Dear Ed3 DAO Supporters, Friends, & Community Members,

This year has been an amazing journey of growth and learning for Ed3 DAO. We've made incredible progress toward our mission to catalyze innovation in education through Web3. Thank you for building this movement with us!

A few highlights from this year:

• 🧠 Ed3 Courses: With our wonderful partner Idaho State University, we launched and distributed two credit-bearing web3 courses for educators with over 1500 registrants. This, along with our partnership with Fordham University co-creating an AI bootcamp, allowed Ed3 to build its first revenue model for the sustainability of the organization.

• 🌍 Global Expansion: We are expanding our presence and reach in Saudi Arabia (KSA), thanks to our partner Aanaab, with a new web3 course for educators launched last week. We also attracted 1,500 KSA educators for an AI webinar thanks to the National E-Learning Organization and community member Scott Meyers.

• 💰 Ed3 Grants: To empower the Ed3 community, we created a micro-grants program totaling $50,000 to encourage facilitation of AI and web3 learning events. Members organized events in Australia, Colombia, Jamaica, Nigeria, and the US. The grant applications are open.

• 🧔🏽 Hiring: With our new business model and a grant from Ape DAO, we were able to engage our most active community volunteers in paid contracts for their contributions.

• 💪🏽 Advocacy: In partnership with Coinbase and Stand With Crypto, Ed3 DAO was selected to join leading web3 organizations to advocate for legal frameworks that support web3 innovation, in Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania.

• ⚖ Governance: As a DAO, our grants program is distributed but our organizational systems are not yet. In an effort to further decentralize Ed3, we started engaging in sprints to build a new hybrid model combining the concepts of DAOs and Holocracies. The plan is to launch a model in the next three months. We invite you to participate!

We’ll continue building on the momentum of 2023. Here are a few more things underway for 2024:

• 🔗 Community Platform: As much as we love Discord, we know how difficult it has been for educators to access our community. Starting January, we are slowly transitioning our entire Ed3 community to Mighty Networks for an enhanced user experience. Look out for an invitation soon!

• 🌐 Ed3 Futures Summit: We are hosting our next summit in the metaverse on April 19-21. It will be bigger and better than ever before! Official announcements and campaign to start in January.

• 🖍 Rebranding: Ed3 DAO is getting a new look! We’re delighted to engage Spark+Mint as our branding and marketing partner for a new Ed3 website and brand. More to come soon.

• ‍🧔🏽 Hiring: We will be announcing the search for our very first full-time roles! More to come soon.

• ⚖ Nonprofit Board & Community Council: In support of a further distributed governance model, we will be announcing the search for our board and community council members in 2024. More to come soon.

• 🌍 Global Expansion: We are launching a partnership with The Circle India, to host AI Forums for Indian educators. Invitations to come soon.

Thank you for believing in educators and our potential to change the world. Ed3 DAO began as a web3 meetup and is now a global non-profit community by educators, for educators.

We’re looking forward to seeing more growth, innovation, and collaboration in 2024. Stay tuned for more updates and invitations to engage!

Warmly yours,

Vriti, Mike, & the Ed3 DAO team

ADVOCACY MATTERS Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to Stand With Crypto for a "fly-in date" in Washington D.C., where I joined 40 other founders from the crypto and Web3 ecosystem to meet with lawmakers and discuss the state and future of our rapidly evolving industry.  I had the honor of representing Ed3 DAO, at this event to help inform policymakers about how Ed3 DAO is exploring the use of web3 technologies to reimagine education. The experience was both eye-opening and encouraging, and I wanted to share three key takeaways that resonate not just for those in crypto and Web3, but for any stakeholder invested in the future of technology and education.

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NOT ABOUT POLITICS, BUT ABOUT DOING WHAT’S RIGHT As someone who conversed with politicians from both sides of the aisle, it was refreshing to see that the issues surrounding web3 and crypto were not overly politicized. Most lawmakers agreed that the primary issue here is the unfair politicization of the technology. The common sentiment was clear: let’s focus on providing a space for innovation that can propel America forward. Sensible regulation can make this technology more accessible and place our country at the forefront of the digital revolution.

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EDUCATE TO EMPOWER The final takeaway is the imperative to educate. As builders and thought leaders in the web3 space, our job isn’t done when we exit the halls of Congress. The broader ecosystem—investors, users, and yes, educators—need to understand what we’re working on and why it matters. And let’s not limit this to crypto Twitter or technical jargon. The language we use matters, and it’s crucial to make these complex concepts accessible, not just technically but also culturally.

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WHAT’S NEXT? Before jumping into some final thoughts, it is important to recognize that my participation in the event was made possible because of the long time connection between Ed3 DAO and Coinbase.  As a former grant recipient from Coinbase, we are thankful for the continued support and collaboration as we journey through web3.

With the promise of potential legislation on the horizon, now is the time to be active, vocal, and continue efforts to educate. Let's leverage our platforms, whether they're social media accounts or blogs, to be approachable voices in this space. In doing so, we contribute to a future where technology and education intersect to offer more equitable and expansive opportunities for all.

