Digital Badges: pros, cons and their use in virtual worlds: This week we will discuss the use of digital badges: whether they are useful in digital environments generally and specifically in virtual worlds. In virtual worlds (VWs), there is also the question of what a digital badge is: literally a badge you wear in the VW? another object or wearable? a digital badge in some other digital space?
Orange Planer: Dinner is irrelevant.
Orange Planer: It shall be assimilated.
Sheila Yoshikawa: I am moderating today. The topic for this week’s meeting will be: Digital Badges. As usual it is in text chat, and there is a notecard with some info in that box–just click it to get a folder. Let’s start as we normally do and introduce ourselves.
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Orange that is one of the issues for discussion!
Beth Ghostraven: I’m Beth Ghostraven, middle school teacher-librarian in RL and owner of the Book and Tankard Pub in Victoria City, Caledon in SL; owner of Ghostraven Professional Attire, classic clothing for educators in SL (http://bethghostraven.com); Communications Chair for the VWBPE Conference (http://vwbpe.org); Communications Chair and Focus Sessions Producer for the ISTE Virtual Environments Network; and unofficial liaison between education groups in SL. For information on events for the educational groups that I work with, see the ISTE VEN Massive Open Online Calendar at http://venetwork.weebly.com/calendar.html; Twitter: @booklady9 I’ll be taking photos to publish with the transcript and recording this session on video; if you have any objection, please IM me.
Orange Planer: My name is Orange Planer and I used to spend a lot of time writing and giving classes in Second Life regarding SL and basic networking. These days I spend my time doing tech support in SL, helping people with their computers, and doing technology education.
Josain Zsun: aka Budd Turner, retiree, currently maintaining Expedition Central sites and looking for pix, or article links related to Cyrus Hush for a presentation on the need for us to designate Trusted Friends to take over builds, etc when we are no longer able to login.
Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable will take place at 12 noon SL Time, on Thursday January 31 2019.
This week we will discuss the use of digital badges: whether they are useful in digital environments generally and specifically in virtual worlds. In virtual worlds (VWs), there is also the question of what a digital badge is: literally a badge you wear in the VW?another object or wearable? a digital badge in some other digital space?
– The 4 aspects Fanfarelli examines in more depth are (1) “Assessing peer skill” where he uses examples from World of warcraft and Pokemon GO (2) “Fostering curiosity to drive exploration” – for this Fanfarelli describes a (I think, theoretical) example of using badges to stimulate further curiosity in a virtual world once initial curiosity to explore has waned (3) “Setting appropriate goals to structure learning” – this has the key lesson “While badging can help players set useful goals that allow them to find more usefulness in an environment, designing effective badges necessitates an understanding of which goals are actually useful” and so Fanfarelli suggests using multiple badges which address different competence levels and (4) “Teaching users through feedback” – Fanfarelli uses examples of someone being a herbalist and being encouraged to develop/explore further with clues about what they are meant to do next.
ALL ARE WELCOME TO VWER!
Sheila Yoshikawa: Fanfarelli, J. (2018). Designing Digital Badges to Improve Learning in Virtual Worlds. Journal for Virtual Worlds Research, 11(3). https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/index.php/jvwr/article/view/7323/6430 I won’t repeat what I put in the notecard but I might pull out some of the points for discussion. So I thought we could start by saying, what are your views on the idea of badges in education? Are people in favour? Against? have you used them?
Sheila Yoshikawa: so they have to do some task to get the badge?
Orange Planer: Who sees the badges?
Sheila Yoshikawa: and are they digital or physical?
Sheila Yoshikawa: and can they see each others’ badges?
Orange Planer: I’m asking a bigger question. Does person A see Person B’s badges?
Josain Zsun: I promoted badges for my middle school Science classes. First for the mandatory Safety training & pledge cosigned with their parents. They pasted the printed badges on their lab books. At first the other teachers were skeptical. Soon badges were trending among the Ss. The other Science teacher asked if he could use them with his Ss. Teachers in other curricula soon were designing and having badges in their areas. It was great that year, forgotten the next.
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Josain, forgotten because the students got bored and de-motivated, or because the teachers moved on?
Orange Planer: So how do we feel about Person A seeing that Person B has more or less badges?
