How to Use This Page
Each badge's description is listed here for your convenience. To see the challenges from each badge, simply click the title from this page. Alternatively, hover over the "Badges" tab and click "Challenges" from the menu that appears to be redirected to the blog where every challenge is listed. To see a specific badge's components together, select the desired badge from the "Challenges by Badge" header on the right of the page.
Badge 1: Education Technology - Connections
Educational technology offers some distinct advantages to teachers; however, with so much information about this field and specifically about the ever evolving tools and technologies, how can anyone determine what should be attended to and what should be ignored? Actually, there are ways to use technology to help you in this regard.
This badge focuses on using several different types of technology to not only make connections within the field of Educational Technology, but also help you cull, organize, store, access and use that information. Source: Passport |
Badge 2: Word Processing and Developing Lesson Plans
The key purposes of this badge include giving you experience: a) searching, evaluating, and selecting appropriate lesson plans based on your course theme; and b) composing, formatting, and publishing specific documents using two different types of word processors.
You will produce two 1 to 3 page lesson plans that relate to your specific course theme. For example, if your course theme focuses on ecology you might go on-line and find two different lesson plans about the study of different aquatic habitats. You would then adapt those lesson plans (make sure you include a proper citation for the work that you are using) to fit your intended audience. Based on the challenges’ requirements, you will produce one document within each of the two different word processing programs. Source: Passport |
Badge 3: Publishing Informational Material
The key purpose of this badge is to give you experience designing, developing, and publishing informational materials using specific software.
For this badge you will use desktop publishing software (MS Publisher) to create a tri-fold informational brochure about some element related to your course theme. Adapt the brochure in order to address all of the requirements of this badge. Source: Passport |
Badge 4: Spreadsheets and Organizing, Analyzing, and Presenting Data
Based on your course theme, the purpose of this badge is to give you experience identifying, analyzing, and presenting relevant data using spreadsheet software.
For this badge you will develop and format a spreadsheet that incorporates and analyzes data relevant to your selected course theme. Source: Passport |
Badge 5: databases - Searching, sorting, and Merging Data
This badge focuses on you developing a basic database (within MS Excel) that is relevant to your selected course theme. The purpose is to give you experience entering data, formatting it and then searching, sorting, and merging the data in unique and useful ways.
For this badge you will develop and format a small database of information. In addition, information can be merged in order to produce labels for mailers or other uses. Source: Passport |
Badge 6: Digital Storytelling
This badge focuses on you developing skills at creating a digital storytelling experience that includes still media and audio.
With the advances in technology, there are continually increasing ways in which you can explore learning and the strategies that allow individuals to learn. Creating a digital story allows you to not only learn how to use multimedia software, but more importantly, it requires you to study how to plan and develop the story and consider exactly what the viewer will experience and learn from viewing your work. This badge with its various challenges will allow you to experience the full planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating process that you will use continually throughout your teaching career. For this badge you will be creating a 2-3 minute video that incorporates images, text, music, and audio narration clips. Source: Passport |
Badge 7: Addressing Plagiarism
The purpose of this badge is to teach you about how to address and avoid plagiarism.
With increased access of information via the Internet and other electronic means, it is increasingly easy to inadvertently, or even purposefully, plagiarize information. It is important for students and teachers to understand what plagiarism is, how to identify it, and how to avoid it. Likewise, as technology has increased the ease for plagiarism to occur, there are various ways that technology has also been developed to help monitor and identify when cases have occurred. In this badge, you will study plagiarism and how technology can be used to help overcome potential problems. Source: Passport |
Badge 8: Interactive whiteboards
The purpose of this badge is to make you aware of the capabilities of
interactive whiteboards, now a common sight in K-12 classrooms. We
want you to be able to use these tools to the fullest of their abilities
– not just as glorified digital markerboards. You will be working
either with an InterWrite Dualboard or a Smartboard – two prominent
brands of interactive whiteboard.
Source: Passport |