Education does not make you a more valuable human being; that notion is noxious.
How do we design learning to inspire students' intrinsic motivation?perhaps we don't design it... no?
1. how are those around you doing
2. help players become reflective about their own play. In other words, student activities need to mirror the practices we actually wish them to perform and should be designed to encourage autonomy and reflection.
Honestly I don't care about badges one way or the other. It's about what you do and why you do it. What I believe we must resist is mistaking real motivation and meaningful learning for increasing our value as a human commodity in the marketplace. I'm fairly sure that education doesn't make us "better" humans. I don't even think learning can make us "more" human (whatever that might be), though it could expand our experience in interesting ways. The one thing we have to prevent is schooling making us feel less human.
welcome to badge world
So when the federal government and corporations start lining up behind badges, you really should know they have a terrible track record.But I don't want a badge. I want to be able to do something just because I want to do it, without the panoptic glare of the badge police (or the police badge for that matter). Can't I just be part of an academic blogging community where people are there because they want to be instead of pursuing some commodity?
rethinking assessment and the dml badge competition
If you learn, you are transformed. Your medals won't help you run faster or farther, but the hours of running will.If I spent long hours practicing music and learning studio recording by trial and error, which I did, the proof was in the music I produced. If I studied creative writing for my MA, the proof was in the poetry I wrote and the readings I gave. Today, I am still marked by learning and that mark is visible in the writing I publish, the courses I teach, the program I administrate, and so on. As we all know by now, you just do it. During the presentation, one of the speakers remarked that today Google is your resume. I'm fine with that. Google me. Read my blog. Download my vita. Read my Twitter feed or Facebook page. Find my articles. Read it all. I mean, that's why I wrote them, right?From the perspective of the learner, my advice would be to pay as little attention as possible to assessment. Feedback? Advice? Real engagement with your work? These are all valuable things. I welcome your comments here. Do I care if you rate my post a 1 or a 10? Do I care if you give me the "good post o' the day" badge?
Real learning occurs without assessment
or at least w/o outsiders assessment.. self-directed feedback loops helps learning no?
Cathy reference Reid above in her post on the badges
pasting my response - as every time i hit submit - my internet connection is lost..
Cathy.. you write above:That's what this competition is about, seeing who has ideas, who can make ideas work, how they work, and then doing the research to learn more about what is or is not working in these new illustrative and exemplary systems.this is what i guess i'm not seeing from my read on the competition. it's like pbl as it's being played out in public ed. we're asking kids to be creative, self-direct, but within a given set of parameters.
a call out for ideas is wonderful. i wish it wasn't so directed/restricted to the badge idea.
especially as it's coming from places i admire/respect for their previous work, ie: you and dm&l.
people won't think about the parameters you are setting, they will just jump in submit their best ideas - within the parameters of a badge idea - because of who it's coming from. to me, that's not open. and what's worse, we'll be missing potential creativity on something we all care deeply about.
we've become addicted to educational credentialing, and we're missing what it means to be human and alive. breaking away from that addiction, in my thinking, is what will address equity. our labling need/frenzy only creates more inequity.
prejudice decreases as discrimination increases. - Ellen Langer
