The Digital Sash: A Sketch-Based Badge System in a Social Network for Children

Abstract

In this chapter, we present a sketch-based reward system for promoting the practice of digital citizenship skills within our custom social network for children aged 7 to 12 years. This badge system prompts budding social networkers to complete fun, creative sketching activities and short writing tasks. Because we have deployed our custom social network (KidGab) within our local Girl Scouts Council, our badge system takes the form of a digital Girl Scout sash. In this work, we discuss the badges that prompted the most participation from our users and provide example responses for each. Finally, we consider methods in which our system and results might be generalized to suit non-scouting populations of children such as classrooms, clubs, and sports teams.