Brittle badges, hollow promises

We need to seek genuine value and recognition for young people (or anyone) to take us seriously.

In recent years, the educational landscape has witnessed an emerging trend: the awarding of digital badges to high school students. These badges, often celebrated for their innovative approach to recognising student achievement and skills, symbolise a step forward in diversifying recognition of education. However, without a pathway to convert these badges into credit for higher education or other tangible benefits, they remain largely symbolic, offering little more than a digital image devoid of substantial value.

At first glance, digital badges appear as a novel way to acknowledge the diverse talents and skills of students. They are often lauded for providing a more granular view of student achievements, beyond traditional grades. Some organisations offer recognition to their own walled gardens, though most seductively hint at wider recognition. However, this initial promise is superficial. Without a mechanism to translate these badges into concrete benefits like college credits, jobs, or scholarships, they function merely as ephemeral tokens of achievement, with their value confined to an image file.

Traditional educational credentials, such as high school diplomas or university transcripts, have long been the currency of the educational realm, facilitating the transition from high school to higher education or higher education to the workforce. These credentials, recognised (almost) universally, carry a weight that most digital badges currently lack. The contrast is stark: where traditional credentials open doors, digital badges, in their current form, merely adorn the walls of a student's digital portfolio.

For digital badges to transcend their current state, they must evolve to offer tangible benefits. This could take the form of recognition by universities and colleges, wherein badges can be converted into course credits, or by employers, who could see them as legitimate indicators of skill proficiency, or ideally both. In the absence of such recognition, digital badges risk being perceived as mere novelties, failing to impact a student's educational trajectory or career prospects meaningfully.

The lack of tangible benefits associated with digital badges can have broader economic and social implications. Students from underprivileged backgrounds, who might benefit most from such innovative educational acknowledgments, are left with a currency that holds little to no value in the real world. This perpetuates the existing educational inequalities, where only traditional forms of recognition afford real opportunities.

Digital badges, in their current form, mostly represent a lost opportunity in the realm of educational recognition. Without a clear pathway to translate these badges into tangible benefits, they remain largely symbolic, failing to provide real value to students. That is why we are working so hard to imbue these digital recognitions with real-world significance beyond the remit of any one organisation, thereby ensuring that digital badges serve as more than just digital images, but as tokens of achievement that can open doors, give students choice, and create new value.

If you want to explore the future of recognition of growth and progress, get in touch or take a look at our work so far. 2024 will be Phase 2 - refining, growing, exploring what's next.