Programme

Blockchain, Credentials & Connected Learning

Connected learning implies a lifelong learning pathway that integrates personal interest, peer relationships, and achievement in academic, civic, or career-relevant areas, keyed to the abundance of information and social connection brought about by networked and digital media.

For this learning paradigm to fully meet the expectations of students, it needs to contribute to their personal and professional aspirations, necessitating it to be supported by a system to measure, record and share educational achievements.

Through its ability to act as a decentralised, stakeholder-led, trusted and interoperable ledger of achievement, blockchain has the potential to be the connective fabric that links different learning experiences across formal and non-formal domains, irrespective of the medium.

The conference brings together thought leaders, academics, practitioners, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The two-day programme looks into current and future applications of blockchain technology and how it may transform credentials for both formal and informal learning. The conference programme is grouped around four, interconnected themes.

Connecting Learning through Blockchain

National and Regional policy-makers will consider how governments can facilitate innovation in blockchain technology and apply it to educational uses, while sharing early progress in the field.

Self-Sovereignty and Identity

Thought-leaders in academia and law will consider issues around student data collection, ownership of student data, concepts of identity in the digital world, and what blockchain contributes to this in an era of big-data.

Decentralizing Education

Academics and thinkers will consider the possible futures which can be unwritten by technology that allows for true decentralised student-driven learning.

Learning and Earning

Entrepreneurs and stakeholders will present ideas for new educational systems, products and business models enabled by blockhain technologies.
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  • Day 1: Thursday, 17th May


  • 09:00 - 09:14

  • 09:15 - 09:29
    Minister Bartolo's keynote will draw on his experience as a Minister in charge of education and employment and chart out the key challenges to be addressed if disruptive technologies such as the blockchain are to be put to good strategic use, for the benefit of learners.
    Connecting Learning with Blockchain
    Self-Sovereignty and Identity

  • 09:30 - 09:59
    Blockchains are best known as the technological underpinning for the Bitcoin cryptocurrency highlighted for its potential to revolutionise the financial world. For example, the World Economic Forum survey in 2015 found that those polled believe that there will be a tipping point for the government use of blockchain by 2023.[1] The reach of blockchain technology, however, will go beyond the financial sector, through the use of ‘smart contracts’ which allow business and legal agreements to be stored and executed online. At the Open University, over the last few years, we have been conducting experiments in a number of domains including in Open University teaching. In this talk I will cover how we have been using blockchains to manage micro-accreditation (including badging), ePortfolios and peer accreditation in a variety of settings. I will also outline our initiatives to set up national and international blockchain networks and how blockchains could herald the emergence of Uber-style universities. [1] http://www.coindesk.com/world-economic-forum-governments-blockchain/
    Connecting Learning with Blockchain
    Decentralising Education

  • 10:00 - 10:29
    Autonomy, indepedence from centralised power and objective truth are values which have been expoused by academia for centuries. Using a mixture of theoretical scenarios and actual live applications, Mr. Camilleri will examine how blockchain affirms these same values, and hence how decentralized ledgers can empower educational institutions and networks in their key mission of creating and democratizing knowledge.

  • 11:00 - 12:14
    Regulating Blockchain means creating a legislative environment which protects users from fraud, maximises social benefit while at the same time removing administrative obstacles which hinder innovation. The panel will discuss these issues within the context of examples of live initiatives from Malta and the Netherlands, as well as upcoming initiatives in India and France.
    Connecting Learning with Blockchain

  • 12:15 - 13:14
    If 2012 was the year of the MOOC, the years that followed were characterised by an increased emphasis on unbundling and the provision of flexible, packagable, digital learning. If we consider 2018 the year of the blockchain in education, where will this take us? What will be the key Ed-Tech disruption on people's lips in 2023? Will technology forster incremental change or disruption?
    Decentralising Education

  • 15:00 - 15:59
    Speakers will focus on European recognition and transparency instruments, including the Europass, the ESCO Database and accreditation decisions from Quality Assurance agencies in Higher Education. How can technology help facilitate current procedures for recognition and transfer of qualifications?
    Decentralising Education

  • 15:00 - 15:59
    This workshop will focus on digitization of certificates for accomplishment, looking at systems for tokenising different types of learning. Speakers will engage in a discussion with the audience on the standards and infrastructure required to operate such systems at scale, and what policy initiatives will be necessary to support their development.
    Decentralising Education

  • 16:15 - 17:14
    On 23rd of May the EU's General Data Protection will fundamentally change the data-management for individuals and organizations alike. This debate will consider whether we are ready for this change, from a blockchain perspective. Are users ready for the responsibility that comes with truly self-soverign credentials? How do you reconcile the concept of immutability with the right to be forgotten? How can you power recommendation engines and other educational AIs in a world of private and anonymised data? Experts in the field of IT law, will take on these challenges.
    Self-Sovereignty and Identity

