Image courtesy of http://cd1.newhiker.com/media/adult-merit-badges.jpg
I don't know if it is the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts, or the rise of everything "hipster," but this idea of earning "badges" online seems to be everywhere these days--from universities like MIT and the University of Southern California, to location-based social networks and games like foursquare and SCVNGR! The concept of badge-earning is not new (the Boy Scouts have been around since 1907), but the ability to earn them online--and now even receive physical merit badges and real-life credit--is making them one of the hottest topics this year.According to onlinecollege.org: Badges provide something visual that we identify with and understand when we see it. Whether it is an embroidered patch sewn on a uniform or a digital image added to a website, it's a representation of achievement. A badge, in the context of learning, is defined by Digital Media and Learning Central (DML) as "a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality, or interests that can be earned in [a variety of] learning environments." The list of possible learning environments is long, but includes both online and face-to-face options, such as peer learning, mentorship, extracurricular activities, formal training (e.g. military), and mobile learning.
A quick Google search for "earn badges online" garnered me a slew of articles about earning badges online including this provocative one suggesting that badging is questioning "the tyranny of the degree." (See the "Resources" section below for more articles!).
Let's explore what's out there to be earned and how museums might use it to engage with their audiences...
foursquare Badges and Rewards
Image courtesy of 4squarebadges.com
Just what are those "rewards" that users can unlock, you ask? Most businesses offer discounts and freebies. Additionally, users can earn different types of badges by checking in and/or doing challenges at various locations. These badges are displayed on the users profile. foursquare offers lots of badges that are the same no matter where you check in, like "Newbie" (1st check-in), "Adventurer" (checking-in to 10 different venues), and "Local" (checking-in to the same spot 3 times in one week). Finally, foursquare offers custom badges (see below) that are place specific. These are difficult to create as foursquare controls who can create badges.Thinking about building a custom badge for your institution on foursquare? Check out these tips from Sprout Insights. Tips include making your badge accessible to many and special to those who unlock it--i.e. offering a sweet reward. Oh, and you'll also need about $75,000--the current rate for customized badges (3 months at $25,000/per month), though I heard through Clickz.com that they waive the fee for non-profits.
But how can museums use foursquare? As Shauna said earlier: It's hard to offer a "deal" if your museum is free, but there's always admission to a movie or planetarium show, a spot in a special behind-the-scenes tour, discounted membership, or the chance to weigh in on an upcoming exhibition. The entrance hall could display a live screen showing how many people have checked in, which would in turn encourage more people to follow suit. Repeat visitors could unlock rewards that have to do with the exhibits or answers to questions posed in the text panels. Museums could offer unique badges for visitors who who repeatedly check in or complete challenges. If you know of any great museum/foursquare badge examples, please share them in the comments section!
SCVNGR
Image courtesy of SCVNGR.com
Along those same lines of checking-in, doing challenges, and earning rewards, is the difficult to pronounce, location-based social gaming platform SCVNGR (pronounced "scavenger" - it's just missing the vowels!). According to their website, "SCVNGR is a game about "doing challenges at places." Seems pretty simple: go places, do things, earn rewards! Sounds a lot like foursquare!
As best I can tell, SCVNGR took the foursquare idea of the check-in, and added on the challenges part. It's for those who want to do more than just say "hey, I'm here." Challenges include tweeting about something, playing a game, sharing a photo, or even building tin-foil origami. When you do the challenges, you earn points. These points add up quickly to form rewards like freebies and discounts. Watch this video for more information about how SCVNGR works.
SCVNGR also enables businesses, cities, institutions, and groups to build rewards, challenges, and treks on the SCVNGR platform. Why should museums (or businesses, or cities, etc.) build on SCVNGR? Well...
Image courtesy of SCVNGR.comIntrigued? You bet! Want to see how to do it? Check out this video. Most importantly, does it work? If you visit the SCVNGR web page, you can see a whole loooong list of businesses, schools, cities, museums, etc. who are using the site. The mighty Smithsonian even used SCVNGR in June of 2010 to get visitors to go on a trek to several of the SI's many museums. Their SCVNGR contest offered some very real rewards: iPads! Do you know any stories of museums using SCVNGR to successfully (or not-so-successfully) engage with their audiences? If so, please share in the comments!
Conclusions and Considerations
Some thoughts to consider with both foursquare and SCVNGR are: (1) How would museums convince visitors to download the app in the first place? (2) Once they download the app, how would they know that these options exist? Possible solutions: In the museum, use signage and instruct personnel (guards, greeters, docents, info desk) to suggest or remind visitors to check-in on foursquare and/or play SCVNGR. Outside the museum, use social media like Twitter and Facebook to advertise the game and urge visitors to check-in on foursquare.
With corporations like Mozzilla and Microsoft, and institutions like MIT and NASA jumping on the merit badge bandwagon, it seems that museums cannot--and should not--be far behind. Let's go back to that definition of a "badge":
A badge, in the context of learning, is defined by Digital Media and Learning Central (DML) as "a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality, or interests that can be earned in [a variety of] learning environments." The list of possible learning environments is long, but includes both online and face-to-face options, such as peer learning, mentorship, extracurricular activities, formal training (e.g. military), and mobile learning.
