Pre-service teachers and Web 2.0 Badges

Here is my problem:  I teach an undergraduate course for pre-service educators on technology.  It is three credits.  It is a hybrid course (i.e., in the loosest sense; the course meets the first and last week of the term for 90 minutes).  For many of them, it is their first online experience.

I must/should/want/need to cover all of the issues and trends in educational technology, such as the history of the field, the digital divide, access and equity, distance education, and so on.  I also must/should/want/need to give them practice working with the tools they’ll likely be using in their future classroom.  On one hand, I know very well that the tools will change rapidly while the issues and trends linger.  One the other hand, I don’t want to have them leave without having used ANY of the current tools out there (n.b., when I say tools, I’m mainly implying Web 2.0 tools), nor do I want to cover everything only at a surface level.

What. Do. I. Do?

I offloaded the “tool” portion of the course as being part of the course grading.  However, I created a badge system, where students could earn badges for meeting certain competencies with various Web 2.0 (and other) tools.

Aside from a final project in the course and classroom discussions, students had several deliverables throughout the semester that were usually reflective in nature.  The students could submit the assignment in a traditional manner (i.e., a one or two page document created with MS Word), or they could attempt to earn a badge.   How did this work?  First, in order to “unlock” the folders (i.e., using the adaptive release function on BlackBoard) that contained information on the badges, the students had to first pass a short quiz on Web 2.0 concepts (e.g., origins, benefits, differences from static websites).

Once unlocked, the folders contained introductory material on the tool, tutorials on how to create and refine the tool, examples of how the tools could be used in the classroom, and a list of specifications for earning the badge.  For example, to earn the blog badge, students needed to create a blog, create two separate posts, include hyperlinks, images and/or embedded videos, and a short statement on how they could use this tool in their future classroom.  The “content” contained in the posts themselves was related to the actual deliverable.  In other words, the students could write a short paper with their thoughts on the digital divide, or they could create a blog (or a wiki, or a Prezi, etc.) containing the same information.

In the first meeting of the class, I had stressed to the students that, aside from being an experiment that could go horribly awry, that I wanted to give them the flexibility to try various Web 2.0 tools, as well as not pressuring them to do so every week.  I said to them, “Hey, if you’re really busy one week and aren’t feeling all that inspired, don’t worry about it!”

Because it was not part of the course grade, I created both inter- and intra-class competitions (i.e., last semester, I taught three sections of this course).  I had a public leaderboard posted in the Badges folder (i.e., a Google spreadsheet) showing who had earned which badges after every unit, and in my email updates I would post statistics for all three sections (e.g., how many had completed the quiz, how many different badges were earned, number of badges per student for each class) followed by my ranking of the three sections.  I didn’t know what I would do for the awards at the beginning of the term (it ended up being some laptop sleeves I had lying around for the individuals and pizza at the last class who earned the most badges), but I did give students “Certificates of Achievement” at the end of the term denoting which badges they had earned through the semester.

There were five opportunities to earn one of seven badges.  At the end of the term, 76% of the students had earned at least one badge, and the overall average was around two badges per student.  Ten percent of the students earned the maximum number of badges possible.  I also had the students complete an informal survey at the end of the course.  Most of the feedback was positive.  While many expressed some initial confusion at the concept, many enjoyed the process and liked the fact that they had quite a bit of flexibility with the badges.  Those who completed multiple badges stated that it was difficult but very rewarding.  Reaction was mixed toward the competitive aspect of the badges.  While no one disliked it, some students were motivated by it, while the rest were ambivalent.  Of those who did not earn any badges, some simply said they didn’t have the time because of the course load and other commitments.  Only a handful said they did not participate because it simply was not required.

This process needs some refinement, obviously.  In the future, I may make it an incentive that in order to use a particular tool in their final project, they must have earned the badges for that tool.

Jason Siko
Assistant Professor of Educational Technology
Grand Valley State University
Grand Rapids, MI 
jasonsiko.com