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Are digital tokens that provide concrete evidence of accomplishments, skills, qualities, or participation.
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Have been used by Girl Guides, Scouting, and the military among others to motivate and provide proof of achievement for over a century
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Are used as rewards for achievement by video game designers keep people playing
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Include a graphical icon and the metadata about who earned the badge, the criteria for earning the badge, when it was issued, and who issued it
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Wider scale The learner pushes the badge into a “backpack,” a portfolio-style server account, where this award is stored alongside badges from other grantors.
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Are currently difficult to trust because they are not accredited outside an institution and there is limited quality control
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Are an emerging pedagogical and technological tool in higher education but there is growing acceptance in the business world
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Provide motivation and encourage engagement
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Influence learning through the provision of focused goals, tasks and affirmation
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Recognize skills developed outside the academic learning environment
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Recognize the completion of projects and activities within a course
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Encourage people to try new things
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Empower students and encourage autonomy
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Replace the traditional grading scale by providing proof, in the form of a visual record, of a student’s achievement
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Help create a personalized learning path focusing on individual students and their accomplishments
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Support the traditional curriculum
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Recognize and encourage positive participation in the learning environment
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Reinforce behaviours and skills acquisition
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Identify specific skills
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Badges should be tied to learner behaviors or achievements
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Identify activities you want your students to complete, making sure the activities support your learning outcomes, than create badges that can be awarded upon completion of each activity

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Create a few badges for doing something random but still within the scope of the course goals; example: someone who has contributed over-and-above the norm in a discussion forum or someone who has gone out of their way to support a classmate
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Make some activities easy to accomplish, but also include some that are hard enough that students know they have achieved something special when they earn on of these badges
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Mozilla Open Badges. http://www.openbadges.org/
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Unique Learning Badges http://www.learningbadges.eu/
Digital badges (2013?). Digital Age Teaching & Learning. https://sites.google.com/a/dcsdk12.org/etil-academycadre/resources-1/digital-badges
Digital badges in education: A quick overview (2013?). Infology. http://blogs.ubc.ca/open/2014/03/28/digital-badges-in-education-a-quick-overview
EDUCAUSE. (2012). 7 Things you should know about badges. http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7085.pdf
Finkelstein, J., Knight, E., Manning, S. (2013). The potential and value of using digital badges for
adult learners: Draft for public comment. AIR: American Institute for Research. http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/AIR_Digital_Badge_Report_508.pdf
Hardin-Baylor, M. (2013). Incorporating digital badges in marketing curriculum for demonstrated
learning [PowerPoint]. Pearson Publishing. http://pearsonevents.com/cite2013/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/incorporating-digital-badges.pdf
Schuetz, R. (2014). Digital badges for teacher professional development. Nocking the Arrow. http://rtschuetz.blogspot.ca/2014/03/digital-badges-for-teacher-professional.html
Sorensen, K. (2013). The teacher’s guide to badges in education. Edudemic: Connecting
Education & Technology. http://www.edudemic.com/guides/the-teachers-guide-to-badges-ineducation/
Verghese, R. (2013 September 17). In theory and in practice: digital badges in education and
the challenges that arise. Re-Mediating Assessment. http://remediatingassessment.blogspot.ca/2013/09/in-theory-and-in-practice-digital.html
Walshe, S. (2014 March 26). Digital badges finding use in education and across industries.
Extreme Networks. http://www.extremenetworks.com/digital-badges-finding-use-ineducation-and-across-industries/