Whew! I have finished two badges in one week and I'm exhausted. As I mentioned before, I have never made it to Level 4 badges before. But this week things changed and I was finally able to push through and made my first Level 4 badge. 

Since badges get harder as they get to higher levels, so it forces me to become the expert as I teach the skills to your students with my badges tech curriculum program.

Please check it out here...

iPad Photography Level 4

My students are always begging me to teach them how to take great photos of people, so I torture them by making them learn other photography skills before I set the loose on each other. I did the same thing with my badges; first we started with the basics in Level 1, then we moved onto photographing objects in Level 2, now for Level 3 they are finally ready to photograph people.

Here is the link to the new badge:

iPad Photography Level 3

Enjoy.

Every Thursday I try to upload a new and revised badge to my website and I am happy to report that iPad Photography Level 2 is now live. 

I really love the results from my new studio. The videos are more clear than the past and the audio is perfect. 

The student example photos are from my older badges, but you'll get the idea. I am always amazed at when elementary students can do if they just get a push in the right direction.

Next week I move onto iPad photography of people. 

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For those of us who design curriculum for younger students, we struggle with the paradox of showing examples made by other students. Especially when it comes to tech projects.

On one hand, it can be really good thing for those students who don't understand what the lesson is about. "Oh, I get it. You want me to play the guitar on my iPad."

On the other hand, it can stifle creativity. Students are really good a copying each other. So once they see the student-made example, chances are they will try to copy it.

But for me, I've chosen to keep the student examples as part of my badges program for elementary school for the simple reason is that it sets the bar of what is possible. You see, I like to push students beyond what they think is possible and one of the ways I do this is by showing them something one of their peers make. If I were to just some them something I did, they could think, "Yeah, but you're an adult. Of course you can make a movie." But by showing them a movie, or anything else, it shows them that they can do. And for my competitive student, if gives them something to beat.

So for now, the student examples stay.

I just got my order for new badge "look" back from Fiverr and I couldn’t be happier.

My badges before were just text on a badge, whereas the new ones reflect a more age-appropriate look -- a cartoon look that I think the students will really like to have on their backpacks. I felt it was important as I designed this new elementary technology curriculum that I made the changes from the feedback that the students had given me. And many said that they did not like the look of the badges.

Here is a link to the designer I use at Fiverr.

After nearly 18 months of planning, I have finally produced the first of the "NEW" badges.

iPad Photography Level 1

Most of the videos you see in this badge have been shot many times as I worked out the way that I wanted to produce the new badges. 

The first thing that you should notice is the improved quality. The video is now HD which makes it so much easier to see what I am doing on the iPad and you can now count the hairs in my beard. The second this in the improved audio. Although I am still fighting a slight echo in my studio, I am sure that with enough sound absorbing panels, that too will be fixed soon.

The format is also different and It's shorter; I cut about half the time out of the previous low level photography badge.

I hope you enjoy and please drop me a line with any feedback that you might have. ​

Over all the years that I have been doing tech badges with my students I have amassed quite a few different badges, and of all those badges, which one do I pick to be the first one I completely redo?

Photography.

"Why photography?" you might ask.

It has been my experience that using students using their iPads as a camera is one of the most popular uses of iPads in the classroom. In fact, I think it is only second to using iPads for research. So it makes sense that it would be my first one to completely redesign. 

The truth is, a lot of elementary students take pretty crappy photos using their iPads, so hopefully, this badge will be a part of the solution instead of adding to the problem. The new Photography Badge will be broken down into 4 levels:

Level 1: The Basics
Level 2: Photographing Objects and Places
Level 3: Photographing People
Level 4: Advanced iPad Photography

When I do the Teacher's Edition of this badge, they will learn ways to incorporate iPad photography into their curriculum. 

Over the summer I had a logo for MyTechBadges.com made by a very talented graphic designer from Fiverr.com. I told him I wanted something appropriate but fun. As I redo all the videos and the curriculum I will use the logo in my videos - some branding so everyone knows and recognizes it as being from me. I want elementary students to feel connected to the logo and I think I got exactly what I wanted.