Blockchain in Education Still Largely at ‘Proof of Concept’ Stage, But One Group of Districts Stands Out – Education Week

Recent developments in technology are changing the labor market, pressuring high schools to document learning faster.

Blockchain could eventually play some role in helping employers and others to verify students educational credentials. But efforts to test blockchains potential role in education verification are still early, according to a recent report released by the American Council on Education.

Government agencies and several large corporations in recent years have closely studied blockchain as a means to safeguard data and transactions.

Efforts in the education field are fledgling. Many initiatives are at the proof-of-concept or pilot stages of testing, according to the ACE report, but an ecosystem approachshows promise in Dallas.

Blockchain refers to distributed, encrypted records of events that are grouped into individual, digitized blocks. After being validated by parties involved with the transaction, the blocks are linked in a chain, forming a secure historical record.

The ACE report is the result of a six-month study on the use of blockchain technology in various areas of education and the labor market, as part of the U.S. Department of Educations Education Blockchain Initiative.

The report explores the potential for blockchain to help people better communicate the skills, experiences, and credentials they have gained in their education.

The report lists several examples of efforts to promote blockchain in education, including the K-12 space.

Among them:

The report highlights the GreenLight credentials project as having the right baseline ingredients for a successful blockchain initiative.

The key to that projects ongoing success, according to ACE, is that it is predicated upon an existing ecosystem of K-12 public schools, employers, area four-year colleges, food banks, and workforce development and public transportation agencies, all of which are focused on student and worker success. Those entities all share complementary data points that compose a learning record, according to the report.

Therefore, ACE recommends an ecosystems first approach to build trust and encourage the adoption of blockchain.

Early blockchain in education pioneers are quickly discovering that preexisting ecosystems, with stakeholders that have already agreed on problems they want to solve together with regard to student and worker success, are a critical resource for blockchain technology to take hold and add value, the report says.

Nonprofit clearinghouse Credential Engine documented 46,209 unique credentials from public and private secondary schools issued in 2019.

The growth in credentials from these education providers creates a challenge in documenting, verifying, and sharing data about whether learning has occurred between stakeholders, according to the report.

Experimenting with blockchain in credentialing can benefit all stakeholders, the ACE report says. Verifiable transcripts and CVs can make it possible to display life experiences that can match the increasing complexities of employer and worker needs.

FollowEdWeek Market Briefon Twitter@EdMarketBriefor connect with us onLinkedIn.