I would say that I like badges, I actually use several apps that use badges in order to show improvement or just the fact that you have earnt what kind of achievement. However, when it comes to the use of badges in education I have some questions and doubts.

I am quite familiar with the use of badges for different contexts, I could say that I am a user/fan, and I don’t miss the chance to win one if I have the option. I see the effect they have on me and the satisfaction I have when I get one. I definitely see the engagement power they have.

One of my favourite ones, and probably the first one I started using is Swarm. I actually started using this app, a long time ago when all the company was under Foursquare. Now they are split into two different apps, Swarm kept the social and gamification aspect, earning badges, while Foursquare,  it become a rating app, similar to Yelp.

I confess that I have the secret routine of checking in places and earn coins and badges for my unlocked places, like you have been in 5 Thai restaurants, here you have the Thai restaurant badge!

Inspired in this app, in 2011 I worked designing and creating the education proposal Agora: Citizen participation activities. (Everything is in Catalan, sorry). I did the educational foundation and methodology for children aged 8 to 12 years old. I designed the methodology and some activities as an inspiration to the teachers who will use the guideline.  The main idea of the proposal was that students needed to create their own city using the elements and values they wanted. In order to do that they needed to pass some activities. For example, if they wanted to have a green area in their city, they needed to pass the “green area activity”, then they earned the proper badge, and they were allowed to build a green area. The idea was that they had the virtual and the physical city in their classroom. I didn’t have many resources and clearly, the badges handmade, you can check the website I did for this programme here.

All the proposal was website based, all the instructions and activities were placed in WordPress and basically, the kids just needed to read an do it, in real life. I think I created something blended without knowing… Also, my plan was that all the classes shared their results: how many badges they have earned, pictures of their cities and everyone would be able to see what others were doing, share ideas and get inspired by others. Everything with the Open spirit on.

It was quite sad because the proposal was not very successful. Many teachers found that kids were already spending too much time in front of the computer (at home!), and they didn’t want to encourage the use of the blog as a guideline of the activities… Surprising, right? Also, another complaint was the fact of earning badges. Many educators considered that this was not the best way to motivate students. They argued that they should learn and that is the real reward, learning! The majority of the professors considered that giving the badge or points was not a really good way to measure their motivation. I have to say that at that point I shared part of the arguments, and I knew the proposal was quite risky.

A year after that, I moved to San Francisco, and I started teaching Spanish to young children and teenagers. Teaching in a different country I had many shock cultural moments, but one that makes sense to mention is the fact that part of my kit tool class they gave me, was a lot of stickers and an ink buffer (star shaped). I was supposed to give stickers every day and at least use the ink buffer with a couple of kids… Many days I forgot, and when my manager noticed told me that I was not motivating enough the kids because I was not giving enough stickers. The stickers were the motivation? It is true that students were clearly into stickers, but I thought it was quite sad.

In my experience, badge culture is something Anglo-Saxon. It is clear than the UK and US have more tradition on badging and there is a clear influence on other countries. Is it for the better or for the worst? Are there any viable or credible alternatives at the moment? Gamification it’s a very interesting approach, however, doesn’t undervalue what is really important (the learning for the pleasure of learning)? Or is that really important?

At the end of the day, we all go to work because we know that we will have a salary at the end of the month, and if we do good, even better than expected, we will be able to ask for more rewards…