Chris Gamrat | Penn State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Chris Gamrat

Routledge eBooks, Feb 20, 2023

Digital badges provide new affordances for online educational activities and experiences. When us... more Digital badges provide new affordances for online educational activities and experiences. When used with points and leaderboards, a badge can become a gamification element allowing learners to compete with themselves or others, and to know how close they are to accomplishing a goal and acquiring its accompanying reputation. In this role, badges motivate continued engagement, which increases time on task and supports skill acquisition through performance. Learning outcomes signified by badges can also be displayed in an e-portfolio or on web sites and are highly transportable to social media sites. In this role they summarize achievement and signal accomplishment. With these characteristics, digital badges have the potential to become an alternative credentialing system, providing visible recognition in digital symbols that link directly via metadata to validating evidence of educational achievements in public displays. This paper will trace the brief history of digital badges, define what they are, give examples of their use, and discuss their educational affordances.

Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference on Information Technology Education, 2020

The pandemic response disrupted higher education to include remote learning beginning mid-spring ... more The pandemic response disrupted higher education to include remote learning beginning mid-spring semester 2020 and is expected to continue in some form at least through fall. This paper reviews recent changes in higher education traditions from factors such as finance, competition, and higher education's value proposition. Some traditions such as changes in collocation have escalated during the pandemic. A vision emerges of some traditions likely to form a "new normal," post-pandemic. As a response example, this paper proposes use of "supplemental recordings" to continue learner engagement especially as remote learning becomes more common.

Parents and children are rapidly adopting mobile technologies, yet designs for mobile de- vices t... more Parents and children are rapidly adopting mobile technologies, yet designs for mobile de- vices that serve a communication function to DPOOFDUQBSFOUTUPDIJMESFOTPVUPGTDIPPMUJNF� activities are limited. As a result, our team de- signed the Digital Postcard Maker so that chil- dren attending summer camps can create digital photographs to send home to their parents. These EJHJUBMQPTUDBSETIFMQUPDPOOFDUDIJMESFOTIPNF� MJGFXJUIPVUPGTDIPPMMFBSOJOHFYQFSJFODFTBOE� BMTPTVQQPSU��TU�$FOUVSZ�4LJMMT��NFEJBMJUFSBDZ� practices. The research design included two itera- tions of a design-based research project with 58 children from 55 families. Design implications related to supporting informal science learning with mobile computing relying on digital pho- tography are shared, including (i) the need for additional support to transform an out-of-school recreational activity into an out-of-school learn- ing activity, and (ii) the utility of photographs as a means to connect parents and children to talk a...

Proceedings of the 20th Annual SIG Conference on Information Technology Education, 2019

The emergence of cybersecurity provides new opportunities for information technology (IT) educati... more The emergence of cybersecurity provides new opportunities for information technology (IT) education, including use of inexpensive Raspberry Pi devices. In Fall of 2017, the College of IST at the Pennsylvania State University created a separate bachelors degree for cybersecurity. This created the opportunity for hands-on labs for students to securely learn and apply principles of cybersecurity. This study investigates student awareness and interest in using the Raspberry Pi to create a smart home model where students could perform reconnaissance and penetration testing. There is value to supplement virtual labs with physical labs providing students hands-on experience. This project is in the early stages of gathering collaborators and faculty support in our College to develop labs and course integration

paper, we investigate how a digital badging system was used as part of an informal, not-for-credi... more paper, we investigate how a digital badging system was used as part of an informal, not-for-credit professional development project. Teacher Learning Journeys was designed for personalized science learning for educators in K-12 schools, museums, universities, and teaching colleges through employing two levels of micro-credentials: lower achievement digital stamps and higher achievement digital badges. Researchers conducted a qualitative collective case study centered on 36 teachers; the primary data were records from learners' interactions within the digital badge system; secondary data came from a survey at the end of the experience and two interviews with 11 focal teachers. Findings suggest the following design principles: (a) two levels of assessment can support personalized learning, (b) mastery of learning can be demonstrated and assessed through reflective logs, (c) collaboration during and after badging activities can provide value to the learners, and (d) establishment o...

British Journal of Educational Technology, 2014

ABSTRACT To provide customized workplace learning opportunities, a digital badge system was desig... more ABSTRACT To provide customized workplace learning opportunities, a digital badge system was designed by a university, governmental agency and national professional association to support teachers&#39; implementation of professional development (PD). Teacher Learning Journeys (TLJ) is an approach that allows for teachers to customize their PD experience to their workplace and make decisions about what PD they need based on their expertise and interests. The digital badging provided and assessed experiences in online PD. Using a theoretical framework that focused on decision making and customization as part of personalization, researchers conducted a theory-driven thematic analysis on teachers&#39; TLJ artifacts (goal statements, interviews and reflective activity logs). Data came from 36 teachers who completed 154 PD activities over a 3-month period. A case study was developed from an in-depth analysis of eight teachers&#39; artifacts and interviews. Using TLJ as a PD tool, teachers made decisions when selecting learning goals they identified as personally relevant. Teachers customized the level of assessment and the specific content depth to personalize the PD training for workplace constraints. This project informs future research aiming to understand how personalized learning activities support teachers and other professional learners in a variety of workplaces.

