What can the Blockchain do for Education

It is time for the blockchain revolution to remodel, reengineer and reinvent other sectors beyond banking, financial transactions and other faster changing industries.

Let's have a look at how the blockchain can be used in the education sector, I am going to avoid looking at the obvious databasing that can be created as this isn't really revolutionising. I'm more interested in discussing the futuristic use cases.

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Making badging and micro-credentials more accessible

Badging of micro credentials is becoming more common in the education sector. At this time there are a number of core players in this market that hold the power (centralised). A decentralised system on the blockchain can allow for badges to become low cost.

Better still putting the blockchain in means that any updates to badge curriculums is recorded and stored. This means that the content can always be verified.

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Decentralise Education from the Current power holders

The current holders of power are universities, collages and schools. There are other people entering this area such as Udemy. With the increased competition comes increased complexity in measuring the outcomes. Did the learner meet a degree level course, was it masters level or perhaps worthy of different recognition. Sticking this all on the blockchain allows for it to be decentralised; here's how it could work.

The curriculums get loaded into the blockchain, then all the users and stakeholders can read, comment and interact with the curriculums, at which point they can give it a rating. Now we are in a situation where maybe hundreds if not thousands of people have verified and voted on a curriculum, this is much better than one. It can create more robust curriculums thus benefitting the learners.

Bodies of Knowledge

This is already beginning to see blockchain input. Steemit, for example, is a body of knowledge that users have voted on to verify its worthiness. Steemit isn't a perfect solution for this at the moment. However, what we can end up with is a database of information that users can vote on to put their stamp of approval on it, there can be different votes for this information was useful for learning. This can open up micropayment for the creators of the knowledge database.

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Conclusion

These are a few areas that the blockchain could get involved in the education sector and make a marked impact. It will be a controversial time though as traditionally universities, colleges and schools have held the power and the trust, but in our increasingly decentralising world it is time to spread the power and trust using the power of the blockchain.