DigiByte Alliance Announces the Formation of an Education Committee

In accordance with its mission to educate the public about the DigiByte blockchain and pursuant to its bylaws, the board members of the DigiByte Alliance have voted and approved the creation of an Education Committee to further its educational mandate.

Mission Statement:

The mission of the DigiByte Alliance Education Committee is to broaden the public’s awareness and understanding of the DigiByte blockchain in order to accelerate its growth and adoption through the development and delivery of educational resources to its community, the public, and educational institutions. The Educational Committee of the DigiByte Alliance intends to close the blockchain awareness gap and to open the doors to future financial literacy and inclusion through education, empowerment and action.

Vision:

The Education Committee will educate the public regarding DigiByte as a cryptocurrency and a blockchain application solution through a variety of methods, including various social media platforms, dissemination or publication of guides, manuals, videos, online libraries, blogs and forums among other possible resources. These materials will be made available for free on the DigiByte Alliance website. These materials will provide education on a variety of topics including the basics of blockchain and cryptocurrency, particularly regarding DigiByte, its role and importance in society, particularly in creating decentralized solutions to online security in the public and private sectors, future developments in blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions and the need for their ongoing development and continuous adaptability.

The Education Committee will also organize, host or support public educational events in person or online, such as training, workshops, conferences, public speaking events, exhibits, discussions and panels on topics related to the cryptocurrency and blockchain generally, and the DigiByte cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions particularly.

The Education Committee will engage with educators across spectrums of science, math technology and economics. The goal of education efforts will be broadly inclusive and ongoing and will provide educational resources, speakers, and funding towards supporting traditional education curriculum to include blockchain education and DigiByte’s role in this emerging technological infrastructure.

Background:

For the past several months members of the pilot Educational Committee have spent many hours contemplating its role within the DigiByte Alliance overall mission and created instructional materials for blockchain education to be used within the secondary educational arena and as content for professional teacher development. These materials have already undergone review and feedback from educational stakeholders.

Our initial research and engagement with institutions of higher learning has shown that the speculative nature of cryptocurrency can be somewhat of a barrier to entry to formal education about blockchain. The Education Committee has taken this feedback into account while designing curriculum materials that focus on the mathematical and computer science underpinnings of blockchain and its applications. We also recognize the possibility to educate beyond a mathematics curriculum into a more multidisciplinary approach incorporating economics, political science and psychology.

The Education Committee will continue to develop and test materials while accessing networks to academic institutions as well as create materials for the general community to use in meetups and presentations.

Goals:

The Education Committee will work with individuals and groups within the community on creating initiatives that will enhance the understanding of the DigiByte blockchain and its applications. The educational resources generated will be broad in scope and include anything from presentation materials for DigiByte and blockchain topics generally to educational modules for intended integration into existing course structures within secondary and collegiate curriculums. As the need for educational resources grows with the emerging digital economy, the Educational Committee anticipates modifying its objectives as needed, and will pursue opportunities for public and private grants to acquire resources to support its educational mission.

As it moves forward the Educational Committee has the following specific objectives:

• Monthly live spaces with the DigiByte community focused on education initiatives
• Create an educational artifact each month to focus on a specific topic or theme.
• Researching and applying for grant opportunities to support work on creating a module series that could be integrated into existing course structures.
• Present to clubs and academic institutions
• Participate in conferences and forums.
• Create professional development materials in a train the trainer module with a wide application from math to economics solving problems relevant to their areas.
• Support information infrastructure such as the DigiByte wiki.

Members of the Educational Committee:

Laura Taylor: Laura will serve as Chair of the Educational Committee. Laura is a 20 year math teaching veteran at the high school and college levels and has a passion for reducing the learning curve for complex concepts. Laura is a Vice President and co-founding member of the DigiByte Alliance and has volunteered for the DigiByte blockchain since July of 2018 having previously served as a community organizer and meetup coordinator for the DigiByte Awareness Team.

Frederick Gabelmann: Frederick is a passionate software engineer and architect with 20 years of expertise developing software systems in public sector, healthcare, emergency services, geospatial, entertainment, and blockchain industries. Frederick has brought engineering leadership and a high level improvement process to the DigiByte open source community. A Vice President and board member of the DigiByte Alliance, Fredrick also has an educator background having previously served as adjunct faculty and developer of a minor degree of study in systems development at an undergraduate institution. He also assisted in getting that minor degree of study ABET certified by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.

Patrick Harris: Patrick is an accomplished leader and innovator with over 15 years experience in strategic planning, solution development and customer delivery of cloud and data technologies in start ups and Fortune 100 companies including IBM and Mastercard, where he most recently served as the Director of New Product Development. He was an initial team member of the Global Data Consortium (now a London Stock Exchange company) driving the development and growth of the Digital Identity and KYC/KYB platform Worldview. An educator at heart, he began his career as a math instructor and has contributed to multiple education initiatives.

Larry Tingen: Larry is a college math instructor and instructional designer and has experience in online instructional design/pedagogy as well as expertise in moodle, blackboard and several publisher specific learning platforms. Larry has been studying cryptocurrency and blockchain development since 2017.