Ethereum and Education are a perfect match
The ideal educational system is chiefly two things: universal and trustworthy.
To be universal it must scale to serve every member of the human race equally and effectively and it must allow anyone to participate regardless of intent or background.
To be trustworthy it must be secure and transparent and its outcomes must carry meaning and value immutably. It mustn’t be arbitrary, and must make sense to those both within and outside it.
Taken as a whole today’s educational model, of courses, classes, and exams, fails to meet these requirements. Instead of universal opportunity we get siloed institutions that are dangerously close to a pay to win scenario. Instead of transparency we have monopolistic exam security companies and an absolute mess of competing grading systems and standards. Instead of student empowerment we have prep courses and cramming and “it’ll be worth it later”.
Its not difficult to assume we can do better.
One word I used earlier in particular should key you in to how I think we can (hint: immutability). Blockchains, in particular smart-contract enabled blockchains, are the perfect infrastructure for that ideal educational system.
Firstly, they’re scalable and open. Anyone can participate in a classical blockchain system (eat my heart out private chains) and they make no assumptions about intent or background. They provide a single service and no other limitations. An educational model based around this would be extremely robust. A single service for assessment that can be formed to support any kind of curricula. A single service for the formation of learning groups, or for rankings and progressions.
Beyond that, when paired with smart-contracts and a VM blockchains become powerful tools for the extension of these services. If you want to have a platform that’s future proof, capable of serving “every member of the human race effectively”, you have to embrace the fact that you can’t think of every detail and variation yourself. Anyone should be able to extend the service to meet their own needs, without taking away from others. With smart-contracts (and some smart-design too ) that’s possible.
Add to this the much lauded security and transparency of a blockchain and you have yourself a platform for every feature I described for the ideal system.
But here’s the kicker: I think Ethereum needs Education as much as Education needs Ethereum.
Where else is it going to find a complex problem which potentially affects every person on the planet but can provide value at any level? A problem that would involve stakeholders at every level of our communities, and offers real value to both those at the top of our power structures and at the bottom?
A problem that would also confer a massive boost to the reputation of the platform. I think Ethereum and its smart-contracts can be about much more than just laws and finances, and the sooner the platform shows that the better. It needs to attract developers and individuals from all kinds of sectors, from artists to, in this case, educators.
There are three main institutions that form the pillars of our society. Finance, Government, and Education. Up until now, Ethereum has been very focused on the first two, but out of them all Education is by far the most fluid, and the easiest to change. And, it naturally leads to change in the others. The platform needs to embrace the possibilities beyond financial contracts (as important as they may be), and attract developers from all sectors, from art to game design, and Education is a perfect gateway to them.
I’ve said before how powerful an effect Ethereum would have on children growing up. Now imagine if their educational system, the framework in which they spend their days, and learn and grow into the people they become, imagine if it could carry those effects as well? The empowerment of openness and clarity in design, of extensibility and universality in effect, will be shaping generations as they grow, and guiding them to build the next-generation of infrastructures that goes further than ours could ever.
I’ve yet to mention one key benefit on both sides of the equation: it’s actually doable. Now, I don’t mean actually easy to do, I’m not quite young and idealistic enough for that (though I am pretty close). But I mean it can be done in a simple, scalable way, that provides real benefits to real people at every step of the process.
It can be implemented on Ethereum as it stands today, with no advancements in smart-contract design necessary. In fact we think we’ve got at least the basic framework for assessment (the core of any education system) already down.
And it can be of use to individuals right now. People unconnected to existing global infrastructure, or individuals who just can’t find people to learn with in their physio-local communities. There are tons of possibilities.
