Badges: Exploring Youth Driven Badges by Yollocalli Arts Reach

YOLLOCALLI ARTS REACH

B AD GES EXPLORING YOUTH DRIVEN BADGES VANESSA SANCHEZ & WILLIAM ESTRADA

A Guidebook

Contents Executive Summary What are Badges? What Does a Youth Driven Space Look Like? Why Should We Badge? What are the Benefits of Badging? The Process Final Thoughts Yollocalli Badges Development Online Resources and Credits

This guidebook is insight for organizations interested in creating a meaningful method for documenting youth achievements and using badges as the approach. Described is a summary of what steps and encounters other organizations may also experience as they learn more about badges and develop a badge system for their youth. In 2013, Yollocalli staff learned to recognize badges as a way to document youth achievements and became interested in creating badges for their youth. Yollocalli Arts Reach developed a proposal for Hive Chicago to document and talk about an art programâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey into developing badges for youth who participate in the program. What Yollocalli staff learned is that the process would be challenging and it would take a lot of staff time, commitment, and collaboration with other organizations and peers to develop a badge system that would be unique and meaningful. There are many other organizations with a strong history of badges and some that are currently creating innovative online badging systems that connect city-wide programs. We looked at a variety of these systems and came back to Yollocalli with a plan to create something that fit the culture of Yollocalli. We believe our journey in creating badges will be helpful for those who are unsure about how badges can work in an environment where youth input is essential in programming and where learning is happening in informal spaces. 5

“Badges are designed to make visible and validate learning in both formal and informal settings, and hold the potential to help transform where and how learning is valued.”

Before we get into the process Yollocalli took, let us go over the basics.

The MacArthur Foundation

What are badges? The common understanding of a badge is formed through the Boy Scouts of America. A youth gains a set of skills and are recognized for their achievement with a badge that they can place on display. Today badges can be a part of an online platform for youth, schools, employers, and after school program providers. In the future badging can help youth obtain a job, receive a higher class level in college, and help them find other opportunities for learning. Yollocalli sees badging as a new resume for youth, allowing them to provide a more detailed story of the skills they have.

METHODS OF BADGING Oﬄine Chart system

Online Educational Badging Sites (i.e. ForAllRubrics.com or ClassBadges.com)

Sticker collection

City of Learning Initiatives

Patches

Create your own system with OpenBadges.com

Button/Pin collection

Develop a way to track learning with social media or shared files online

What does a youth-driven space look like? Youth driven spaces should integrate youth in 4 areas of the organization: programming, budgeting, staﬃng and board. The space should reflect the mission of the organization but should also have images, objects, and programs that reflect the interest of the youth who participate or have participated in the programming being offered. 7

“I just learned about the badge program, but I believe they will be significant in later times to show my work ethic.“ Yollocalli student taken from post student survey

Programming should reflect the interests and communities of the youth being served. Youth should be included in the development of projects, programmatic goals, and curriculum structure to allot for their needs and concerns. Youth voice should be intentional and evident in the programming and course structure. Current staff should be evaluated by youth on an ongoing basis. Youth should be a critical part of hiring committees, making decisions on who will teach them and their peers through their participation in interviewing and vetting candidates for staff and teaching positions. Full fiscal budget, if not allocated, portions of the budget should be open for review and allocation by youth board members/youth council. Youth should be present and responsible for allocating budget needs for the organization that promotes their full involvement in the preservation of the mission and interest of the youth the space serves. Youth Councils and/or Youth Boards Members should be part of decision-making meetings where the decisions being made will affect them. Youth Councils and/or Boards will be independent of adult control and will share power with others at the table. When decisions are being made and youth seek support, adults should serve as a guide, a facilitator in assisting the structuring of programs, projects being developed and executed by youth participants. Youth should be an integral part of the organization’s planning, this will ultimately provide you with the following: 1. Youth advocates that are responsive to the organization’s mission and goal 2. Programming that meets the direct needs and concerns of the population you serve 3. Youth that feel empowered to make decisions and are being trained as leaders 4. The use of clear and concise language that promotes access to power within the organization 5. Safe spaces to learn and train youth and adults to build efficacy within the community you serve

Why should we badge? Yollocalli understands the impact it has on the youth we serve. We see the growth of youth and their transformation into young community leaders and creative makers, and we hear from them how Yollocalli played an important role in their success. Through the efforts of the MacArthur Foundation’s Chicago City of Learning initiative, allowing youth across the city to receive badging in other organizations that may be valid between organizations, badging is becoming a new resource for youth and their future. Badges have become a new way for youth to showcase the skills and learning taking place in informal spaces such as Yollocalli. To us badges provide 8

a more pronounced image of the achievements they are accomplishing while at Yollocalli, and we would like others to be able to recognize these achievements too.

