There has been a lot of talk in the US of underfunded schools, the lack of practical subject matter, the "brainwashing" conducted by teaching kids to take tests.
I'm less than thrilled with the actions of Betsy DeVos, the US Secretary of Education. I could go on for a while about why, but I'd rather muse about how the blockchain community can positively impact education.
Open Source Educational Content AND preserving history- this is nothing new, it exists today in many different formats, but what concerns me is the deliberate bias of much of the material, almost to the point of trying to rewrite history. I'm hoping the blockchain ability to maintain records of data will be able to prevent history from being rewritten or hidden from public access.
Paying Educators - Teacher strikes are happening all over the US, and rightfully so. Many educators can't provide for their families on the wages of a full time teacher. Could Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies become a means of supporting education professionals? Ripple has already made big moves to help fund teacher's projects. Hoping this becomes a trend.
Verification of Accomplishments and Certifications - certifying a person's educational accomplishments has grown more and more difficult as fly-by-night online universities come and go, even brick and mortar institutions are closing down. Getting an education outside of your native country also raises issues for validating credentials. Blockchain once again provides an excellent way to document store and share accomplishments. If this was applied to education, you could easily do a background check on a person's educational history or progress.
CREATIVE EDUCATION - blockchain technology is built on mathematics, but the technology has limitless applications. Teaching kids to code and giving them a readily accessible platform to do it on would do wonders for technological advancement as well as the development of young minds.
These are just a few musings I've had with friends lately, stemming from listening to various podcasts about how blockchain is changing society.... and hoping that it can create a new renaissance in education.
Did I miss anything? Any comments? Post below and let's kick off a discussion.