Exploring Open Digital Badges in Teacher Education: a Case Study from India

Authors

  • Freda Wolfenden The Open University UK
  • Lina Adinolfi The Open University
  • Simon Cross The Open University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v7i1.383

Abstract

This case study concerns findings from a workshop with senior teacher educators from three Indian states as part of the TESS-India teacher professional development initiative. The workshop explored how open digital badges might be used to support, capture and validate changes in teachers’ classroom practice. Workshop participants drew on the TESS-India OER to design short online in-service teacher professional development courses to support movement towards the more participatory approach advocated in education policy. As part of this course design process, participants were encouraged to propose digital badges to recognise changes in teachers’ pedagogic practice. Analysis of the workshop discussions and outputs indicated enthusiasm for digital badges, while also revealing that the process of defining digital badges may be helpful in prompting disruption of deeply embedded cultural scripts about ways of being and knowing that shape teacher educators’ practice and helping them to recognise what the work of quality teaching entails.

Author Biographies

Freda Wolfenden, The Open University UK

Freda Wolfenden is Professor of Education and International Development at the Open University, UK. Freda’s expertise is in teacher education, pedagogy and technology enabled professional learning. She deploys this to shape the design and delivery of sustainable system change in teacher education in multiple contexts. 

Lina Adinolfi, The Open University

Dr Lina Adinolfi is a Lecturer in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics at the Open University, UK. Her professional and research specialisms embrace language education and language in education, with a focus on teacher development and the role of language-supportive pedagogies, such as translanguaging, in multilingual low-resource contexts.

Simon Cross, The Open University

Dr Simon Cross is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Technology at The Open University, UK. He has established research interests in a range of technology-enhanced practice including the place and spaces of mobile learning, learning and quality enhancement analytics, teaching with virtualised reality, and assessment and learning design.

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Wolfenden, F., Adinolfi, L., Cross, S., Lee, C., Paranjpe, S., & Safford, K. (2017). Moving towards more participatory practice with Open Educational Resources: TESS-India Academic Review. The Open University, Milton Keynes. Available at: http:// http://oro.open.ac.uk/49631/

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Published

2020-03-20

How to Cite

Wolfenden, F., Adinolfi, L., & Cross, S. (2020). Exploring Open Digital Badges in Teacher Education: a Case Study from India. Journal of Learning for Development, 7(1), 108–115. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v7i1.383

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2020): ISSUE 1

Section

Case Studies

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Received 2019-12-20
Accepted 2020-03-05
Published 2020-03-20