Introducing Faculty Badges: Winter Edition 2017

Today was the grand unveiling of the new suite of badges designed for faculty by Amy Wilkes and Katie Cain. Like a kid at Christmas, I still get excited when new badges are designed and introduced. These badges are only available through the end of April, so don’t let them pass by you. Remember, a badge has six elements to its design. Although the artwork is often the most visible and appealing aspect of a badge, it is only 1/6 of the design. Like a quarterback who gets all the credit when a team wins, the artwork can overshadow the […]

Fearless Writing

Fearless Writing What is a multi-genre project? “A multi-genre paper arises from research, experience, and imagination. It is not an uninterrupted, expository monolog nor a seamless narrative. A multi-genre paper is composed of many genres and sub-genres, each piece self-contained, making a point of its own, yet connected to other pieces by theme and content and sometimes by repeated languages, images, and genres. A multi-genre paper may also contain many voices, not just the author’s. The craft then–the challenge for the writer–is to make such a paper hang together as one unified whole.” Why should you and your students write […]

Hacking Badges

HACKING BADGES Some of my team members will tell you that I’ve been talking a lot about badges lately. It’s true. So true that they’ve started giving me elbows. I’ve been reading research, blogs, articles, and even taking some field trips all in the pursuit of hacking badges. Critics say they don’t get digital badging. Naysayers dismiss badges as external rewards that will decrease student motivation, citing Alfie Kohn and Daniel Pink. They accuse the curiosity-driven, edu-innovators of chasing after the latest, shiny toy. I say Teddy Roosevelt knows best, “It’s not the critic who counts…” OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME A […]

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