DigitalMe’s Partnership with Naace
Open Badges for Professional Development & Computing at School
In March of this year, DigitalMe, Naace and Makewaves launched a suite of Open Badges for continuing professional development for teachers. These badges were developed with funding from the Department for Education and they are accredited by Naace, the national professional association for technology in education. They are DigitalMe’s first ever CPD Badges and they are the first ever accredited CPD badges for teachers in the UK.
Naace CPD badges train teachers in best practice for the new computing curriculum in both primary and secondary schools. There are three levels of badges: 1) Understanding of the Computing Curriculum, 2) Knowledge of the three strands of the Computing Curriculum (Digital Literacy, Computer Science and Information Technology) and 3) Applying your knowledge of the Computing Curriculum when working with Young People. In addition, Naace is now offering a membership badge and students who take Naace badges get free Naace membership.
However, instead of using a traditional, top down approach, these badges are intended to recognize and validate activity already taking place in the classroom. Using accompanying resources from Computing at School as well as Naace to support their learning journey, teachers submit evidence, which is then reviewed. If approved, a digital badge is awarded.
More information about Naace badges is available in this presentation by our own Matt Rogers. Our work with Naace was also featured in the CAS newsletter (scroll to page 9). In addition to the Naace CPD badges, there are also Safe, CAS and Rising Stars badges to help teach the new computing curriculum on a dedicated Makewaves site.
Naace Badges in Practice
At DigitalMe, we’re always looking for feedback from our badge users. We spoke to the ICT in Schools team about an innovative use of the Naace badges that they are about to put into practice. The ICT in Schools team provide professional development for teachers in and around South Tyneside. Their CPD offering covers topics such as blogging with Makewaves, programming with Scratch, Primary ICT and CEOP’s ‘Think You Know’ e-safety resources.
With the publication of their summer training brochure, the ICT in Schools team in South Tyneside have mapped their offering to the Naace badges. Their introductory session on the new computing curriculum, ‘How do computers and the internet work?’ is mapped to the Level 2 Digital Literacy, Computer Science and Information Technology Naace Badges, for example. Blogging with Makewaves can also help a teacher attain the Level 2 Digital Literacy badge and Programming with Scratch can lead to the Level 2 Computer Science badge.
Amanda Hayward, Primary e-Learning advisor, noted that at ICT in Schools, the staff see the Naace badges as ‘a validation of what teachers are already doing. They lead teachers to think about what they’re doing in the classroom and they provide a means of national recognition for training that isn’t recognised in any other way.’
Originally published at www.digitalme.co.uk.
