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.

Starting over is never easy, and this year is no exception. So just to make things interesting two major things have happened in the past two months.

1 - We moved from Panama to Abu Dhabi, so literally moved to the other side of the planet. Moving overseas just takes the moving fun to level: EXTREME.

2 - I have decided to leave teaching for a while to focus on the redesign of the badges program, again. I think this is my seventh redesign. This revision will be all about turning the badges program into a complete technology curriculum for elementary schools. I want it to be a one-stop-shop for elementary students to get their tech skills. Also as part of the redesign, I will be reshooting every video, that's right -- EVERY VIDEO is going to be redone. I am building the new studio right now and I'll keep you posted as it gets made.

In the upcoming weeks and months you will see many changes coming to this website. I'll try to leave the old curriculum as long as possible, but their might be some broken video links as I migrate my videos to a different account. 

More updates soon...