Les insígnies en el marc de la gamificació en química

He vist a la revista Education in Chemistry l’article titulat There’s a badge for that, que tracta l’assumpte de les insígnies (badges) en els cursos de química, en aquest cas, en les pràctiques de laboratori químic. Però què són les insígnies digitals?

Digital badges are more than just an image of a badge. They include lots of information, termed metadata, which is ‘baked’ into the badge. This information includes details about the badge issuer and the recipient. This means that badges are specific to an individual. The latter point is crucial, as the purpose of having badges in digital format means learners can share their badge on their own social media and professional platforms. The means of doing this is facilitated by the Open Badges ‘backpack’, which serves as an independent space on the web where any learner can build up their collection of badges.

Les insígnies van relacionades amb l’assoliment de determinades competències. Una insígnia podria ser

A key aspect of badges is that they contain information incorporated into the file details, or ‘baked’ into the badge. This information is entered when setting up the badge on the badging platform or the VLE. Details of currently available badging platforms are listed on the Open Badges website. Details baked in include:

  • badge name (eg Mole Calculator badge)
  • badge description (an brief overview of what the badge is awarding)
  • criteria to be achieved (information on what the badge owner had to do to be awarded the badge)
  • issuer (this can be the teacher’s name or the school name, for example)
  • date issued, and if the badge is issued for a period of time, the date of expiry
  • tags can also be used to identify the category the badge is in (eg education, chemistry, mole calculations)
  • when a badge is issued the name of the awardee is also incorporated, so the badge becomes individual to that learner

L’article mostra una experiència a la Universitat d’Edinburgh:

This year at the University of Edinburgh, we embarked on a pilot programme to explore the use of digital badges as a means of acknowledging competency in chemistry laboratory techniques. Following the strategy identified above for the mole calculator badge, the first step was to identify the criteria for the badge. We decided to build our work around three core techniques for first year chemistry: titrations, distillations and preparing standard solutions.

Segons l’autor, Michael Seery, les conclusions són que

Badges offer a useful way of acknowledging achievement in any aspect of learning. While individual badges can be a fun process, there is great potential in drawing together suites of badges that bring in different aspects of chemistry from class and laboratory work, helping students to link together different concepts. Let’s get badging!

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