Make, Invent, Play & Earn

In the spirit of the maker movement and VitaLearn's Dynamic Landscape Conference theme Do, Make, & Create, we thought we might build a little experiment involving collaborative, online fun!

Linda McSweeney, VSLA president elect, and school librarian in Stowe, created a Goodreads group around the reading of Invent to Learn, Gary Stager's book.  Gary Stager (@garystager)
and Joyce Valenza (@joycevalenza) are keynoting Dynamic Landscapes this year.

 Check it out:  https://sites.google.com/site/vermontschoolibraries/  (description located under announcement for DL)


​
When we got wind of this, Audrey and I at TIIE thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if anyone participating in this book group might actually want to Make/Do/Create based on the content and themes of the book, in addition to the online discussion.  If so, participants in the book club could not only discuss the book on Goodreads, they could use apps and digital tools to build artifacts and share their learning in multi-modal ways.  And to support and encourage this creative endeavor, why not recognize the learning and collaborating with a digital badge?

We contacted Linda, who was willing to play, so we created a quick DL Reader 2014 badge, to be earned by participating in the:

Dynamic Landscapes Book Club - http://tiie.w3.uvm.edu/bookclub/


​

We built it using WordPress and the BadgeOS plugins.  The goal was to align with the Goodreads book club, and to build in some interactive, social, and gamified elements to see if we could engage with our colleagues prior to attending Dynamic Landscapes. 

Here is the announcement for the badge option in the Goodreads group which currently has 13 members:

​

In the spirit of taking on Chicago (http://openbadges.tumblr.com/post/82508317692/mayor-emanuel-announces-expanded-citywide-summer-of) and offering a new entry in our own Vermont-grown expanded informal learning options, credentialed via badges, we thought we'd give this a try and see what happens.  The badge, which when earned is portable via Credly, will live on earners' web presence of choice as a "badge" of honor.  I plan to present the results of this experiment on Friday at Dynamic Landscapes during the No Spectators Allowed! session.