“When we talk about recognizing learning, we focus on decisions about the types of learning and achievement to recognize, the connections with existing credentials for this learning, and how learners interact with badges to unlock their value.“

What are the benefits of badging? At Yollocalli we often receive requests from former participants asking us “What was that program I was a part of, and how can I put that on my resume?” And although we love having our former youth come and visit and tell us about their lives since they left Yollocalli, we feel that badges can be a good method for them to track their learning while at Yollocalli, rather than having them recognize what they learned after they leave our programs.

Christine Chow and Nate Otto Recognizing Learning with Digital Badges

YOUTH Youth will benefit from direct participation in badging through the understanding of clear organizational goals. Through their understanding of programmatic goals and outcomes, youth will be better able to map their expected learning and reflect on the impact courses have had on their growth. Youth will be able to develop a digital portfolio and preserve what they have learned in order to systematically look at how courses have impacted their learning. Participation in badging transfers authority to youth by giving them the tools they need to better track their learning and allowing them to build on that learning through a variation of experiences. TEACHING ARTISTS, MENTORS AND INSTRUCTORS At Yollocalli, a teaching artist is a practicing artist who is an ally, collaborator, mentor and guide for youth. Through the participation of Yollocalli teaching artists in badging, goals and outcomes are identified that relate to the bigger structure of programming happening at the site. Using our curriculum framework, teaching artists identify their personal goals and make connections to the organization’s programmatic mission. Badging allows for the teaching artists to make direct outcomes and outputs for their class that also tie into other classes or program-specific goals. This also allows for teaching artists to understand their courses’ effect and place in the bigger structure of the programs being offered. PROGRAMMING Through badging, programming can be enhanced and threads can be developed to connect programs to larger organizational goals. Through direct participation from programmatic staff, teaching artists, and participants/students, courses become richer because of the collaborative aspect of the programming being developed. Programming can also benefit from badging as a means to connect organizations. Organizations can find areas of common goals (standards, collaborative projects, internships) and use badging as a way to align these goals between organizations.

Now that you have some basic information, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s jump into what Yollocalli did and learned in a year of badging. The Process We had a lot of concerns with badging in the beginning. Will youth want badges? What badges would they earn and how can it be a benefit them? How can we make badges a part of our informal space? Will badges be valued in the future or is this a fad? How did we overcome our concerns? We spoke to others who are also beginning or have a lot of experience bringing badging into their programs, and we realized that youth needed to be at the center of the badge development. Digital Youth Network, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the Adler Planetarium, the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and AS220 Youth in Rhode Island all provided great insight in how badging works for them. We learned badging is key in the following ways for organizations: pathways, leveling up, validating work, and tracking youth achievements. GET ADVICE FROM OTHER ORGANIZATIONS For Digital Youth Network, badging is a way to map out trajectories and leveling up for youth. Leveling up is similar to gaming practices, where a youth will proceed to another level after completing a set of initial requirements/achievements. Digital Youth Network also recognizes that each organization and program they serve is different and requires different badging systems. They have been a strong leader in badging in Chicago and have created several methods for helping organizations create badge systems. For Adler, badging is a map of a youthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pathway within their programming, and leveling up becomes important to reach a specific position in the teen program. Their students are introduced to badging at the beginning of the program and are provided with a vision of their pathway as a participant. Teens are able to see what badges they need in order to advance to another level. This helps them understand where they are 11

and where they are going as a part of the Adler. At the Chicago Botanic Gardens, badging is a way to validate and capture learning in intensive programs, while bridging out of school with studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; academic work. They have also been interested in finding cross institutional pathways between other STEM based programs so that learning can happen between other organizations and teens can earn badges that can be relevant to other institutions. Badging at the Chicago Architecture Foundation is a tool to track learning within their online design challenge space, discoverdesign.org. Badging could help youth understand the pathway and steps they need to take within the discoverdesign.org site. At AS220 Youth, badging is being used not online, but as charts and stickers on their walls where youth can visualize their learning in their space and reach their goals with the support of mentors. Similar to the other organizations, badging is a way to track learning and help staff and youth understand what skills are acquired during the program. We realized that badging was new to us all and that we are all trying to understand what systems and pathways would work best for the youth we serve. Yollocalli decided to dive into badging through the Chicago Summer of Learning in 2013, badging our performance art program and youth council. Initially, badges were created through observations and discussions with youth in particular programs by Yollocalliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Youth Development Advisor. Through deeper discussions with teaching artists and the youth participating in their programs, badges were created to reflect the various goals being addressed by the teaching artist, participants, and program goals/outcomes. The initial 9 badges were created this way. It became clear that badging was also new for our youth and that their low commitment is reflection of that. So we decided to take a step back and get our youth council involved in creating badges.

