Education Week - March 16, 2016 - 8

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS > Tracking news and ideas in educational technology
www.digitaldirections.org

Potential Use of 'Blockchain' Tech for K-12 Debated by Experts
Data-sharing idea
raises privacy issues
By Sean Cavanagh
A new technology that allows for
the transmission of data free of a centralized authority has drawn the curiosity of the educational technology
community, raising questions about
whether it could allow for a seamless,
digitally based sharing of students'
academic experiences.
The potential applicability of
"blockchain" technology in schools
emerged recently with the announcement by Sony Global Education Inc.
that it has plans to bring the datasharing system to education.
Generally described as a distributed
database through which digital transactions can be securely made and recorded without approval from a central authority, blockchain could have
applications for student credentialing,
and student data management, proponents believe. Sony also sees possibilities in the world of testing.
Blockchain is known today primarily for its use in the world of finance.
It is the technology that underpins
Bitcoin, a digital currency that allows strangers to directly exchange
money without having to rely on a
central bank or institution. A growing
number of established financial institutions and companies are exploring
whether to use blockchain technology
to manage a variety of digital transactions.

In its announcement, Sony Global
Education, a company affiliated with
the Japanese electronics corporation,
argues that blockchain technology
could give students more control over
the transmission of their test results,
among other applications.
In one potential application, a parent or student who takes an exam
could tell the vendor giving the test
to share the results with a third
party, suggested Sony officials. Organizations receiving students' records
could then use blockchain technology
to calculate scores and assess results
in ways that best suit their own interests and needs, the company said.
In an email to Education Week,
Sony Global Education President
Masaaki Isozu said the company
wants to provide a "new kind of
education platform which includes
verified educational records and academic credentials," and that blockchain is "one of our options to help us
achieve this goal."
"We want to keep life-long learning records ... securely in the cloud
forever," Isozu said. "While these
records are usually held privately,
we want to make it possible for
students and educators to securely
share verified, trustworthy information with others. Trading these records securely would be an all-new
service in the education sector."
While the idea behind having
shareable records that students can
take with them through blockchain
is appealing, current fears about
data privacy would seem to stand
firmly in the way of that vision, said

ED TECH IN AUSTIN
A tiny helicopter, above,
manufactured from a 3D printer
in the Tinkerline Studios booth at
the SXSWedu educational
technology conference in Austin,
Texas, last week, fits in the palm
of a hand. High school chemistry
Photos by Erich Schlegel
teacher Shannon Haddon holds a
for Education Week
sculpture, at right, that she made
from tiny LED lamps at the
Progressive Arts Alliance booth in the SXSWedu
Playground. Far right, elementary school teachers
Nancy Fuentes, left, and Jackie Gullett step into Apollo
astronaut cutouts in the SXSWedu Playground.

Cameron Evans, the chief technology officer for U.S. education for Microsoft, in an interview.
In today's environment, the idea
of having mobile student records
without a centralized authority
responsible for them would likely
unnerve parents and K-12 officials,
Evans said. He spoke last week during the South by Southwest Education conference, a major educational
technology summit held annually in
Austin, Texas.
"The culture is so far behind blockchain today," Evans said. Asking
about blockchain is "a good question,"
put forward "about three years early."

Testing the Concept
Still, Sony sees an array of possibilties. Isozu offered a hypothetical
example from higher education. Suppose an individual studied at a state
school in China, took a virtual course
from a U.S.-based organization, then
graduated from a Japanese university, he said. How would a graduate
school in Spain verify the myriad
records, in weighing that student's
application?
"In an increasingly global education sector, we believe it's important
for students to be able to easily
prove that their credentials are correct," Isozu said.
Another possibility: An educational blockchain could be used to
create a secure academic version of
something akin to LinkedIn, housing students' learning records, Isozu
added. With students' or parents'

consent, data would be shared with
different audiences, and made reusable within the blockchain.
"Individuals and enterprises could
anonymously utilize the data to
analyze personal learning history,"
the Sony Global Education executive said.
Within a financial system, blockchain can create transactional records that are "unhackable and irrefutable," prominent author and
business and tech adviser Don
Tapscott said in a recent speech. It
eliminates the need for an intermediary, such as a credit card company
or bank, he explained. And blockchain's usefulness in finance, he predicted, is "just the tip of the iceberg."
Whether Sony's vision for blockchain in education will gain traction
remains to be seen. But some say
one of the possible uses of the technology centers in digital "badging," by
making it far easier for students to
create, hold, and distribute a digital
academic record that contains details
on their academic credits, accomplishments, and experiences.
Conceivably, if blockchain were
to help students keep track of and
share records of their academic experiences-in brick-and-mortar
schools, virtual classes, and from
other sources-it could add detail
and sophistication to efforts to "personalize" education, said Doug Levin,
the president of EdTech Strategies
LLC, a consulting organization.
While the blockchain concept is
"pretty nascent and people are just
starting to explore it," Levin said,

in theory it could "move the control
over the transcript from the school to
the family. ... The idea is, this could
be a much more efficient process."

Big Privacy Questions
One of the obvious questions
about blockchain in the current education environment is whether it
would become ensnared in the web
of student-data-privacy concerns,
which has tripped up many an edtech company and put K-12 district
officials on edge.
While there's little doubt blockchain would face privacy questions,
when people ask how secure the
technology is, one response is: secure
"compared to what?" Levin asked.
Schools' current centralized data
systems pose security risks, he
noted, just as private vendors' safeguards have fallen short.
And so far, blockchain has been
tested by, and appears to be winning
the confidence of, users in the financial sector who presumably have
very high demands for data security, in that they want currency protected, Levin said.(It was recently
reported by the Wall Street Journal
that the bank J.P. Morgan is testing
blockchain technology in transfers
of U.S. dollars, as it wrestles with
competition from online payment
and lending systems.)
Other uncertainties abound.
Blockchain technology isn't well
understood in society, noted Levin.
And many potential blockchain uses
are at this point conceptual-and
because it's as broad a concept as
something like, say, "cloud computing," it's hard to make predictions
about its applications in K-12, he
said.
Another question stems from the
fact that much of the interest in
blockchain is based on the Bitcoin
experience, or private blockchains,
Levin said. Building on a system of
Bitcoin's magnitude and user base
has advantages, but there's also
likely to be technical and political
baggage, he said. In addition, it's unclear what incentives would draw a
large-enough pool of education users
into a blockchain system to make it
function efficiently, he added.
There are many players "looking
to get a quick buck off the Bitcoin
ecosystem," Levin said. "It can be
difficult to separate hype and future
aspirations from current capabilities."
Isozu, of Sony Global Education,
said the company is confident that
education users will buy into a system that is secure and calibrated to
their needs.
But he agreed with Levin that "incentive is the key to any successful
blockchain operation," adding: "This
is not a problem only for Sony."
Visit the DIGITAL EDUCATION blog, which tracks
news and trends on this issue.
www.edweek.org/blogs
Sign up for the "Digital Directions" e-newsletter.
www.edweek.org/go/newsletters

8 | EDUCATION WEEK | March 16, 2016 | www.edweek.org

http://www.digitaldirections.org http://www.edweek.org/blogs http://www.edweek.org/go/newsletters http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - March 16, 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - March 16, 2016