Paper: Learning on the Block

Learning on the Block
Could Smart Transactional Models Help Power Personalized Learning?

Publication

June 28, 2016

By: Katie King, Katherine Prince, Jason Swanson

Topics: Future of Learning

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

We can’t know the future, but we have a responsibility to use foresight to make informed decisions today that will help shape it
Blockchain and smart contracts have the potential to give people a completely new architecture for managing the transactions underpinning daily life
Four scenarios illustrate the potential futures of education and raise strategic issues that education stakeholders should consider

Alongside a cultural shift toward openness and transparency, two emerging technologies – blockchain and smart contracts – have the potential to impact learning dramatically. Learning on the Block: Could Smart Transactional Models Help Power Personalized Learning?^© is a deep dive into the smart transactional models driver of change from our most recent comprehensive forecast, The Future of Learning: Education in the Era of Partners in Code. To help education stakeholders consider this potential, this paper presents four scenarios exploring:

Whether blockchain and smart contracts might provide the technical foundation for a new architecture for education
How emerging social conditions and cultural mindsets might motivate the adoption of these technologies

This paper includes:

An overview of the basics of blockchain and smart contracts
An explanation of the current cultural shift from hierarchical institutions to more distributed coordination
Four imaginative scenarios illustrating how blockchain could impact the future of learning
A reading guide to help individuals and organizations evaluate the potential of smart transactional models