As originally posted via Michgan Virtual's Blog

Welcome back to our third and final installment of this introductory series on web3. In this series we’ve explored the technology and trends shaping the next generation of the web and most importantly for this audience what are the potential impacts on education.

In our first post, we walked you through the shifts occurring in the web and specifically highlighted some of the shifts occurring in web3. In particular, we noted that part of the promise of web3, the decentralized Internet, holds transformative potential for education, bringing the promise of greater agency, accessibility, and personalization to learning. At the heart of this revolution is the learner, now able to navigate an interconnected digital ecosystem with tools designed to recognize and respect their unique identity. One of these key tools is Decentralized Digital Identity (DID), a technology that can redefine what it means to be a learner in the digital age. Let’s delve into the empowering possibilities of DIDs and how they can be combined with verifiable credentials to craft a more inclusive, equitable, and personalized learning experience.

Digital Identity: Empowering the Learner

Decentralized Digital Identity systems often referred to as DIDs are another key piece of technology that will serve a critical role for all of us in the future.  While their use is still fairly limited, many states are actively exploring using these systems as a way to issue digital representations of things like a driver’s license.  Other organizations like Randa are reimagining identity by using new technology to help teachers bridge their teaching licenses from state to state. From a high-level perspective, DIDs allow us to store information about ourselves in a secure yet accessible format on blockchain.

So what?  How does this empower learners?  

In the last post, we talked about the potential for scaled adoption of verifiable credentials where learners could be presented with digital recognition of their learning, allowing them to share what they have learned. If we combine this with the ability for learners to share information about themselves through a DID securely, we can quickly develop a more holistic learner profile that can fill a number of gaps AND present us with new opportunities.

The powerful combination of DIDS and verifiable credentials could be a game-changer for educators and school leaders, reducing friction between the learner’s needs and access to learning opportunities.  While there are still technical and philosophical hurdles we must solve for the benefit of the school and most importantly the learner can be extensive.

• Greater Agency
• Learner agency has been a topic of interest in education for well over a decade, often discussed in conversations around personalized and competency-based learning. Delivering experiences that are tailored to the learner requires tools and systems that can recognize the whole learner, and to date, these tools and systems have not scaled well. With DIDs and verifiable credentials, we can now effectively implement and scale these personalized experiences. These technologies create a digital footprint of a learner’s entire educational journey allowing the co-creation of detailed profiles that capture academic achievements, soft skills, interests, and experiences outside the traditional school system. This comprehensive view can help educators design personalized learning plans and recognize students’ unique talents and growth.

• Better Resource Allocation
• Better access to technologies like adaptive learning programs, diagnostic, and benchmarking tools have helped us better allocate resources in our schools.  Tiered systems of intervention are now more accessible than ever to classroom teachers and school leaders, BUT these systems rarely interact with each other. A school’s behavior intervention system doesn’t talk with an adaptive learning program, which doesn’t talk with the student information system leaving a wealth of information siloed and often lacking direct inputs from the learner. However, the advent of DIDs and verifiable credentials has the potential to break down these silos, enabling a seamless, integrated system that prioritizes the learner’s input.  Holistic learner profiles could be a key unlock in guiding classroom teachers and school leaders in directing resources where they’re needed most. They can identify gaps and strengths in the learning journey and tailor support accordingly at a fraction of the time cost.

• Supporting Equity and Inclusion
• Our current systems of recognizing learner achievement are often limited to standardized metrics such as test scores and grades. By recognizing diverse learning paths and experiences, a system of holistic learner profiles promotes greater equity and inclusion in education. Often our metrics for recognizing learner achievement and success are often limited to things like standardized test scores and course grades. A more holistic system validates non-traditional learning experiences and soft skills often overlooked in traditional assessments.

In addition to these three areas, it’s worth exploring the impact that the development of such profiles can have when combined with AI.  

Where AI meets Web3: Democratizing Access

With greater access to new technologies, we are inching closer to the realization of truly personalized learning experiences for all learners. One of the major roadblocks we have encountered is the sheer scale of personalization that is required to cater to the unique needs of each learner. Teachers, no matter how dedicated, are constrained by time and resources in developing personalized learning pathways that cater to all learners.  

Adaptive learning programs that create tailored pathways for learners are not an entirely new concept.  Teachers have been leveraging programs like Rennaissance, Edmentum, etc. which use diagnostic tools to create personalized learner pathways in math, reading, science, etc. The problem with these systems is that they are rather one-dimensional tracking progress in a narrow band of learner understanding.

So how do we inform this AI-driven system about each learner’s unique identity, skills, interests, and achievements? This is where DIDs and verifiable credentials come into play. DIDs, combined with verifiable credentials, can provide a comprehensive learner profile. This profile not only includes academic achievements but also captures the holistic learner, including their interests, experiences, and soft skills.