LV (lorivonne.lustre): I think that sounds like fun Beth.
LV (lorivonne.lustre): How do we keep the momentum going Josain?
Josain Zsun: I gave them out the following year, mainly because the Ss were asking about them. The other teacher(s) were overwhelmed with the Test Scores mandates handed down.
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Josain, so the teachers felt they hadn’t time for it?
Orange Planer: Some kids handle competition differently.
Josain Zsun: Yes, they were concerned with spending time getting the Ss to memorize the test answers provided by administration.
Orange Planer: Personally, I hate competing against others. Because I know there is always someone else smarter than me.
Orange Planer: Too busy learning to pass my CCNA.
Beth Ghostraven: It sounds like it depends a lot on what you have to do to get the badge–memorize and pass a test? master a skill?
Orange Planer nods at Sheila.
Orange Planer: Badges are why I dropped out of Boy Scouts.
Elli Pinion: Girl Scout….a great example!
Beth Ghostraven: Orange, what about badges made you drop out?
Sheila Yoshikawa: So we have a mixture of attitudes to badges here in this group, I think, which should be good for discussion!
LV (lorivonne.lustre): I am very pleased when I am awarded badges for some accomplishment. I wonder if that goes back to Girl Guides (Canada)?
Orange Planer: I was a pretty emotional kid. Lots going on. Having to work at anything that didn’t make me feel better immediately was a lost cause.
Orange Planer: I imagine a lot of kids feel that way.
Josain Zsun: The Standard tests were secondary…until administration mandated we “concentrate on the Test cheat sheets and “then teach our subject.
Elli Pinion: Yikes, Josain. Very sad.
Orange Planer: It’s all about the Benjamins, Josain.
Josain Zsun: Middle schoolers approach every activity under the vale fearing failure. I had to quote many successful people that said success was built on many failures.
Orange Planer: Sheila – they might, if the VW doesn’t hold the same importance as, say, being in school.
Elli Pinion: We were wary of badges for PD at our University until a couple of people got one from outside and were thrilled. I think they might really help in VWs. But there needs to be feedback, as well.
Elli Pinion: lol….good point, Beth.
Sheila Yoshikawa: it could actually be a badge that our avatar wears, or an item, or something to post to Facebook….
Orange Planer: Also because if they are in a VW by choice, they may be more motivated to do something new.
Orange Planer notes that he has a “Mentor Star” item from his time as a mentor for LL.
Josain Zsun: Like the safety pin on all my Outfits, I’ve been wearing for a couple of years.
Orange Planer: It’s kinda embarrassing to put it out there because everybody got one.
Elli Pinion: Do your safety pins draw questions/curiosity from others, Josain?
Orange Planer: And do they draw blood?
Orange Planer: As you can tell, I am not a professional educator.
Josain Zsun: I have a dozen digital badges from CompTIA for all the IT classes I have completed, taught and/or assisted to build. I can print them on any IT related documentation.
Sheila Yoshikawa: @Josain and do you find them useful?
Sheila Yoshikawa: presumably a SL badge (3D object) could not fit in the “Backpack” unless it had some 2D form as well?
Elli Pinion: And that is significant to you and others.
Sheila Yoshikawa: So – if we awarded badges for attendance at VWER – would that motivate you to attend?
Sheila Yoshikawa: and what form would be useful? or is this the kind of activity where badges would be irrelevant?
Sheila Yoshikawa: for, say, moderating a session, or being interviewed, or hosting a trip?
Josain Zsun: I had my first B.S. diploma taped to the glovebox door in my truck.
Scot Jung: for what purpose, Josain?
Elli Pinion: hahahahahaha! That’s awesome.
LV (lorivonne.lustre): It really is shocking Elli, and fun! My college has used badges for PD as well. I admit to being one of the people getting excited.
Josain Zsun: Well, actually a copy. I sent all my diplomas to my parents. They were/are still on the hall walls.
Elli Pinion: Me, too. A reward, emblem that someone notices your work.
Josain Zsun: CompTia certs are an accepted IT standard like Novell’s & Micro$oft’s certs.
Orange Planer: Doctors put their credentials on the wall to show competence. Teachers and lawyers should do the same.
