This document discusses Open Badges, which are digital credentials that represent skills and achievements. Open Badges can be earned in both formal and informal learning contexts. They provide a way to recognize and communicate learning across different systems and platforms. The document outlines how Open Badges work on the Mozilla Backpack infrastructure and shares examples of how schools, organizations, and individuals are using Open Badges. It also provides guidance on designing Open Badges, including choosing audiences and values, components, pathways, resources, and the design process. Overall, the document promotes Open Badges as a way to motivate learners, track progress, and help make skills and achievements more discoverable.
2. DigitalMe is a social enterprise working with
schools, charities, employers and platforms to
create a new digital skills currency using Open
Badges.
We run Badge the UK, a Nominet Trust funded
initiative to support the implementation of Open
Badges across the UK
We are a Mozilla’s Open Badge partner in the UK &
Europe and part of the Global Open Badge
visionary team.
5. Aims for the Session:
1. Understand what Open Badges are and how
you could use them at your School
2. Understand how to design a badge using the
Badge design canvas
3. Use Makewaves to build and launch your
badge mission
32. Is a safe social platform
where young people
build digital portfolios
and a record of their
achievements
33. Schools can setup their
own site and create and
issue badges
INVERKEITHING
Young people have their
own pages, build a
portfolio of work and
display their badges
37. Easily set privacy for
each piece of content
or for the whole site
Choose the level of
interaction with others
Develop a safe and
creative culture
Treat teachers like Gods
55. Young people blog
about their progress
and capture multimedia
content online or via
mobile app.
Submit their stories to
central hub.
Get feedback from
peers, family and
community.
Cooks and Kids
60. wider range of pupils are completing work at home in their own
time. Our pupils are excited and talk about how many badges they
have on a daily basis. They are an amazing motivational tool.
St Pauls Primary @leotindal
Badges are a great way of focusing pupils on a task or of lending
credibility. Furthermore it is a great way to assess and evidence
pupils' progress.
Jason Bromfield Music Teacher
The Badge System is great! I can now set students multiple tasks
and ad monitor the work at a glance
Dan Donaldson Shireland Collegiate Academy
What Teachers say
71. 1. Audience & Value
Primary & secondary
age (Open Badges
for 13+)
Teachers
School
Other pupils
Technology companies
Colleges / Universities
Stand out digital CV
Access to software &
hardware
Days out of school
presenting
Recognise genuine
learning
Industry recognition
Identify talent
Staff engagement
Technology sector
companies
Universities / college
Existing db
Conferences
Endorser channels
Teacher & peer
Monitored by
DigitalMe
72. 2. Components
Digital Leader Explorer Badge
• Learn to use software /
hardware
• Knowledge of main functions
• Ideas of how it could be
applied to solve a problem
• Working independently
• Resilience
• Self Confidence
• Create and deliver a
presentation on technology
discovered
• Field questions from group
• Share presentation
online
• Teacher / snr peer
confirms
presentation by
awarding the badge
73. 3. Badge pathways
Explorer: Independently explore & share
Reactor: Responds to a brief, applies tech to solve a problem
Project: Works as part of a team on extended project
Sub badges e.g. presenter, coder, help desk, ambassador
(three earned for each badge)
Our background- At Digitalme we are leading on this BTUKprogramme funded by nomiinet because we have first hand experience of delivering learning programmes which develop real employability skills such as resilience, problem solving and communication skills but we have struggled in the past to map them to formal qualification frameworks – either lost the essence of the programme or agendas changed as govts changed which was counter productive. We werent able to provide yp with anything to evidence their wide range of skills and achievements and commitment to learning or enable them to articulate the skills they had to colleges and universities. Open bagdes came along and changed that.We were funded through DML competition – only UK org. Over the past 18 months we have been running BTUK initiative funded by Nominet Trust, to work with schools, charities and employers to use badges to create a new skills currency. Bringing people like you together who like us have fantastic learning programmes to help them use badges to connect with schools
Most of you know quite a bit about makewaves alreadyBut just a little background we started 10 years ago with the aim of being a platform for student voice
We feel that part of the answer could be something called Mozilla Open Badges – they potentially provide a way to bridge this gap by creating a new skills currency that can capture all of the skills a learner has and enable them to be used more effectively to unlock opportunities for work or training