  • 16:15 - 17:14
    Employers are concerned with identifying, retaining and developing talent. Employees are concerned with having evidence of their skills and competences. How can blockchain and digital credentials contribute to talent management from both the employer and the employees’ perspective? Blockchain has the capacity to become a trusted service to check and validate the accuracy of information provided by job applicants. This could include checking things like education, skills, past work experiences and training courses completed - reducing the time spent by recruiters and hiring managers in verifying individual applications. Can the centrally notarisation provide respite for the employers from the challenges of identifying talent and providing evidence of talent? How can blockchain be used for regularly providing certification/evidence of skills and competences developed? Blockchain transfers power from certificate-giver to the certificate-holder. Blockchain could also offer more personalised information management to job seekers and better match their profile with job offers. How does this impact the employers’ role in recruitment processes, talent management, and training and development? The digital divide persists and remains evident between different sections, factions, cohorts of the workforce. Some employees are more digitally inclined, able and willing and comfortable with the use of more IT tools in their work environment. Others remain aloof and trusty of more traditional working procedures. Could a wider use of blockchain and a dependence of it for evidencing talent possibly create a further divide for those employees less ICT-friendly?
    Learning and Earning

  • Day 2: Friday, 18th May


  • 08:45 - 08:59

  • 09:00 - 09:29
    "Self-Sovereign Identity" has become a new catchphrase in technological circles, but what does it really mean in practice? And especially what does it mean for 21st century learners? This talk will illustrate the value of learner self-sovereignty through the concrete example of one international student's journey across multiple continents. Ultimately, self-sovereignty means freedom: freedom to study and work where you choose, freedom to self-disclose as you choose, and freedom to develop yourself along any path you choose.
    Self-Sovereignty and Identity

  • 09:30 - 09:59
    The future of work can be understood from the lenses of the introduction of greater automation, the gig—also known as collaborative--economy and the demand for more--and more complex--skills. The combined results of these three factors will push the Latin-American and Caribbean countries towards changing the way they currently organize their education and employment systems. Governments will need to support educational and training (TVET) systems that provide lifelong learning. They will need a different approach to tackle transitions between jobs, teaching in and out of school and a reformulation of their welfare state. For these changes to be successful, however, societies must be able to establish secure self-sovereign digital identities. Using the introduction of blockcerts in Bahamas as an example, the presentation will examine the challenges and opportunities brought about by the blockchain technology as well as the strategies needed to build strong identification systems. Establishing a management system that empowers students with ownership of their unique and official records in a way that is instantly transferable and verifiable by anyone across geographic, institutional, and technological borders is the basis for a truly Lifelong Learning Record (LLR).
    Decentralising Education
    Self-Sovereignty and Identity

  • 10:00 - 10:29
    The proliferation of credentials has been an enduring trend of modern times. Credentialing has been defined as a process through which person’s qualities are approved or recognised by an authority. Credentials, including educational and academic credentials, help establish the expertise and social position of the holder. The Internet and related digital media have created unprecedented opportunities to connect, communicate and learn. In the digital age learners also need new opportunities to aggregate their learning achievements and associated evidence of learning from multiple sources in a portable, digital, interoperable and verifiable way. Digital Credentials such as Open Badges (Mozilla) and Blockcerts (MIT) have been only recently developed as open standards which enable an open, digital infrastructure and an ecosystem of digital credentials. Digital credentials based on Open Badges and/or Blockcerts can be designed to represent valid indicators of specific achievements such as competencies, skills, knowledge and diverse accomplishments, point to evidence of such achievements and share digital representations of these achievements across the web. Schools, universities, employers and informal learning providers globally have been using digital credentials to capture life-long and life-wide learning which may have otherwise remained unrecognised. This talk explores the evolution of credentials from a historical perspective and provides an overview of the recent developments in digital credentialing with the focus on various concepts, technologies, uses and functions of digital credentials. This talk also provides recommendations for moving forward with digital credentials in the digital age.
    Decentralising Education
    Learning and Earning

  • 11:00 - 12:59
    For small states, unfavourable economies of scale means that the number of disciplines which can be taught within the educational system are limited. Thus, usually the aim of educational policy is not only to provide education, but to provide access to opportunities for students wherever those opportunities lie, including abroad. This workshop will examine how increased digitization in Higher Education can facilitate this kind of mobility, by providing for a global commons of courses, and discuss measures small stakes can take to make this a reality.
    Decentralising Education

  • 11:00 - 11:59
    The aim of EdTech is not only to improve efficiency and effectiveness of educational systems, but also to improve access to these same systems. The workshop will examine concrete examples of these social applications, looking in particular at the role of social enterprises, open educational resources and credential systems for refugees.

  • 12:15 - 13:29
    Innovators pitch. Each speaker is given 7 minutes to introduce their company, innovation or concept.
    Learning and Earning

  • 13:30 - 13:59