Everyone is excited about digital badges and their use with students in learning. But what about using digital badges with teachers?! That’s the premise at Houston Independent School District (HISD) where they partnered with VIF International Education (VIF) “to provide our teachers with globally themed online professional development and a customized digital badging system.”
Teachers would participate in some online question-based professional development modules and then were awarded a digital badge for the successful completion. HISD and VIF touted the benefit of this digital badging system with these five features:
Badging requires demonstrating understanding and implementation of a target content or skill.
Badging provides recognition and motivation.
Badging allows for knowledge circulation among teachers.
Do you supply links to teachers who are looking for resources? Or, do you provide teacher workshops where you show new collections or tools for them to consider in honing their craft? There are lots of Pinterest lovers out there, so this might be right up their alley! More than 500,000 education-related items are posted each day to Pinterest, and educators can easily share teaching ideas, but where do you grab hold of such a vast resource? Start with this site and if it really catches on in your school, consider creating a Pinterest account for your district so teachers can pin and share what works best. You will look brilliant for getting them started!
Note: Pinterest is considered an AASL Best Website for Teaching and Learning
Image Retrieved online from Minnesota Book Awards site 10/28/13.
MEMO and The Friends of The Saint Paul Public Library are providing free Minnesota Book Award materials for all MEMO members. Posters and bookmarks can be ordered online. Click here to request your materials.
Tip: Pass these on to your teachers and students; especially if they have incorporated a MN Book Award winner in their curriculum. For an additional cost, Honored Book Seals are also available.
Image by Sergey Galyonkin. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.
Gaming programs are growing in some libraries across the United States. In ALA’s blog The Scoop, Brian Mayer wrote an article detailing how he facilitated game creation, with students, using classroom curriculum. Mayer is a gaming and library technology specialist at the Genesee Valley (N.Y.) Educational Partnership. When creating this game-based type of makerspace, he focuses on “…demonstrating concept understanding and mastery throughout the design process and in the finished product.” This work is accomplished in collaboration with classroom teachers and the school librarians. Find out more about how Mayer engages and empowers youth in Creating Game-Based Makerspaces, (July 2013.)
Note: Interested in incorporating games in your learning process? Read the related article, How to Gamify Your Classroom (October 2013), in which the author decodes how you can win students over in five simple levels.
Image by PEW Research. Retrieved online October 8, 2013.
In 2012, PEW Research surveyed more than 2,400 teachers involved in Advanced Placement (AP) and/or National Writing Project (NWP) in the United States. The study asked teachers about their middle and high school student’s writing in relation to, and perception of, the influence of digital tools/technologies.
The study findings indicated that digital tools created a wider, more diverse audience; and encouraged collaboration and personal expression across multiple platforms. Also, undesirable effects of these digital tools were noted which included the use of a more informal writing style and language. The research goes into further detail about copyrighting, plagiarism, comprehension, etc. Click here for the summary of findings, full report and additional information about survey methodology for the PEW Research study, The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in School by PEW Research’s (July 2013).
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Everyone is excited about digital badges and their use with students in learning. But what about using digital badges with teachers?! That’s the premise at Houston Independent School District (HISD) where they partnered with VIF International Education (VIF) “to provide our teachers with globally themed online professional development and a customized digital badging system.”