According to David Theo Goldberg (and I would agree with him): Badges in short are a means to enable and extend learning. Doesn't that fit in line with museums' mission to foster life-long learning in everyone? Shouldn't we be in the business of cultivating life-long curiosity? How better to do that than to throw open our doors, vaults, collections, catalogs, spaces--both online and onsite--and invite our visitors to come in and explore. And clearly, it wouldn't hurt to offer them a little reward for doing so in the form of a badge or reward. I guess we are all just girl and boy scouts at heart.
Resources
N.B.: for an excellent, though slightly steeped in ed-jargon, take on online badging, read this article from DMLCentral. Of course, I found this after I had already finished my post on badges!
http://dmlcentral.net/blog/david-theo-goldberg/badges-learning-threading-needle-between-skepticism-and-evangelism
http://scvngr.com/
https://foursquare.com/
http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/gosmithsonian-trek-begin-june-24
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2011/10/07/showcase-your-skills-with-digital-badges/
http://www.scoop.it/t/badges-for-lifelong-learning/
http://www.scoop.it/t/digital-badges
http://chronicle.com/article/Badges-Earned-Online-Pose/130241/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/digital-badges-may-highlight-job-seekers-skills.html?scp=1&sq=&st=nyt
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/credentials-the-next-generation.html?scp=2&sq=&st=nyt
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/magazine/13fob-consumed-t.html?scp=3&sq=&st=nyt
http://technologyinmuseums.blogspot.com/
http://sproutsocial.com/insights/2011/06/how-to-get-your-badge-approved-by-foursquare/
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2094542/foursquare-custom-badges-require-usd75k-commitment
hello
ReplyDeleteHere is the full text of Jeff Meade's earlier comment:
ReplyDeleteBadging is a neat phenom but I never realized it was a "hipster" thing!!
Foursquare stops are all over the Natural History Museum and most are created by users. I created the stop at the Giant Leatherback Turtle and a friend created the stop at the Orchids exhib from last winter. Badging in Foursquare is interesting too because they give you tons of badges right up front then they get steadily harder and harder to obtain. Call me selfish, but one of the reasons I play is the instant gratification. If I can't immediately become the Mayor of something, then I want to be recognized in some way for being there and participating. Don't just tell me I'm 9 days away from taking over the Mayor spot! Seriously, how much fun is that?
Here's some general thoughts and questions:
1. Why isn't the museum being pro-active and creating its own spots? It's not just a $ issue, its more about what kind of interaction are we endorsing? Can we drive the engagement through the game-based platform and does that detract from the museum being authoritative and full of expert knowledge? Foursquare is generally unregulated in terms of comments and pics, but are we making it that way be NOT making it part of museum programming? We complain really loud about the dangers of user-generated content, but we sure aren't doing much to be proactive and shape the experience.
2. Badging itself is a challenge for the museum field because we have such difficulty in getting folks to come back. Museum members and advocates are one thing, but most visitors to DC museums either come once or twice IN A LIFETIME, or come with a school group. We have an incredibly hard time getting local folks to local museums. And school? Do students play Foursquare as part of class? Or is Foursquare, gaming and social media in general seen as somehow less intellectual and therefore less valid as an education platform? "Education" should be driven by the engagement we are seeking, and we can select tools that help us achieve particular outcomes. There is simply no reason we can't use Foursquare in a meaningful way and drive visitors to do something and interact with one another. However, obtaining a badge may not be the primary incentive if users only check-in to a stop one time. You won't become the Mayor doing that.
3. We need to consider the use of gaming platforms and social media in general as part of larger visitor behavior. We're still treating museums like a classroom and there's a test at the end. How do we change this? How do we focus on desired engagement instead of just the "INCREASE" of knowledge? Seriously, stop telling me what I'm looking at in an exhibit and start asking what I see instead. The Increase of knowledge is the easy part and honestly doesn't take much effort. However, the "DIFFUSION" of knowledge is more challenging and we should use all the tools available.
4. Regarding getting visitors to download the app? It'll speak to
visitors who already play. You might introduce a few visitors willing to try something new, but both Foursquare and SCVNGR will appeal to the audience already there. And that's fine. It's called "target audience" and we do it all the time with other types of programs and even in building exhibits. Why can't we do it with social media platforms?
Ok, those are my thoughts. Anyone care to respond?
I'm intrigued, now I want to start getting badges too! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, today I was having a conversation with a long-time teacher and environmental education advocate, who was telling me about what works best to engage visitors. Her mantra was simple:
Promote, provoke, and celebrate.
Badging seems to fit right into that; you can promote your cause, provoke your visitors to action, and celebrate them for doing so by providing rewards!
Jeff - I especially agree with your second point. If we have a lot of one-time-only visitors to the museum, there needs to be some kind of reward or engagement for the visitor that feels worth their while and doesn't require a return trip to complete.
ReplyDeleteA college of ours (@wingcolor on Twitter) shared this link with us today: http://www.strayboots.com/ Similar to SCVNGR, this is a scavenger-hunt type game based in cities around the world. One of the games for DC features hunts inside local museums. One really nice thing about this is that it is relatively cheap ($12/game)and it is SMS text based - no need for a smartphone - which increases its accessibility.
ReplyDelete