Urban "Dirt" Badges.

The aim of this project is to evaluate the use of digital badges in an urban soil science course with adult (i.e. age 24+) college learners. As social media usage continues to increase in educational settings, badges serves as a conduit for learners to showcase their educational achievements and skills through a series of informal and active learning experiences that a potential graduate school, employer, family through various social networking sites (i.e. Linked, Facebook, etc.). Badges are a new online standard to recognize and verify learning. I am interested in understanding how to represent learning and participation in informal (including online) environments with the use of badging. Informal learning is often more valuable to the learner and is usually a random coincidence, especially in the sciences.  I am working with the Digital Youth Network to evaluate the effectiveness of the badges I designed and implemented this past Spring. I want to find out if the badges did indeed further their knowledge concerning soil science and if earning the badges (i.e. their achievements in the field of soil science) led to a different disposition about soils and the environment. A simple interview with the adult learners will assist in making the connections.