systems of credentialing, enabling new ways to recognize more diverse learning
pathways, and opportunities for learners. While traditional formal qualifications are
somewhat distant from the actual activities of learning, digital badges contain
specific information about what was learnt, where and how. This meta-data that sits
behind a digital badge image adds a transparency to credentialing, linking the actual
evidence or artifact to the learning. As Grant ( 2014 ) posits, digital badging can be
used to create a meaningful bridge between content and learning, and help learners
develop a sense of personal reward, confidence, and connection to the learning
process.
In the Specialist Teaching program, digital badging is used in two ways. Thefirst
is in the more formal part of the program, whereby each competency domain of the
separate papers and courses are linked to specific domain badges. As teachers
complete the required activities and demonstrate competence within a domain, the
badge becomes available. This is useful as evidence for summative assessment as it
documents learning against specific criteria. It is also accessible for teachers to save
and display in their e-portfolios and on other social media sites used for their
professional work such as blogs orFacebookpages. These badges provide docu-
mentation of the micro skills and knowledge gained and the teacher can decide how
this information can be shared, stored, and viewed, as evidence of ongoing learning.
The second use of digital badging blurs the boundary between formal and
nonformal courses. Course content from the formal qualification is packaged in a
different way and offered as“short courses”open to any group of professionals and
tailored to suit their needs. These ongoing professional learning“short courses”
vary from a day workshop to part-time online courses over a few weeks. These
courses are then digitally badged, and this nonformal credentialing enables the
participant to make their learning more visible in their online portfolios, curriculum
vitae, or social networking spaces.
As Grant ( 2014 ) points out, our twentieth century model of education is based on
the view that teaching is essential for learning to occur, yet digital technologies
have made it possible for us to learn anywhere, anytime, from anyone, on any
device. Digital badging and e-portfolios are just two affordances of new tech-
nologies outlined here that shift our teaching and learning practices. These kinds of
shifts are necessary for ongoing professional programs to remain meaningful and
relevant in a twenty-first-century learning and teaching environment. Knowing how
to use technology is becoming every more critical, and part of any professional
education program should be to increase the digital capability of learners.
The Specialist Teachers preparedness to use technology-enabled learning such as
e-portfolios and interacting with others online was assessed at the start of the
program, and their achievement in using these tools was assessed as they graduated
from the program. Their perceptions of preparedness and achievement are outlined
below:
264 M. Mentis and A. Kearney