Gamify Your Classroom With Digital Badges!Adding game mechanics to your classroom doesn’t have to be complicated. Digital badges are a great way to get started with gamification. Recognize learning achievements in your classroom with badges to motivate and challenge students to reach the next level. (Tip: Badges are also very motivating for teachers!)
There are several different approached to using badges in the classroom. Some websites and apps are strictly for creating and awarding badges, and some, more robust systems offer badges within their system. The following resources are just a start for those that are new to gamification, and all are iPad-friendly. I’ve included links and related resources as well.
Mozilla Open Badges are NOT proprietary like most systems. This means that any teacher can create and issue badges that do not have to be tied to a certain platform. Ready to see how it works? Take the Badges 101 Quiz to earn your first badge.
For All Badges
For All Badges is an iOS app that works in conjunction with For All Rubrics to align your rubrics with badges. For All Badges also integrates with Mozilla’s Open Badges platform, and allows students to save badges to their “backpack.”
Edmodo
Edmodo is a full, social learning platform with over 35 million users. With so many teachers and students already on board, it is worth mentioning that badges are integrated into this platform. After logging in to your Edmodo dashboard, go to the top toolbar>progress>student badges to check it out.
Class Badges is one of the more popular badging platforms. Class Badges allow the teacher to easily award badges aligned with learning goals. The video below is a great introduction to get you started.
- 5 Fun and Free Avatar Creators for the iPad
- Gamifying the iClassroom – iPadpalooza 2014 Presentation
Teacher’s Guide to Badges in Education from Edudemic is a great resource for learning more about badges.
What are your favorite gamification resources? How have you used badges in the classroom or in professional development? Please feel free to share in the resources below.
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I’ve completed a little bit of research on Badging. I’m a newbie! I would love to know:
1. What you have encountered as the most common tool used for badging kids under and over 13 yrs of age?
2. Do you know of any schools that have created online learning opportunities that tie to a badging system?
Thanks,
Jennifer
Hi JBo! Thanks for leaving a comment! Great questions, and I would expect no less. You are always great at asking questions to get people thinking!
I have not encountered widespread usage of badging anywhere just yet. Maybe someone reading this post will share. I see it as emerging at this point and teachers are figuring out what works for them and the systems they can use.
As for the under 13 piece, I do know that Mozilla’s Open Badging system is only for those over 13. Credly is the same. I have the most experience with Credly, and it is the one I have been using to give badges to teachers. Class Badges allows schools and districts to contract with the company and set-up student accounts, and that piece allows under 13 users. Edmodo would be the same. In addition many games have badges built into their systems, so it all depends on the how far you want to go…a little gamification v. full blow GBL.
I think there are two considerations with badging to help answer your question: 1) badge creation, and 2) badge distribution.
1) Badge creation can be done just about anywhere. Credly is really easy to create or upload your own images. I often create in PicMonkey and other plaforms so I can get the exact image I want. Most platforms allow you to save the image to your files.
2) Badge distribution is a whole different matter. Even though I may use Credly to create and give details of the credit. It requires an account and login to claim through their system. But it is easy enough to create the badge with Credly, PicMonkey, or whatever else and simply save the image somewhere for students to access. (A folder in GDrive seems like a logical starting point.) Edmodo also has badges built into their system, but it is limited. But sharing images as badges could be very simple and doesn’t even have to be digital. In districts with limited devices, I know of some teachers that print badges for students to tape to their notebooks.
Once you separate the idea of creation from distribution, all kinds of possibilities open up for teachers and students. I hope this helps!
Kasey