From the Big Hype to the Hard Work: Understanding Educator Implementation of Digital Badges

• In Event: Democratizing Learning Through Digital Badges: Theoretical and Analytical Frameworks to Advance Design and Research

Abstract

Digital badges represent a new potentially powerful pedagogical tool that can support learning. When brought into youth programs, however, badges face what all educational-technology innovations encounter: the challenge of implementation in messy social realities of learning environments. Successful implementation requires teachers to acclimate an innovation into their mental models (Spillane, Reiser & Gomez, 2006), and most innovations must be adapted to the daily activities of educational spaces (Brown & Campione, 1996). Therefore, for badges to realize their potential educational impact, it is critical to pay careful, scientific attention to implementation.

In this study, we map out paths of educators implementing digital badges—most for the first time—in the context of a summer, citywide badging initiative. The study took place in a medium-sized, Mid-Atlantic US city and included 30 diverse learning programs, such as summer camps operated by community-based organizations and a youth-employment initiative. We collected questionnaires from educators (N=30) at five time-points: 3 pre-implementation, 1 during, 1 post-implementation. The surveys elicited open-ended responses focused on educators’ beliefs about benefits of badges, challenges encountered, resolutions to challenges, and characteristics of day-to-day implementation. We inductively coded responses and developed the framework presented in Figure 1, illustrating shifts from anticipated to experienced challenges in program-related badge design.

Our framework, inspired by Gartner’s Hype Cycle (www.gartner.com), focuses on stages of implementation in an educational initiative rather than the life of a technological innovation. When a new technology is introduced, it often gets hyped inflating expectations about practice improvement. Then reality sets in and we become disillusioned by unfulfilled expectations. Only after hype and disillusionment come the real work of understanding implementation so innovation can rise to a level of productivity. We also root our framework in the trans-theoretical model of behavior change (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1982), allowing us to consider the human aspects of technology implementation.

The framework reflects several early findings. There may be an ongoing “chicken-or-egg” problem with the technology of digital badges and implementation into sites that may take years to resolve. We find wide variation badging implementation: from full integration to afterthought program add-ons. Educators identified lack of time as an ongoing challenge, a long-cited issue of reform efforts (e.g. Fullan, 1995; Capps, Crawford, & Constas, 2012). Additionally, educators noted difficulties identifying competencies students should learn in their programs. Just as research on data-informed instruction discusses assessment literacy (Mandinach & Gummer, 2013), badging literacy may also be a component of educators’ implementation.

This study provides an initial exploration into an area increasingly necessary to understand as badging becomes more mainstream. Presented is a working model of how educators integrate badges and an analytic starting point for researchers. Understanding educators’ perceptions of badges may inform professional development for badge integration based on prior research suggesting teachers’ pedagogical beliefs are malleable through intentional learning experiences (Ertmer, 2005). We need targeted implementation science to understand and support the rollout of badges in what Larson et al. (2009) call the “daily tumble of events in youth settings.”

Authors

• Peter Samuelson Wardrip, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

• Thomas Akiva, University of Pittsburgh

• Annie McNamara, University of Pittsburgh

• Lisa Brahms, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh