Digital badges: Show what you know!

Guest post by: Carl Blyth

In line with this year’s theme, “New Spaces, New Realities: Learning Anytime, Anyplace,” the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL) is bringing digital badges to ACTFL 2013! Digital badges are online representations of earned knowledge and achievements. ACTFL will give an award to convention attendees who participate in the ACTFL Convention Network. By visiting www.actflbadges.org, attendees can sign up to become part of the Convention Network and discover other Network members based on shared interests, geographic area, and languages taught.

As more educational institutions and employers emphasize the importance of marketable skills, ACTFL members are increasingly asked to “show what they know.” Digital badges are an innovative way to foster collaboration and display the diverse skills and accomplishments of language educators. It is COERLL’s hope that ACTFL digital badges will become an accepted means of professional credentialing and transform how learning is assessed.

I encourage all ACTFL 2013 Convention attendees to visit www.actflbadges.org to sign up to become part of the Convention Network, learn more about digital badges, and to begin making meaningful professional connections! Also, while in Orlando, be sure to stop by the ACTFL Badges Convention Network booth at ACTFL Central to meet other participants and to claim your physical Convention Networker badge. Wear it proudly and see how being part of the ACTFL Convention Network amplifies your convention experience.

To learn more about badges, view this short video produced by the MacArthur Foundation.

See you in Orlando!