Days like today – a critical part of the process. Identify organisations to join ecosystem and help raise profileAims for the session – main aim is that you all leave feeling confident about what open badges are and how they could apply to think big. Want you to have the chance to ask lots of questions, get hands on designing badges and begin to feed into the plans for the programme as it moves forwards.Fantastic opportunity to test badges by launching a badge to school via the new MW badge library reaching 50,000 learners New programme of badge missions being rolled out nationally linked to areas of the curriculum for teachers & parents to support students to earn.Think about what’s involved in developing your own badge scheme – for young people, adults, staff etc
All familiar with offline badges not a new idea – universal symbol of recognition and everyone has a memory of a badge they have earned they are proud of.21st Century Scouts is a Useful Analogy but can also be limiting
Often a better example of a digital badge – ebay badge represents behaviour as well as skills - its trusted and is built up over time, micro transactions, awarded by a community therefore more valuable representation of an individual. Evidence of their badge can be viewed online as feedback - transparent
Why needed?Familiar problem - Learning is often siloed– difficult to present a holistic view of a learner across different settings – connect hobbies with in school qualifications.Even formal qualifications are very meta – difficult to understand the granularity and range of achievements they represent.Open badges potentially provide a way to connect all of this together,
Important point to get across – badges don’t come in a platform. People have built platforms around open badges OR integrated them into exisiting platforms. Therefore there are many places you can find open badges across the web.Number of places employers, colleges etc can discover badges. displayers across the web – go through each.Whole range of technical providers for badges – and you can build your own.
Currently 120 partners across the UK – employers, charities, networks of schools across the UKThese are all people who have fantastic endorsed learning programmes – teach computing skills like code club, encourage voting like bite the ballot, Volunteer programmes V inspired. Real disconnect between these programmes and schools – they find it hard to get their programmes into schools.What we hope with BTUK is make it easier for YP to access these programmes using open badgesLike to add some more partner names to this list
Good morning many of you will know about makewaves already but to giveyou a bit of background.MW is 10 years old this yearAnd at it’s core is is a safe social platform where young people can build digital portfolios and record their achievements
Each school can set up its own space for free to create and issue badges. Young people have their own pages where they can build a portfolio of work – video/blogs/stories and display their badges – almost like a linkd in for schools aged young people
There is no doubt that there is a high level of digital fluency among young peopleTechnology is amazing they are immersed in itIs being Tech Savy the new MBA- 80% of employers in US google people as part of recruitment60% of employers expect young people to use social media in their rolewhere is was said that young people are meant to be the digital natives they are at social but not when using these tools professionallyResearch, being self aware, Young people are aware that they need a professional spaceHow employers will want them to. In fact they are often actively banned in schools.
As Lucy mentioned we’re also aware that learning gets siloed and it’s difficult to capture and connect a young persons acheivementsMW aims to make schools the hub for learning- helping them to caoture what happens outside school- Connecting to real world challengesLetting them explore, discover and create in a a safe environment. (Self directed learning based on interests)Makewaves is a way to capture learning whether it’s formal or informal qualificationsBadges are a way to wrap this up provide motivation and consitencey
As technology and learning changes and schools move at different paces we have an ongoing quest to make sure that schools have the right tools to be cutting edge, current whilst also working with a school networksThere are a couple of fundementals
Esafety is a huge issueSchools have very different practiceEasy to set- levels of privacy for content- Interaandbetweenn pupilsHelp you to develop a safe and creative cultureBuild TRUST- Make it eas to Schoolsare at the centreDon’t think you know how they are going to use itDevolve as much responsibility to them as possible.Put them in controlThey are your experts on the ground
Similar to other social networksOutside of school more and more web activity isn’t tied down to a deskktopSo much esier to capture and publish mediaAlso approve, oversee content
Without the right motivation techology becomes hollowBadges are playing a central part on this for MW
Built a badge libraryAllths
Lots of badges being taken was good So we created a progress trackerTeachers can see at a glance everyone who is taking a badge The blue stars denote content that has been uploaded Clicking on the stars open up the submitted evidence where they can give direct feedback, then award of message userAll on one page!
