2018 Badge Summit Preview | Interview with Shelly Terrell

Spoiler Alert: She suggests you get excited:)

With just over two months until the 2018 Badge Summit, it was awesome to catch up with Shelly Sanchez Terrell for a quick preview of this year’s conference. Shelly has been a key mentor, collaborator, and champion of much work in the Digital Badges Credentials space.

For those of you who don’t know Shelly or follow her on Twitter, she is an Educator, a learning designer, an award winner, a social media maven, and an inspiring thought leader on Teaching and Learning. She is the author of several fantastic books, including her latest Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom.

You are a founder of the weekly Twitter chat #BadgeChat and have moderated many discussions about Badges. In your opinion, what has been the role of social media and online communities in advancing this work?

Badgechat and the resources you’ve collected on the Badge Chat Website have been my go-to resources for educators needing to know the first steps and resources. Digital badging transforms the education system, but with any transformational practice, which is so different and new to teachers, ongoing support is needed. Teachers get to ask those who have already tried digital badges with various age groups for tips and what to avoid. They also get to see digital badging in action at all stages and have access to templates and more.

As both a student and practitioner, you have now been involved in Badging and Micro-Credentials for several years. When you consider where we were compared to where we are now, what is a development that really gets you excited?

I’m especially excited to see companies adding features like portfolios because this really goes hand-in-hand with digital badging. I love the format of Makewav.es and Badgelist where not only are students asked to submit evidence but on their profiles you scroll, see the badge, and the work right there. I truly believe this not only is transformational for badging but also for the way we get students to create digital portfolios that demonstrate skills we’ve credentialed.

You have the opportunity to facilitate online learning spaces with badge-earning opportunities for educators who are joining from all over the world. Given your unique perspective, what similarities and/or differences have you noticed in how geographically diverse educators perceive Badges?

I recently completed hosting my #EduGoalsMOOC with nearly 700 participants in 5 continents, from over 20 countries. Many of them are new to using web tools and social media and definitely new to digital badging.

One of our tasks was to transform a regular lesson plan or project into a digital mission and add a badge. The teachers were so enthusiastic and some made several more badges for some incredible missions, which can be seen here. In my experience, teachers abroad get so excited about digital badging with students versus the US teachers I work with, but that might just be a personal observation. One reason might be because the online courses teachers from other countries take tend to award them digital badges and certificates so they understand the motivation behind earning badges from earning some themselves.

Why should folks be excited about this year’s Badge Summit in Chicago?

What excites me is all the new faces I’ve not seen speak before who seem quite inspiring. These aren’t speakers you get to learn from at any other conference I’ve seen, probably because there isn’t any other conference like it!

The 2018 Badge Summit is on June 23rd in Chicago, IL. Check out the preview announcement here on Medium and learn more, including registration details at bit.ly/badgesummit.

To learn more about Shelly and keep up with her latest blog posts connect with her on her website: http://teacherrebootcamp.com/