In this envisioned future, AI systems would draw detailed learner profiles, that contain a much richer and detailed profile of the learner, to create and curate personalized learning experiences across disciplines. This unlock can effectively bridge the gap between the need for personalized education and the ability to deliver it. With these technological advancements, we are approaching a window of opportunity where personalized education for all learners is not just a lofty goal but a feasible reality.

We stand on the cusp of a new era in education, one in which web3 has the potential to give us more than a set of tools such as blockchain, verifiable credentials, and DIDs.  They can be catalysts for a transformative shift towards learner-centered education that emphasizes agency, access, and personalization.  As we continue exploring and unraveling the potential of these technologies, we will be ushering in a new landscape where each learner’s identity is valued and every learning journey is personalized. The future of education is not just about the adoption of new technology, rather it’s about reimaging learning for the digital age, placing the learner at the center of their educational journey.  

I hope you’ve enjoyed our first look at the potential of web3 technologies and their potential impact on education.  If you’re interested in learning more, I would encourage you to connect with Ed3 DAO a community dedicated to exploring the intersection of web3 technology and education at ed3dao.com and on our socials Linkedin and Twitter.

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As originally posted via Michigan Virtual's Blog

In my last article, I introduced web3 and some of the core technologies shaping the future of the internet.

Today, we’ll journey deeper into the era of web3, where the implications for education and the future of work become increasingly profound.

In this piece, we’ll explore three pivotal aspects shaping this new frontier: verifiable credentials, learner-employment records, and the evolving critical skills necessary for our changing workforce.

In addition to looking at the theory behind the concepts, this article will also provide some examples of current use cases to help further define the impacts of these technologies in education.

Verifiable Credentials

In the web3 paradigm, one standout innovation is the ability to issue verifiable, immutable credentials.  Through the use of blockchain technology, learning organizations can create such credentials, which ultimately:

• Increase transparency
• Reduce friction, and
• Decrease the potential for fraud.

Beyond the gains in efficiency and security, the shift to credentials can provide the foundation for realizing a more personalized and equitable educational vision.

Where grades fall short of recognizing the whole learner, credentials can allow us to:

• Recognize learning with greater granularity,
• Better document learner journeys and pathways, and
• Provide learners with more relevance.

Credentialing is a concept that has been introduced to many of us in education. However, through technological advancements such as blockchains and digital wallets, we can now transfer true ownership to the individual. This ownership is a key differentiating factor compared to most current micro-credentialing platforms.

While we have talked about personalized learning in education for the last decade, we have yet to build new infrastructure to support such learning, instead relying primarily on traditional grading systems.  Perhaps it is time for an upgrade that matches the workforce’s needs.

Learner-Employment Records

Outside of education, web3 technologies are already powering learner-owned learner-employment records. With the power of blockchain technology, learners can maintain comprehensive, immutable records of their educational and professional achievements.

They can selectively share these records with future educators, employers, or educational organizations, thereby streamlining transitions between different stages of education and employment.

In the education space, we can see examples moving from theory to practice across the globe.  For example, the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) is developing systems to help learners leverage the power of verifiable credentials for learning and employment across Europe.

In short, EBSI serves as the highway allowing individuals to use blockchain technology to present their learning credentials to educational organizations and potential employers, reducing friction and barriers in learning and employment. You can see a quick overview of one learner's experience here:

In the US, workforce development organizations like Jobs For the Future (JFF) are helping lead the push towards a skill-based future, partnering with organizations like Walmart to realize this potential future. JFF’s Plugfest has been helping jumpstart a skills-based future by supporting the development of critical infrastructure like digital wallets.

Another organization, Smart Resume, is working to help bridge the gap between education organizations, professional organizations, and workforce development organizations through the use of verifiable credentials.

While there are other examples, we can see a confluence between technology and workforce development in which verifiable credentials will play a key role.

It’s essential that we begin to think about how shifts in the web, technology, and the workforce will necessitate changes in our classrooms and schools.

Critical Skills for the Web3 Era

As we continue to see the web evolve, we must take a fresh look at the essential skills we impart to our students. Digital citizenship skills will need to be deeply embedded across all subject areas as these tools continue to evolve. Thanks to the technologies powering web3 and AI, learners will need to adapt to an ever-changing world filled with increasing agency and complexity.

While the future surrounding digital assets and currencies may seem uncertain, financial institutions and governments worldwide are beginning to prepare for a future where digital currencies are the financial system. These changes will necessitate a shift in how we approach financial literacy, particularly through the lens of agency and autonomy of the individual.  

Implications for the Future of Education

In 2009, I began teaching in a 7th-grade classroom and saw firsthand the power and potential of technology in the classroom powered by better hardware and access to the world-wide-web. Those in education at that time would agree that these technologies forever changed education.

As the web continues to evolve, so, too, will education. The technologies supporting web3 will reshape our digital landscape. It’s crucial for educators to be aware of these changes and adapt accordingly.

From issuing verifiable credentials to owning learning and employment data and redefining critical skills, the educational landscape must evolve in lockstep with technological advancements. By doing so, we’ll ensure that we prepare our learners for a future where they don’t just survive but thrive in the rapidly changing world of work.

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