“How can we use technology to make the world better?” This question is at the heart of Brad Flickinger‘s tech badges for primary students.

I had the honor of meeting Flickinger and learning about his incredible idea for tech badges in his workshop “From Bored to Badges” at the 2015 Tri-Association Conference in Bogotá, Colombia.

Flickinger’s tech badge idea developed as he noticed that technology integration efforts in many education systems were falling short – waaaay short – of tapping into students’ and technology’s full potential.

Here are just a few of the problems with technology integration efforts that stand out to Flickinger:

  • Students view technology and use technology for entertainment purposes only.
  • Technology use in classrooms tends to remain teacher-centered and require low levels of thinking (technology as a substitution of traditional teaching, ie: taking an online quiz versus a paper quiz).
  • Students – key players in today’s participatory culture – are bored with their classes and the types of passive learning activities they are expected to do.

Schools can and should do better. Flickinger’s tech badges for primary students do better.

Through tech badges, Flickinger aims to motivate students to think, collaborate, and create with their devices.  His badges develop technology competencies and performance skills that are applicable to any academic context.  Students progress at their own pace through levels of badges with increasing difficulty during the school year.

Level one badges cover basic and essential skills such as online safety, school technology policies, keyboarding skills, email etiquette, appropriate academic use of word processing and presentation software, research skills, and information literacy.

Higher level badges build on previous learning and get into more advanced creation skills. Flickinger’s primary students learn photography, videography, graphic design, podcasting, vodcasting, song making, animation, filmmaking, and even video game design. 

Here are a few exemplars of student-produced work:

Students earn badges in blended learning style by moving through online learning modules. The typical module includes an introductory video, a project to complete, a high-quality student exemplar, a list of materials/programs needed to earn the badge, success criteria, video tutorials, and a Google Form checklist for self and peer review.

Students receive a badge upon successful completion of the module project. The badge certifies students to apply their acquired skills to other contexts (such as classroom projects) reducing the need to train all teachers in high-tech programs. Students own the skills and can use them when given choice in the classroom of how to express their learning.

The differentiated nature of Flickinger’s tech badges and the focus on creativity, thinking skills, collaboration, and student-centered learning makes the idea good enough to improve upon many existing tech programs in schools. But there’s more. Remember the question at the heart of Flickinger’s tech badges:

Flickinger believes (as we all should) that students as young as the primary grades can leverage technology to make the world a better place. And that’s exactly what Flickinger and his students set out to do with their tech skills.

Every year, students select a charity to support. Students’ technology projects not only earn them badges, but they help raise money and awareness for the selected charity. Students work toward a culminating, end-of-the-year “Kids Can Make a Difference Festival.” Students’ projects are used as promotional material for the festival or as part of the festival’s tech showcase and fundraising activity.

Student-designed T-shirts raise awareness about endangered sea turtles and promote the “Kids Can Make a Difference Festival.” (Image credit: Flickinger, 2014)

The “Kids Can Make a Difference Festival” serves as a red carpet premiere for student-produced animations, videos, and video games. Family members pay a small fee to to view student projects. Students also “sell” their photography and artwork made with technology. All proceeds go to the students’ charity.

According to Flickinger, the world can’t afford to wait for students to grow-up before they make a difference.

So let’s not wait. It is within our power as educators to transform learning in our classrooms and schools. Flickinger gives us one amazing idea. Whether it’s this idea or another, let’s help students leverage technology to make their world a better place.

For additional information, follow @bradflickinger on Twitter or visit Flickinger’s blog SchoolTechnology.org.


The majority of the information from this post comes from Brad Flickinger’s 2015 Tri-Conference Association workshop “From Bored to Badges”. Additional sources include:

Flickinger, B. (2014, December 30). [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.schooltechnology.org/

Flickinger, B. (2015, September 28). Tech Badges Part 1 [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.schooltechnology.org/

Flickinger, B. (2015, September 26). How Can We Use Technology to Make Our World Better? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.schooltechnology.org/