project reflection
I personally find joy in earning badges and certificates as a reward of my accomplishments. Badging for teachers and administrators is a great way to boost morale and encourage teachers to try implementing tools and ideas they may have overlooked in the past.
I visited a school last year who had a badging system in place and it was obvious that the system encouraged teachers to think outside of the norms and take educational experiences to another level.
I enjoyed the challenge of creating badges in Piktochart, which is a tool that I oftentimes overlook because it seems so hard to use. I decided to use it for this project to prove to myself that I could use it for something besides infographics. I like the final product.
background & objectives
The EdTech Badging Program is solely for teachers. It is used to encourage and motivate teachers to explore and integrate digital tools and best practices into their instruction. The badges also include professional development involvement. The badges support personalized learning and allows teachers to choose the learning that want to pursue that is most relevant to them and their students.
Badges are engaging in part because they employ game mechanics to inspire collaborative competition. When teachers are able to track their progress, and celebrate the work of their colleagues, excitement levels build to help generate enthusiasm around professional learning.
The learning objectives for badges align with the ISTE Standards for Educators. There is at least one badge that parallels with each standard.
ISTE Standards for Educators performance tasks
Teachers must do the following in order to earn a badge:
- Writing instruction
- Team planning
- PD attendance
- Innovative instruction
- Observe instruction by a teacher
- Data (i.e. turning in unit data, up to date RTI data, data chats with students)
- Parent/Family communication (i.e. parent night, literacy night, technology fair)
- School spirit (i.e. keeping classroom clean, attending faculty meetings, posting on Twitter account)
- Instructional technology (i.e. implementing digital platforms, having an organized cart, procedures for chromebook use available for students)
badges & Meta data
Piktochart is used to create the badges. The purpose of the honeycomb template is to connect the badges, which will be showcased outside the classrooms of teachers (next to their door) with their Bitmoji and name.