PD Badging - Part 1: The Program

A little back story...

One of my big tasks as a local school technology coordinator/technology coach is providing professional development related to technology and technology integration for the teachers in my school.  For the time being, my major time to do this is on the three teacher workdays within the school year. But I knew that in order to help teachers grow and emphasize the importance of tech integration, this was not enough (just look at this month's Educational Leadership from ASCD, which focuses on The Tech Savvy School). 

My first attempt was "Y'all Come" sessions before or after school.  But between, collaborative planning meetings, IEPs, and other teacher tasks, the numbers that would be able to come were tiny...1 or 2 out of 60+ staff members (which I TOTALLY understand)!  I knew this was still not good enough!

After a little reading, my own professional learning, and some collaborating with colleagues inside and outside my school system, I came up with the B.E.S. Tech Challenge... 

The program is waaaaaaaaaay overwhelming to talk about in one blog post, so I'm going to break it down into parts.  In this post, an overview of how the program works and the website...

Part One:  What is PD Badging?  And how does it work?

PD Badging is a personalized learning format that allows teachers to add to their knowledge and bag of tricks in ways that are "relevant, valuable, and engaging". (eSchool News, "How digital badges are shaking up teacher PD") The teacher gets to choose what they want to learn to benefit him or herself, in turn, receives recognition for his or her work in the form of a badge.  PD Badging programs do not have to just be about technology; others have created programs for all areas that would benefit teachers and student achievement.

The program I developed, the B.E.S. Tech Challenge, is a voluntary program.  I have borrowed work from a colleague in a nearby school district, Caroline Bucky-Beaver, Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Barrow County School System (Georgia).  She introduced the PD Badging System called Ed Tech Innovation Challenges.  (She is a PD Badge MASTER!  And I thank her soooooooooooooo much for taking time to answer questions that I have had in developing my own program)

Currently I have developed 42 badges, but I am work on creating more badges whenever I have free time.  Here are some more specifics:  

• Each badge has some form of learning.  Learning may take place as a video or article, but there are even badges for receiving coaching too.  
• Each badge requires some form of evidence.  Teachers may need to take a screen shot, the link to the product created with a digital tool, or a report from using the tool in a lesson.  All evidence is encouraged to be used in lessons in the classroom.
• Each badge is worth a number of XP or experience points.  The more experience points a badge is worth the more advanced the badge is.
• Teachers can work together to complete their learning and produce evidence of that learning.  We will also have on occasion times when in person staff development will count for badges.
• When a teacher has completed all the tasks required for a badge, he or she completes a badge request Google Form where the evidence may also be submitted.
• Once I approve that all tasks have been completed, then I approve the badge, send the teacher a certificate through email, and then issue the teacher a sticker badge.   

Coming soon...Part Two: The Badges