Investigating Digital Badges as Alternative Credentials to Broaden STEM Participation Among Underrepresented Youth

该项目将开发和研究一个创新的认证过程，称为设计联盟徽章Portfolio。（数字徽章，就像在童子军中获得的徽章一样，是一种经过验证的成就或技能指标，可以在线存储和管理，可以在非正式或正式环境中获得。这一过程将为服务不足的青年提供一种技术支持的方法，以个人有意义的方式在校外课程中展示他们的信息通信技术（ICT）成就，并满足高等教育机构的期望。数字徽章系统有可能成为替代认证方法。从每个学年的秋季开始，高中参与者每周都会在课外活动中见面几个小时，教授他们以人为本的设计原则和实践。年轻人确定两个或三个他们想在设计项目中承担的社会问题。在接下来的几个月里，他们学习采访将从技术中受益的最终用户，并进行头脑风暴和原型技术解决方案。他们使用CAD软件，3D打印机，微处理器，简单的电机，建筑材料，手工工具和其他设计技术来创建，并在某些情况下编码，他们的原型。学生还将用户，同行和专家的反馈整合到他们的原型中。该项目的合作伙伴（教育发展中心，鼠标，DreamYard项目和帕森斯设计学院）将重新设计现有的设计联盟徽章系统，与当前和以前的设计联盟青年参与者的输入，并正式为帕森斯管理人员（并最终其他高等教育机构）认可徽章作为其本科课程的招生凭证的程序。该项目将调查是否一组11年级的高中学生谁从事至少有一些活动，建立一个数字徽章组合将更有可能比一组学生谁不表示有兴趣在信息和通信技术作为一个职业或学术机会，坚持在信息和通信技术相关的高等教育和就业的追求，并设想自己在这些职业生涯在不久的将来。该项目将分三个阶段实施设计和研究：（1）项目扩展，迭代开发，形成性测试和文档;（2）研究工具和分析方法的可行性测试;以及（3）设计联盟徽章组合的创建是否以及如何显示支持代表性不足的青年坚持STEM和ICT追求的承诺的试点测试。 项目研究将为研究和开发界提供关于替代认证方法的知识，特别是为服务不足的青年提供知识。研究结果将有助于确定连接校外学习活动和大学录取过程的数字徽章组合系统是否显示出作为工具的承诺，以增加代表性不足的青年坚持STEM活动的证据，在数字徽章和其他替代认证系统激增的时候。项目合作伙伴之间的协作过程的文档将使非正式学习组织和高等教育机构之间的未来伙伴关系，以创建徽章系统，可用于分配有意义的凭据，个人有意义的经验进入大学和职业道路。 该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划资助，该计划支持建立对最佳实践，计划要素，背景和过程的理解的项目，有助于让学生参与学习和培养对STEM，信息和通信技术（ICT），计算机科学以及相关STEM内容和职业的兴趣。

The project will develop and research an innovative credentialing process called Design League Badge Portfolios. (A digital badge, like a badge earned in a scout troop, is a validated indicator of accomplishment or skill that is housed and managed online and can be earned in informal or formal environments.) The process will give underserved youth a technology-supported method for presenting their Information Communication Technology (ICT) achievements in an out-of-school program in ways that are personally meaningful and that address the expectations of higher education institutions. Digital badge systems have the potential to become alternative credentialing methods. Beginning in the fall of each school year, high school participants meet weekly for several hours in an afterschool program that teaches them human-centered design principles and practices. The youth identify two or three social problems they would like to take on in a design project. Over the following months, they learn to interview end users who will benefit from the technology, and to brainstorm and prototype technological solutions. They use CAD software, 3D printers, microprocessors, simple motors, building materials, hand tools, and other design technologies to create, and in some cases code, their prototypes. Students also integrate user, peer, and expert feedback into their prototypes. The project partners (Educational Development Center, Mouse, DreamYard Project, and Parsons School of Design) will redesign the existing Design League badge system, with input from current and former Design League youth participants, and formalize a procedure for Parsons administrators (and eventually other higher education institutions) to endorse badges as admissions credentials in its undergraduate programs. The project will investigate whether a group of 11th-grade high school students who engage in at least some of the activities for building a digital badge portfolio will be more likely than a comparison group of students who do not to express interest in ICT as a career or academic opportunity, to persist in ICT-related higher education and employment pursuits, and to envision themselves in those careers in the near future. The project will implement design and research in three phases: (1) Program Expansion, Iterative Development, Formative Testing, and Documentation; (2) Feasibility Testing of the research instruments and analysis methods adequately; and (3) Pilot Testing of whether and how the creation of Design League badge portfolios shows promise of supporting underrepresented youth to persist in STEM and ICT pursuits. Project research will contribute knowledge to research and development communities about alternative credentialing methods, particularly for underserved youth. The research findings will help determine whether digital badge portfolio systems that bridge out-of-school learning activities and the college admissions process show evidence of promise as tools to increase underrepresented youth persistence in STEM activities, at a time when digital badge and other alternative credentialing systems are proliferating. Documentation of the collaboration processes among project partners will enable future partnerships between informal learning organizations and higher education institutions to create badge systems that can used to assign meaningful credentials to personally meaningful experiences into college and career pathways. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program that supports projects that build understandings of best practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to engaging students in learning and developing interest in STEM, information and communications technology (ICT), computer science, and related STEM content and careers.