Proceedings of the 20th Annual SIG Conference on Information Technology Education, 2019

This study was conducted to ascertain whether students found use of the Raspberry Pi in lab activ... more This study was conducted to ascertain whether students found use of the Raspberry Pi in lab activities to be more engaging than the present virtual machine-based labs. Findings focused on positive student perception and the need for broader integration across program curriculum.

Educational Technology Research and Development

ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate how a digital badging system was used as part of an inform... more ABSTRACT In this paper, we investigate how a digital badging system was used as part of an informal, not-for-credit professional development project. Teacher Learning Journeys was designed for personalized science learning for educators in K-12 schools, museums, universities, and teaching colleges through employing two levels of micro-credentials: lower achievement digital stamps and higher achievement digital badges. Researchers conducted a qualitative collective case study centered on 36 teachers; the primary data were records from learners&#39; interactions within the digital badge system; secondary data came from a survey at the end of the experience and two interviews with 11 focal teachers. Findings suggest the following design principles: (a) two levels of assessment can support personalized learning, (b) mastery of learning can be demonstrated and assessed through reflective logs, (c) collaboration during and after badging activities can provide value to the learners, and (d) establishment of relevance of badging experiences can support the application of content outside the badging system. 1. DIGITAL BADGES IN EDUCATION Digital badges have been proposed as tools that learners can use to support short-term through lifelong learning within and across various educational institutions [10, 11]. We define digital badges as online representations of learning experiences, which serve as micro-credentials that document learners&#39; expertise and skills. While digital badges can be housed as online representations within private badging systems, they can also be shown on other websites to serve as visual representation of learners&#39; experiences to outside audiences through Open Badges standards, an initiative of the Mozilla Foundation. When badges are considered as a communicative tool, researchers have been renaming digital badges as Open Badges [13]. When shown to external audiences, digital badges can contain metadata viewable by others (i.e., the issuer, certifying agency, activity description, expertise the badge signifies, and evaluation criteria). Thus, badges offer transparency to the assessment of individuals&#39; achievements and are available for scrutiny [10]. In this way, digital (or open) badges with their associated metadata are part of people&#39;s professional portfolios that document learning, skills, and experiences in an easy-to-share format. Open Badges and digital badges are terms used throughout the technology-enhanced learning field. Our system (described below) was designed to be Open-Badge compatible, but this functionality was not available for learners during the study period, so we use the term digital badges in this paper.

In this paper, we investigate how a digital badging system was used as part of an informal, not-f... more In this paper, we investigate how a digital badging system was used as part of an informal, not-for-credit professional development project. Teacher Learning Journeys was designed for personalized science learning for educators in K-12 schools, museums, universities, and teaching colleges through employing two levels of micro-credentials: lower achievement digital stamps and higher achievement digital badges. Researchers conducted a qualitative collective case study centered on 36 teachers; the primary data were records from learners’ interactions within the digital badge system; secondary data came from a survey at the end of the experience and two interviews with 11 focal teachers. Findings suggest the following design principles: (a) two levels of assessment can support personalized learning, (b) mastery of learning can be demonstrated and assessed through reflective logs, (c) collaboration during and after badging activities can provide value to the learners, and (d) establishment of relevance of badging experiences can support the application of content outside the badging system.

British Journal of Educational Technology, 2014

To provide customized workplace learning opportunities, a digital badge system was designed by a ... more To provide customized workplace learning opportunities, a digital badge system was designed by a university, governmental agency and national professional association to support teachers’ implementation of professional development (PD). Teacher Learning Journeys (TLJ) is an approach that allows for teachers to customize their PD experience to their workplace and make decisions about what PD they need based on their expertise and interests. The digital badging provided and assessed experiences in online PD. Using a theoretical framework that focused on decision making and customization as part of personalization, researchers conducted a theory-driven thematic analysis on teachers’ TLJ artifacts (goal statements, interviews and reflective activity logs). Data came from 36 teachers who completed 154 PD activities over a 3-month period. A case study was developed from an in-depth analysis of eight teachers’ artifacts and interviews.

Using TLJ as a PD tool, teachers made decisions when selecting learning goals they identified as personally relevant.Teachers customized the level of assessment and the specific content
depth to personalize the PD training for workplace constraints. This project informs future research aiming to understand how personalized learning activities support teachers and other professional learners in a variety of workplaces.

Parents and children are rapidly adopting mobile technologies, yet designs for mobile devices th... more Parents and children are rapidly adopting mobile technologies, yet designs for mobile devices that serve a communication function to connect parents to children's out-of-school time activities are limited. As a result, our team designed the Digital Postcard Maker so that children attending summer camps can create digital photographs to send home to their parents. These digital postcards help to connect children's home life with out-of-school learning experiences and also support 21st Century Skills' media literacy practices. The research design included two iterations of a design-based research project with 58 children from 55 families. Design implications related to supporting informal science learning with mobile computing relying on digital photography are shared, including (i) the need for additional support to transform an out-of-school recreational activity into an out-of-school learning activity, and (ii) the utility of photographs as a means to connect parents and children to talk about environmental sciences topics.

Routledge eBooks, Feb 20, 2023

Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference on Information Technology Education, 2020

Proceedings of the 20th Annual SIG Conference on Information Technology Education, 2019

British Journal of Educational Technology, 2014

Proceedings of the 20th Annual SIG Conference on Information Technology Education, 2019

Educational Technology Research and Development

British Journal of Educational Technology, 2014