There are many ways to recognize individuals for doing a great job, mastering a new skill, or to simply have fun. This recognition could be a simple thank you, a pat on the back, a certificate, or a virtual badge. The TEI team is exploring badging as a way of recognizing new skills as well as to simply have fun. You may be a recipient of one of our new badges.

“A ‘digital badge’ is an online record of achievements, tracking the recipient’s communities of interaction that issued the badge and the work completed to get it. Digital badges can support connected learning environments by motivating learning and signaling achievement both within particular communities as well as across communities and institutions.” (Source: Erin Knight White Paper)

The TEI Team will be issuing badges through a site called Credly. As a recipient, you can collect your badges also on Credly or you can transfer them to Mozilla BackPack. In fact, you can collect all your digital badges with Mozilla BackPack. Many online courses and MOOCs offer badges for course completion.

If you are helping students develop skills, you can recognize them with digital badges. You can build them through a program like Credly or if you use Blackboard, you can also build them for skill development or other achievements.

I have personally been experimenting with badges and have earned this collection. As you can see each badge has specific information that you can use to check qualifications. If you create a badge, you will need to include this information.

• Issuer Details
  • Name
  • URL
• Badge Details
  • Name
  • Description
  • Criteria
  • Evidence

A digital badge can provide much more detail about new skills than can transcripts, diplomas,  and certificates.

As the TEI Team develops a professional development program, we will also include badges as a token of your skill and our appreciation. Display them proudly.

For more information, check out our Tools and Methods Badges page.

Additional Reading

• #SUNYCIT: Digital Badges for Professional Development
• We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges… or Do We?
• #SUNYCIT – Digital Badges for Professional Development
• Badges
• #SUNYCIT: Exploring Digital Badging for Metaliteracy, Sustainability and Student Engagement

Stan Skrabut, Ed.D.

Stan is Director of Technology-Enhanced Instruction. He has over 20 years experience working as an instructional technologist and trainer. He has a master’s degree in computing technology in education and a doctorate in education specializing in instructional technology.