Key Concepts.In this section, we'll introduce the blockchain and some of its applications for higher education. This section includes a handful of fairly short required readings. There are a list of questions for you to consider and reflect upon at the end, as well as some further readings which, though not necessary, may help you to build up more of a picture of the use of blockchain in education.
Time required: 1 hr, 15 minutes. |
What is blockchain?
A really simple way to think of the blockchain is as a giant spreadsheet (cf. Swan, 2016). It's best known as the infrastructure which underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but its potential affordances in other sectors (government, law, health, and education) have been widely celebrated. But to begin with, watch the video below.
So blockchain consists of a linked sequence of blocks which contain time-stamped transactions, and which are secured by public-key cryptography. Once added to the blockchain, it cannot be removed or edited - this makes the blockchain secure and tamper-resistant. The blockchain is distributed, and exists across multiple identical copies on many computers. Entries to the blockchain are verified by the blockchain community by 'miners' via a consensus method called 'proof of work', which involve solving complex computational puzzles.
It can be quite difficult to conceptualise exactly what this means, and what its implications are. It might help to think of blockchain as Lego and compare it to the game Jenga. The whole point of Jenga is to remove the blocks, and the central blocks are the easiest. But you can't remove a piece of Lego from the centre of a structure you've built without dismantling part of it. Nor could you easily change the colour of that piece of Lego. Blocks, once in place, can't be edit or removed.
This particular feature of blockchain technology is widely valorised, and as a result the blockchain is often described as 'trustless'. We might think of what it means to be 'trustless' in two ways:
First, data.
The data in the blockchain is immutable and transparent, permanent and unalterable. Data in the blockchain is added by consensus, and because it is distributed there is no single copy of the data. In theory, it can be accessed by anyone. So it is trustless in the sense that no trust is required: it can be taken for granted that the data is accurate and permanent. |
Second, decentralisation.
With the blockchain, there is no need for a centralised authority (such as a bank or university) to verify transactions. Instead all of this verification can be done independently, by the technology and the mechanisms by which it works. So it is trustless because it does not require any trust in these third-party institutions. |
The blockchain [...] is bad for anyone in the trust business.
The Economist, 2015
Now time for some reading.(1) We're going to read about trustless transactions.
The Economist. (2015). The Promise of the Blockchain: The Trust Machine. The Economist. Available online here. In this short article, the author argues that the blockchain is a 'machine for creating trust'. As you read it, consider the implications of going trustless, and think about the way the author conceptualises the still imagined applications of blockchain technology. (2) We're going to shift our attention to education. Watters, A. (2016a). The Blockchain for Education: An Introduction. Available online here. In Watters' introduction to blockchain technology in education she lays out some of the potential applications of the technology, as well as some of her very valid concerns about the implications of using it. How would you define the position taken by Watters towards blockchain? |
Icon credit: CC-BY-SA by Yankoa on Iconfinder
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the blockchain represents nothing less than the second generation of the Internet, and it holds the potential to disrupt money, business, government, and yes, higher education.
- Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, 2017
Blockchain for credentials
This is one of the more prominent and developed examples of how blockchain might be used in education. Blockchain could be used to record achievement and credit (Sharples & Domingue, 2016, pp. 491-2), to create a secure and public ledger of academic qualifications that cannot be edited and is widely accessible.
Why is this a good idea? Matthews (2017) outlines several reasons.
Why is this a good idea? Matthews (2017) outlines several reasons.
Efficiency gainsAt the moment, verifying credentials is hard work - it relies on administrative teams organising transcripts, which takes time and costs money. Approximately 25% of people lie about credentials in CVs and job applications; blockchain will help employers to verify that their employees have the qualifications they say they do.
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Students take controlThe technology will mean that credentials are safe even if the university ceases to exist - if it is incapacitated by war, for example. Blockchain technology would effectively separate the credential from the institution. The students have control over their achievements, which might be seen as empowering.
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Move beyond existing structuresUsing blockchain technology might mean we can move beyond the way higher education is currently organised. It might mean we can move to a "university of one", where individual academics can assert that a course has been passed without the university structure providing accreditation. Or it might mean that informal learning (such as Open Badges) can be more formally recognised.
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In effect, using blockchain technology to verify credentials works to make that verification process 'trustless', according to both descriptions above. First, the data in the blockchain is immutable and transparent, which means that employers can take it as accurate and factual without considering any other factors. Second, the blockchain decentralises higher education, both in the sense that the institution is not necessarily involved in this verification process, and because it might mean that more informal learning can be captured in the same way as formal qualifications.
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Let's pause to read about this technology in action.
Here we're going to look at a couple of examples of how this is being used right now.
(1) MIT Media Lab Schmidt, J. P. (2015). Certificates, Reputation, and the Blockchain. Available online here. This short piece by the Director of the MIT Media Lab identifies what he sees as the opportunities and challenges of this technology. Early on in the piece he asserts the need to be 'thoughtful' about design decisions in implementing this technology - as you read it, consider why he believes this, and how this thoughtfulness is manifest in the designs created by MIT Media Lab. (2) Sony Digital Education Russell, J. (2017). Sony Wants to Digitize Education Records Using the Blockchain. Available online here. The author outlines the nature of the work underway at Sony Digital Education to use a blockchain-based system to collect and combine data from various institutions and enable individuals to produce a live, personalised resume of their qualifications. Try to envisage what this might look like and its implications for students. |
Now some questions to consider.
Spend a few minutes on each of the following questions to consolidate your understanding of blockchain technology, as well as the current state of thinking about it.
There's some optional further reading below, which you may wish to do now, or return to at a later point. In the next section, we're going to start thinking more critically about potential blockchain projects.
- Having read about the work happening at MIT Media Lab and Sony Digital Education, what do you think are the main advantages and disadvantages of using blockchain technology to verify credentials?
- Tapscott and Tapscott (2017) believe that the blockchain will 'disrupt' higher education. How far do you agree with them, and do you think this disruption is desirable?
- Is higher education in the 'trust' business? What kind of trust, if any, do you have in higher education?
- Think about the way that blockchain technology is described, and the language used around it. Do you find it reasonable, celebratory, hyperbolic - how might you describe it? Why do you think this is?
There's some optional further reading below, which you may wish to do now, or return to at a later point. In the next section, we're going to start thinking more critically about potential blockchain projects.
Optional further reading
Matthews, D. (2017). What Blockchain Technology Could Mean for Universities. Online here.
Nazaré, J., Hamilton Duffy, K., & Schmidt, J. P. (2016). What We Learned from Designing an Academic Certificates System on the Blockchain. Online here.
Sharples, M., & Domingue, J. (2016). The Blockchain and Kudos: A Distributed System for Educational Record, Reputation and Reward. In Adaptive and Adaptable Learning (pp. 490–496). Springer, Cham. Online here. [Requires subscription].
Tapscott, A., & Tapscott, D. (2017). The Blockchain Revolution and Higher Education. Online here.
Nazaré, J., Hamilton Duffy, K., & Schmidt, J. P. (2016). What We Learned from Designing an Academic Certificates System on the Blockchain. Online here.
Sharples, M., & Domingue, J. (2016). The Blockchain and Kudos: A Distributed System for Educational Record, Reputation and Reward. In Adaptive and Adaptable Learning (pp. 490–496). Springer, Cham. Online here. [Requires subscription].
Tapscott, A., & Tapscott, D. (2017). The Blockchain Revolution and Higher Education. Online here.
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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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