011 about badges that might one to look through. Their conferences in 2014 and 2015 have a few papers on badges (if you change the year in the URL you can go back and see some conversation trajectories). 

Excited to hear how your tinkering/prototyping/experimenting goes, 

ksk

Katrina Kennett

Literacy & Language, Doctoral Student

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

Education Resources Consortium, Consulting Practitioner 

kennettenglish.blogspot.com // @katrinakennett

On Aug 20, 2015, at 9:56 AM, Charles Schultz <sacrophyte AT gmail.com> wrote:

Good day, Shifters,

I am keen to learn what you all think about online badges (ie, openbadges.org). During the fall I am a part-time teacher at Parkland, and I am seriously considering using badges to signify completions of projects (#pbl). Are these just a passing fad, or do they have viable merit in the education profession?

What I like about them is that it forces me, as an instructor, to "packetize" the content of the class in such a way that it makes sense to the world at large. It is not much different than leveling up on games (and hence the whole gamitization historical context), or gaining "achievements" that unlock new characters, attributes or accessories.

Toughts and comments are appreciated. :)

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Charles Schultz

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Travis Faust

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