HOW ARE OTHERS USING BADGES To capture and track the learning and skills of participants To map how youth can level up in the program To identify new pathways for participants To display the goals of the program

YOUTH COUNCIL AND BADGES Youth-developed programming is an essential part of the Yollocalli mission. It is through student feedback and direct participation that the programming we offer is 12

created, assessed, and structured. Without the presence of engaged and critical youth, the programming we develop would be disconnected from their actual interests and needs. This is a big part as to why we think youth should be at the table when making decisions that will impact them. The Yollocalli Youth Council, a small group of high school and college-aged Yollo students and alumni, helped us take the next step in badging. We believe youth engaged in developing and defining badges was an essential part of the process. Yollocalli Youth Council would identify new badges, create language for all Yollocalli badges, and develop images to represent the badges that map their experiences in our programs. The YYC was first asked to analyze the initial 9 badges and edit the language being used to make it accessible to the various youth who participate. Through the process, the YYC asked clarifying questions, revealed flaws in the original 9 badges, identified program goals/objectives and developed their own language of what we should actually focus on and badge. Youth developed 14 badges based on what they know Yolllocalli Arts Reach programming reflected, what youth expected from the programs, staff, and teaching artists, and what Yollocalli represents to them and their peers. Through this identification and clarification process, we also began to think about how the badges would be yollocallified (how would we represent the yollocalli aesthetic?). The images and text needed to represent not only the mission of Yollocalli but also the playful and political nature of the spaces they create within the organization. This process took fifteen two hour sessions where YYC members, with the assistance of a consultant, thought thoroughly about the positioning of the badges in the programming being implemented. The 14 badges that were created were different than the original 9 not only because it had the voice of youth, but because they were the youth’s own reflection of their experience at Yollocalli. The new badges also included descriptions written by youth in their own terms and language. AN EVOLVING SYSTEM Once we had the new badges created by our youth council, the next step was to begin another round of testing in order to gage if youth participants would be interested in badges. We developed an outline of how badges would be administered to students that was inclusive of both the teaching artists and youth participants. This system allowed youth to select badges they wanted to earn and self assess their badge earning process. The teaching artists selected 2 to 3 badges from the list of general Yollocalli badges created by the youth council and were also expected to create badges that related only to their program. For example, the Street Art program created a “Site Specific Badge” for youth who learn how to choose the best location for placing their art in public. After the program, the badges were awarded and participants were surveyed about the badges they received. The responses from youth still showed that a majority of them were not interested 13

in badges at this time but could see a use for them in their future. We hope that as badges continue to be a part of Yollocalli programs, that youthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective on badges will change and that there will be ample opportunities for youth to use badges in their future. We look forward to surveying youth and teaching artists about badges continuously in order to enhance our badging system. Yollocalli doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see this year of learning as our final step in developing our badge system. We understand that it is an evolving system that should routinely be reviewed. As with every other element of your program, badging systems should change based on feedback and evaluation.

Final thoughts. At Yollocalli we really struggled with finding a way to create badges that felt true to us. We didn’t understand how it could help our youth or if youth would feel that badges are a method of formally evaluating their time with us. At some point we thought that badges should not be a part of Yollocalli. We remained curious, and decided to research other programs and organizations that do badging in a unique way. This is the key for badges, they should be unique to the organization, and they can be created and reformed at each term. There can be systems and standards that you can apply to badges, but that shouldn’t be what defines the learners experience. Badges are a tool for your program but do not tell the whole story of the learning. Badges can make the learner curious and make the possible school or employer curious about what happened in their time with your organization. The biggest takeaway we have on this experience is understanding that badging should be made to fit your program and the youth you serve, and have room for flexibility. As a strong proponent for youth choosing their own path and being curious about new things, we are striving to make badges that are relevant to our young people and are also in the style of Yollocalli: weird, creative, and always evolving. So as we prep for our next year of badges we will continue to seek the advice of our youth council and teaching artists, and continue to search for new opportunities that help change the value of a badge for the young people. We will continue to allow our youth to create new badges that speak about their experience at Yollocalli. We will allow our teaching artists to create badges that describe the learning and activities taking place in their classes. We will ask peers and colleagues from other institutions what they are learning as they badge their own program. And we will continue to be curious about how we can enhance the youth’s experience at Yollocalli, and question whether badging is the key.

