The Future of Badges and the LDS Church

With my time working on the Mormon Badges Project, I’ve already been able to see how powerful a tool badges, and open-educational resources, can be. Although we’re still in the process of working out a lot of the technicalities of badges, I really see them as a powerful and exciting tool for the future. With my work on this project, we’ve been primarily focusing on the power of badges to help correct misconceptions about the LDS Faith, but I think there really is a lot of potential for these types of systems to be applied on a larger scale throughout the LDS church.

One place I can see badges integrating well is with the Personal Progress program or Duty to God programs, which are geared toward youth ages 12-18. These two programs are already based off of a system of completing a number of assignments and receiving “credentials” based off of set requirements. Why not use badges as a way to formalize this system, especially since it has all moved online? Through linking the actual credentialing, with say their lds.org account, I could see it being really beneficial for the youth to be able to share what they’re learning about with their friends, family and peers online.

Another area that could have a lot of impact is with teaching members how to better use online tools for proselyting. I could really see the Church putting out a number of badges about how to share about the Gospel online, and these could be as simple as creating a Mormon.org profile or sharing a thought about General Conference on their Facebook account.

There are many other places within the Church that badges could be applied someday, and I really feel that this an important tool to consider. Although this system is still relatively new and developing, I really feel that open learning, and badges specifically, are a resource that is going to prove more and more important both for the Church and the future of learning.