Scot Jung: We Quakers have something to say about not showing off!
Elli Pinion: I struggled with that, too, Sheila. Nice girls are humble.
Orange Planer: IT people should have a badge sash of all the things they’ve broken.
Beth Ghostraven: Elli, what is HE? Higher Education?
Orange Planer: If you aren’t breaking stuff, you aren’t working.
Elli Pinion: That can be true in Ed, as well.
Elli Pinion: you just have to be a bit more careful not to break a person.
Scot Jung: job security, Orange?
Josain Zsun: Our district mandated teachers display their diplomas on their classroom walls (hence the copies I made) and in our mandatory webpages.
Sheila Yoshikawa: so would anyone here be MORE incentivised to offer to moderate or lead a session at VWER if they got a badge for doing it?
Orange Planer: I would be less incentivised if I got a badge for doing something.
Orange Planer: It’s like a bribe.
Elli Pinion: Hi Red. I agree, no. But getting it might be a way to thank someone.
Sheila Yoshikawa: Do you think, in virtual worlds, people expect the “badge” to be something 3D?
LV (lorivonne.lustre): Ah, now that is an idea Elli.
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): Right Sheila, citation counts if deans are smart enough to check or of profs are enterprising enough to report.
Elli Pinion: Good question, Sheila.
Elli Pinion: I think the backpack is more public, but a texture is too private. Perhaps backpack and 3D for VW?
Elli Pinion: Agree…love conference badges!
ThinkererSelby Evans (thinkerer.melville): I put a gadget on my blog that counts the number of visits. That is a badge.
Orange Planer: Well, we can talk about badgers, if you like.
Beth Ghostraven: shot glasses–teachers need those more than coffee mugs, it could be argued!
Scot Jung: how about group badge!
Orange Planer: I agree with a group badger.
Scot Jung: We did it!
Elli Pinion: I think that having them in VW is more important, as we need acknowledgment.
Elli Pinion: hahahahaha…so true, Beth!
Elli Pinion: Teacher Happy Hours…the best!
Orange Planer: I like that badger.
Orange Planer: It could make a good mascot.
Orange Planer: Badgers – determined for education.
Sheila Yoshikawa: any final thoughts on badges?
Orange Planer: Badges – how to de-anxiety them.
Orange Planer: Now, if my badges were worth something….
Orange Planer: That changes things.
Elli Pinion: Wish there was one, but true there is not with humans.
Josain Zsun: I forgot to mention, there were activities in my classes that required you have a certain badge. No labs if you hadn’t achieved the Lab Safety badge.
Sheila Yoshikawa: that one makes sense @Josain!
Orange Planer likes Thinkerer’s suggestion.
Josain Zsun: Lab partners then badgered the non-badged members of their teams.
Orange Planer: Badgering for badges.
Beth Ghostraven: test exemptions–now that’s a worthwhile value for a badge!
Sheila Yoshikawa: at this point – Scot, do you want to say a few words about NEXT week, when we have an interesting activity?
Orange Planer: So I won’t badger you for one.
Elli Pinion: I”m hoping to get a couple of new folks in soon. Hopefully, next week.
Sheila Yoshikawa: I’m looking forward to this!
Orange Planer hears an REM song coming.
Sheila Yoshikawa: so next week we will start here as a gathering point and then TP over–so I hope you can all join us then!
Elli Pinion: Love to see it and help!
Elli Pinion: Great conversation….good resources! TY!
Orange Planer: Professional Educator (definition): someone who gets paid to teach.
Scot Jung: how current is the archive of transcripts?
Chantal Jager (nymf.hathaway): Thank you all, for the information, SC will use this to determine how we will implement badges as well.
Beth Ghostraven: would you like to help make it current?
Beth Ghostraven: sure, why not!
Sheila Yoshikawa: Beth can I leave that to you to teach Scot about it?
Orange Planer: I’ll carry your books, I’ll carry a torch, I’ll carry a tune, I’ll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I’ll even ‘hari-kari’ if you show me how, but I will not carry a badge!
Chantal Jager (nymf.hathaway): Have a lovely weekend everyone!
VWER Meeting Transcripts by Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://vwer.info.