Badges

Badges are pretty nifty. They are virtual representations (a graphic) of physical and mental achievements: skills, learning, involvement, community, etc.  For example, an individual might earn a badge for attending an event like TEDx, creating a project at a FreeSkool table, or learning a skill in their college class. When individuals display those badges on a public site, employers or institutions can click on the badge to find out what that individual had to do to earn the badge. They can also choose to use the contact info to find out more about the “Issuer”.

Badge Backpack

The “Backpack” is an area hosted by Mozilla where individuals can house and group their badges. Once an individual receives a badge, they can add it to their Backpack. The Backpack also serves as a central location to push out badges from. For example, the “Earner” may have a virtual portfolio set up on Wordpress. Using a widget, they can display the badges they have earned on the portfolio.

Credit: http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2012/07/02/getting-up-to-speed-on-the-technical-side-of-openbadges/

Badges Specification

The ‘badge specification’ are the fields of information displayed behind the badge. This information lets an employer or institution know information about the Issuer and what the Earner had to do to earn the badge.   

Credit: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/Badge_Specification

Earning Badges

“Earners” can earn badges as a means to ‘count’ their learning experiences. These learning experiences can take place in and out of academia, informally and formally. The Earner has a few steps to complete in order to display a badge they have earned: 1) the badge Issuer must issue the badge to the Earner, 2) the badge Earner must set up an account on the Mozilla Backpack site, 3) the badge Earner must accept the badge the badge Issuer has given them and choose to ‘push’ it out to the Backpack, and, finally, 4) the badge Earner must select a way to display the badge on their chosen site.

Credit: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/Onboarding-Earner

Issuing Badges

Organizations, institutions, or individuals may choose to issue badges for learning experiences they have created for learners. The “Issuer issues a badge on their site, then prompts the Badge Earner to push the badge into their Backpack for portability” (1). The Issuer can either issue badges through their Web site or an OBI Partner.  

Credit:  http://openbadges.org/issue/

(1) https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/Onboarding-Issuer

Discussion Prompt:

1. So, obviously you have a reason for taking this challenge. Perhaps you are just curious about badges to use in a certain context or you have a project already started that you’d like to offer badges through. Give us some insight into why you’d like to issue badges- maybe we can help!
2. What specific learning experiences might learners take part in?
3. What specific tasks does the learner have to complete or criteria does the learner have to learn to earn the badge?