BreakThrU

2016Education Technology

Jan 1

Designed and facilitated a series of think tanks exploring the how the future of blockchain-based education can enhance relationships between parent and child.

In 2016 I was introduced to an Australian school teacher named Rhys Cassidy. A week prior, he had pitched a vision of what was possible with blockchain education. The lead of that social fund, Vinay Gupta, look notice of his pitch and supported a process of continuing to develop the vision.

I collaborated with Rhys Cassidy to host a series of think tanks with experts, exploring the possibilities from an interdisciplinary perspective across pedagogy, blockchain technology, quantum computing, psychology, futurology, alternative education and other related fields.

We focused on answering the following questions…

What are the best emerging theories of education/learning? How could these be used/combined/refined to create an underpinning conceptual framework?
How might we measure success? Assessment, certification, qualifications
This is more of a content problem than a technology problem. How might we solve the content problem?
How might we link users (kids/parents/educators) with content creators/distributors (games, VR, AR) with systems (ed institutions)?
How might we leverage current tech? e.g. games, cloud, social, mobile, machine learning, big data, moocs
How might we leverage emerging tech? e.g. blockchain, VR, AR, AI, IoT
How might we ensure the solution is collaborative and creates opportunities for young people to connect and create social impact both locally and abroad?
How might we offer some of the advantages of the kid who drops out/does home-schooling, hack-schooling etc.? How might we create a platform where young people become entrepreneurial because of, rather than in spite of the system/s in which they have their learning measured?
Do you know if there's any research around identifying/mapping educational content, skills, processes, mindset, dispositions etc. in video games?
I'm also interested in why games haven't been more widely adopted in schools. Minecraft and the Glass Labs stuff has obviously been pretty popular but there isn't widespread use of games to my knowledge. Is there any research around this?