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Mark Flancbaum

Digital badges in the elementary classroom


I undertook the project of implementing digital badges in my fourth grade
classroom. The reason I wanted to do this project was to more clearly inform students of
expectations, provide more specific feedback on their performance toward meeting those
expectations, and increase student engagement.
I decided to use a free digital badges site called classbadges. This site allowed me
to create a class, design badges, and then award students badges for various
accomplishments. I started by designing a small number of badges to represent
accomplishments of basic skills fourth graders need to acquire. Examples of these badges
were Multiplication Master and Fluency Phenom. I set criteria for each of these
badges so that students would know how to earn the badge. Finally, I was ready to
introduce the concept of badges to my students.
I showed students pictures of Girl Scout badges, military decorations, and football
helmet stickers. We discussed what each of these meant. Students told me that it meant
they accomplished something. From there, I explained that they accomplish goals often in
school. I wanted them to be able to show off their accomplishments. We spent some time
logging into classbadges, and exploring some of the badges they would be able to earn.
My students seemed excited, mostly because the design of the badges looked cool.
The last step was to begin awarding badges as students earned them. This was my
favorite part of the implementation. I have a 40-minute period during my day called
Enrichment. Our Enrichment time block is designed for all students to get exactly what
they need. It looks different at each grade level. In fourth grade, some students go to
reading intervention, while most stay in the classroom with me. I decided to use this time
for students to produce Passion Projects, an idea I borrowed from a blog by Paul Solarz.

The idea behind Passion Projects is for students to explore a topic they are passionate
about. My students explored endangered animals, fair play at recess, grant writing, along
with many other projects. Once they had done research on their topic, they were then
encouraged to take action in some way. Some students raised awareness. Others ran
fundraisers, while others simply informed an audience about their inquiry. Here was the
kicker. Students had to master the basics before moving to a Passion Project. This is
where the badges proved to be effective. Students knew they had to earn certain badges
before they could work on their Passion Project. This increased their motivation toward
mastering the basic concepts.
I faced one major obstacle that diminished the effectiveness of this
implementation. That obstacle was the time of year that I tried to implement digital
badges. I began implementation in February. There were two major problems with this.
First, it was too late in the year. Our classroom was already well established, and this at
times felt like just another thing to do. Secondly, it was way too close to standardized
testing time. Shortly after implementing digital badges, students began a barrage of
testing that spanned over a month. These two obstacles ultimately caused the digital
badges implementation to fade away into irrelevance.
My findings however, were promising. After the time constraints of standardized
testing squeezed digital badges out of our scope, I took a quick survey to determine
student perception of digital badges. I am moving up to fifth grade with my students next
year, and so I asked students if digital badges were something they would want to
continue next school year. I found that 19 students wanted them, 6 students could take
them or leave them, and 0 students disliked them. My other finding was that pairing
badges with Passion Projects was highly effective. For example, the Multiplication Master

badge was earned by 14 of the 16 students who were with me during our Enrichment
time. In comparison to the two other fourth grade classrooms that did not use badges, we
had by far the highest percentage (see attachment for more detail).
I learned that timing is important. I think the use of digital badges would have
been sustained throughout the year had I started them from the beginning. I also learned
that pairing badges with increased learning opportunities is highly effective. I spent some
time reviewing the excellent Digital Badging deliverable by Meg, Karen, Emily, and Mattea
in our FOBL class. I wish I had read this resource before implementation. I unknowingly
used a couple of best practices from their resource: earning expanded learning
opportunities and providing meta-data or information about the badge. I think the one
best practice I missed was careful planning. I got excited and jumped in headfirst!
I am more excited about next steps than I am about this initial implementation. I
consider this a pilot, and look forward to more effectively implementing badges in my
classroom at the beginning of the next school year. To increase effectiveness, I plan to
begin implementation at the beginning of the year. I will also involve parents by
providing them access to their students badges. They can be accessed at home, but will
also be included in parent-teacher conferences and student-led conferences. Finally, I
hope to have students include their badges in their digital portfolio. This will allow badges
to be more public. I look forward to using digital badges next year as a tool for clearly
defining expectations, providing feedback on progress toward those expectations, and
increased student motivation.

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