Vote for the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013

Once again, the Vote for the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013 is open until Friday 27 September 2013. The list will be revealed on Monday, 30 September 2013. It is possible to vote through the c4lpt website or by tweeting to @C4LPT. Voters much choose 10 tools for learning.

This is my choice for 2013:

Friday 27 September 2013, and the Top 100 Tools list will be revealed on Monday 30 September 2013. - See more at: http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/voting/#sthash.RUP92mfb.dpuf

Two of these tools are gamification tools (Leaderboarded and ClassDojo) that I used before. Moodle is a well known e-learning tool that has been used in several learning scenarios (current release is using badges - see this post). Twitter can also be a very valuable if we choose the right people to follow.

Meanwhile, last year's list is available: The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012 (#1 Twitter). For the 2011 list see this post (also, Twitter #1).

The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2

The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012

Vote for the Top 100 Tools for Learning 201

Vote for the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013

All About Badges and Open Badges

“if a resumé or CV is a bunch of claims, Open Badges are a bunch of evidence”

Badges are definitely the top game element used in gamified systems (possibly because it is the  easiest one to use). In education, badges have been used for some time. The latest release of Moodle, Moodle 2.5, includes badges. Moodle's badges are compatible with Mozilla Open Badges. A FAQ is available to help teachers awarding them.

According to Moodle, badges are a good way of celebrating achievement and showing progress.

A free set of badges that can be used in Moodle or in any other website is available at MoodleBadges. Badg.us is a service for creating and issuing badges. Apparently it only works with Mozilla Open Badges. With OpenBadges.me it is also possible to create badges.

To know more about badges and how to use them in education scenarios, a MOOC supported by COURSESites is starting in September 9: Welcome to Badges: New Currency for Professional Credentials.

A video available in the course overview highlights some of the benefits of badges:

Here are some of the key ideas:

A badge is a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality or interest that can be earned in any learning environment.

The  Open Badge infrastructure will make it easy to issue, display, and manage badges across the web.

Digital badges will make the accomplishments of individuals, in online and offline spaces, visible to anyone and averyone including potential employers, educators and communities.

Badges can be used in formal and informal learning scenarios. They are a tool to show individual accomplishments and a way to promote lifelong learning. P2PU is an example of an open education project aiming at lifelong and informal learning (and it uses badges). Rails for Zombies is another example of the use of badges to learn Ruby on Rails (in the zombie way :).

See also these other posts:

Badges & Educação (in portuguese but with some links in english).

More on Badges (title in english but contents in portuguese).

The MoodleBadge for Creative Thinking