Badges should fit your program.

“Curiosity is the engine of achievement.” Ken Robinson

Yollocalli Badges Development 1ST BADGES, 2013

Youth Council Badge

Youth Council Leadership Badge

Staff made

Student will participate in the Yollocalli Youth Council

Student exhibited exceptional leadership within the Yollocalli Youth Council.

Student developed his/ her media equipment and software skills.

Dedication Badge

Yollocalli Leader

Yollocalli Teacher

Staff made

Student participated in course discussions and attended all courses.

Student organized an event that promoted Yollocalliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mission.

You earned this badge because you helped coteach the Yollocalli program.

Yollocalli Advocate Staff made

Media Badge Staff made

You earned this badge because you are an advocate for Yollocalli and you help create a bridge between your community and the Yollocalli family.

2ND BADGES, 2014

Collaboration Badge

Documentation Badge

Youth made

You earned this badge because you worked well with other artists in creating new artworks.

You earned this badge because you wanted to document your artwork to reach your personal goals.

You earned this badge because you researched your topic and it was evident in the meaning behind your work.

Curating Badge

Art Interpretation

Youth made

Public Message Badge

You earned this badge because you planned/ developed/executed an exhibition with minimal assistance from staff.

You earned this badge because you provided great insight and constructive criticism about other artworks.

You earned this badge for artwork that dealt with a theme/campaign meant for public display.

Personal/Cultural Connections

Principles & Elements of Design

Youth made

You received this badge because your work represents your cultural or personal connection.

You gained knowledge in what it means to create a quality piece of artwork using line, form, contrast, and color.

Portfolio Badge Youth made

You earned this badge because you documented your artwork and curated the work to create a professional artists portfolio.

Research Badge Youth made

Youth made

Yollocalli Badges Development (cont.) 2ND BADGES, 2014

Audio Storyteller Badge

Video Storyteller Badge

Written Local News Reporter

Staff made

You earned this badge by being a youth journalist in audio production and sound media.

You earned this badge by being a youth journalist in video production and documentary video production.

You earned this badge by being a youth journalist in writing and blogging.

Published Journalist

Difusi贸n Media Gold

Staff made

You earned this badge because the work you created in Difusi贸n Media was published in an outside news source.

You earned this badge because you received the Reporter/Writer Badge, Video Producer/Documentarian Badge, and Radio Producer/ Broadcaster Badge and have developed into a socially conscious journalist in new media. You have completed the full training of Difusi贸n Media.

3RD BADGES, 2014

Brainstorming & Gamestorming

Human Centered Design

Site Specific Badge

Teaching Artist made

You earned this badge for your participation and learning in the Yollocalli Mapping Experiments program. You learned how to research a topic and create a map that relates to you and your interests.

You received this badge because you learned and practiced Human Centered Design during your time at Yollocalli Arts Reach Mapping Experiments program.

You earned this badge during your time at the Yollocalli Street Art program because you located a space in the community to create a public art piece.

Illumination Badge Teaching Artist made

You earned this badge because you understand symbols geometry and shapes to transfer archetypal themes in life, mythology & art.

Online resources: MacArthur Foundation macfound.org/programs/digital-badges HASTAC hastac.org/digital-badges-bibliography Chicago City of Learning chicagocityoflearning.org Cities of Learning citiesoflearning.org Badge Alliance badgealliance.org Digital Youth Network digitalyouthnetwork.org Adler Planetarium adlerplanetarium.org Chicago Botanic Garden chicagobotanic.org Chicago Architecture Foundation www.architecture.org

Credits Vanessa Sanchez Director, Yollocalli Arts Reach BFA Painting, University of IL at Chicago, 2005 William Estrada Teaching Artist, Art Education Consultant BFA Art Education, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2000 MA Art Education, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2015 Yollocalli Arts Reach started in 1997, with the intention to address the educational needs of young people in the Chicago community, to create opportunities for young artists to explore interests and uncover their artistic talents while learning about careers in the arts. Over the past 17 years Yollocalli has grown into a platform where youth can learn from emerging artists, collaborate with them in their art making practices as well as become active members of Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growing creative community. Special thanks to Hive Chicago staff, Digital Youth Network, the Adler Planetarium, the Chicago Botanic Garden, and the Chicago Architecture Foundation.