It has been described as the most important technology since the internet, and perhaps for good reason. The blockchain is no longer a fringe technology with narrow economic applicability; it has become the digital backbone for thousands of innovative applications. Is the system of education next in line for disruption?
There’s a new technology in town, and the ubiquity of acronyms and buzzwords that surround it are as bountiful as the problems it could potentially solve. The Blockchain, which you may associate with popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, has been making major headlines in education. Most recently, Sony Global Education, in partnership with IBM, has announced a project to create a centralized, blockchain-based ledger for storing educational information, such as degrees, diplomas, tests and more, as a kind of ‘digital transcript.’ The MIT Media Lab, in partnership with Learning Machine, has been building Blockcerts, an open standard for creating, issuing, viewing, and verifying blockchain-based certificates. In this conversation, participants will have an opportunity to explore the range of questions, opportunities, and implications that will continue to surround this disruptive new technology.
Questions to be explored will include:
- What would it mean for our education system to be decentralized?
- What issues of equity and access surround a technology like blockchain?
- What are the effects of moving to a learning economy?
- What’s the source(s) of “trust” in our current credentialing system?
- What happens to privacy in a “global ledger” of education transactions?