How do you incentivize a bunch of young boys to pursue learning about their "civic duties" or "CPR"? Provide them with visible, tangible representations of their individuals merits - a Merit Badge. Stay tuned for further developments.
For decades badges have represented achievement in children’s and youth associations and in some professions. Religious pilgrims receive badges for their journeys.
Becket-pilgrim-badge open licensed by Wikipedia
Recently computer games have awarded badges for skill and success. Judd Antin and Elizabeth Churchill examine the psychology of the use of badges to encourage interaction in social media in this well-researched and well-written paper: Badges in Social Media: A Social Psychological Perspective.
Badges reward the knowledge and skill required to demonstrate achievement.
The Mozilla Foundation badge program seeks to open education by replacing the current system of limited admissions, high costs, and sometimes artificial demonstrations of learning with recognition of evidence-based learning open to all learners. The issuing of badges will also be open to organizations of many types. Rigorous criteria and solid evidence will be encouraged. Ultimately employers and established educational institutions will recognize those badges and badge-holders that demonstrate value. The Mozilla Foundation will provide the infrastructure to automate issuing and earning badges. The initial pilot of Mozilla Badges is now in operation with the Peer-to-Peer University (P2PU) School of Webcraft. Additional pilots will occur this Fall and the system will go live in 2012.
