Welcome.
The blockchain is considered by some people to be The Next Big Thing in higher education. For example, it is claimed that it will "reinvent higher education" (Tapscott & Tapscott, 2017), that it might "hasten the dissolution of universities as institutions" (Matthews, 2017). In this OER, we'll learn more about these claims, why they may or may not be justified, and how we might become better equipped to analyse potential blockchain projects in higher education from a critical perspective.
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This resource is made up of four main sections.
1. Key Concepts |
2. Critical Toolkit |
Here we'll learn what the blockchain is, and how it is perceived that it might be useful in higher education. In particular, we'll spend some time considering one potential application: the independent and decentralised verification of credentials.
3. Critical ExperimentThis section will introduce you to an imagined instance of the way the blockchain might be used in education. We'll put to the test the critical toolkit developed in the previous section to anaIyse and critique this idea.
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In this section, our goal will be to develop a 'critical toolkit', a list of productive questions with which we might assess any potential blockchain projects in higher education. We'll explore what might constitute this toolkit.
4. ConclusionsFinally, we'll bring all of our ideas together, summarise what we've learned, and consider how we might move forward better armed with a set of critical precepts to assess the introduction of blockchain.
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What this OER aims to achieve.The goal of this OER is not to turn you into a blockchain expert, nor even an advocate for the technology. Instead, in recognition of some of the hype around the capacities and capabilities of blockchain, the purpose of this OER is to encourage critical thinking about potential blockchain projects. The resource openly adopts a position of 'purposeful pessimism' about blockchain projects in higher education (following Selwyn, 2014). However, this position can and should be questioned, and as you move through the OER, you may wish to consider whether this is an appropriate position to take. You may also wish to critique the intentionality of this resource in suggesting it.
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The Tools You Need to Complete This OER
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But before we get started...
most of what we’re hearing right now about the blockchain and education is [...] marketing
- Audrey Watters, 2016a
The blockchain, as you will see, is fairly new technology. It's been around for less than a decade, and actual, real-life applications of blockchain in education remain in low numbers and are fairly self-contained. We'll discuss some examples in the next section.
But this raises a number of questions for us, which you might like to consider now. |
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Beautiful Edinburgh (CC-0 image: credit).
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Why this resource exists.This resource has been created as part of an assignment for the course Digital Futures in Learning, a component of the MSc in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. It's a first go at putting together an OER like this, so it might be a bit rough around the edges. Any feedback is welcome - please use the comment box below.
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All done? Let's move on to the next section.
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Education and the blockchain is licensed by Helen Murphy under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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