Lots of badges being taken was good So we created a progress trackerTeachers can see at a glance everyone who is taking a badge The blue stars denote content that has been uploaded Clicking on the stars open up the submitted evidence where they can give direct feedback, then award of message userAll on one page!
Lots of badges being taken was good So we created a progress trackerTeachers can see at a glance everyone who is taking a badge The blue stars denote content that has been uploaded Clicking on the stars open up the submitted evidence where they can give direct feedback, then award of message userAll on one page!
Data behind the scenes (in beta)We want to provide teachers with analyticsSo you can see the impact a badge is having on the student activity and adjust or develop your badge in response
Aims for the session – main aim is that you all leave feeling confident about what open badges are and how they could apply to think big. Want you to have the chance to ask lots of questions, get hands on designing badges and begin to feed into the plans for the programme as it moves forwards.Want it to be fun!Quickly go round – who is in room? What badge have you earned or would like to earn and why?
Connection with real world – industry endoresementWho’s going to recognise your badges and how do you build meaning in for the badges earner? What opportunities do they unlock
Its easy to issue a badge – its hard to make that badge meaningul and valuable to both the earner and you as an issuing organisationWe learned this over 2 years of badge design – made all of the mistakes and assumptions there are to makeDeveloped a process to support other organisations to develop badges that think about the value proposition, the criteria and evidence and the resources needed to practically launch it
Badge visual design - Mark
Great feedback evidence of them trying new thingsSomething they are proud of - importantTypically - we have seen children aged 11-14 want to collect badges and get recognition. Older pupils want to understand the extrinsic motivation – what value does the badge have in the real worldWe have commissioned research to unpick this further.
Who can find your badges – how can they access them? Distributed model enables badges to be shared virally. Share and take MARK
Opemimg up world – discover things online/exposure to challengesReal connections with orgs/employers – also connecting earlier to opem up pathwaysDiscoverability – yp can showoff talents
Badges need to have a value or currency in the world – this needs to be built bottom up by connecting individual badges with realted opportunities. When lots of badges come together within one ecosystem this can really raise the stakes. CSOL - city wide projectconnecting over 100 organisations and 30,000 young people across a city.PLAY VIDEOEndorsed by Mayor of Chicago –Badges were created by the organisations and all looked different – but badges were mapped to a STEAM curriculum and enabled them to level up to unlock opportunities in the citySimilarities to BTUK– connecting different programmes using a central curriculum to underpin lots of different activities. Young people could access the programme via their interests but also enabled progression and impact to be measured.Watch Video
Aims for the session
Local do internally, regional / national work with a designer!! Brand is importantThe badge canvas provides a design brief, that’s everything a designer would as you – perhaps some more details about the users / audience but mostely there-
Aims for the session
Aims for the session
Aims for the session
Connect with parents, teachers, students
Currently 120 partners across the UK – employers, charities, networks of schools across the UKThese are all people who have fantastic endorsed learning programmes – teach computing skills like code club, encourage voting like bite the ballot, Volunteer programmes V inspired. Real disconnect between these programmes and schools – they find it hard to get their programmes into schools.What we hope with BTUK is make it easier for YP to access these programmes using open badgesLike to add some more partner names to this list
Free tools online atdigitalmeWe can work with you directly to design your own badge scheme if you want
