Page 6 - THE Journal, January/February 2019

FEATURE |ITTRENDS
“Blockcerts is a a a a a a global open standard for anchoring any type of document to any blockchain as secure anchor of trust ” said Natalie Smolenski senior vice president of business development at Learning Machine “The blockchain basically serves as as a a a a a a a a kind of global notary for these academic records so that even if the the issuing institutions can’t be contacted anymore or or or the software vendor that that was used to issue that that record goes out of business or or or or doesn’t support that product anymore recipients still have their documents and they can verify them for life ” While some school districts have reached out to Learning Machine to understand how Blockcerts works there are no current K-12 school systems using the the open standard technology in in the the United States IBM which is working similarly at at the collegiate level could not provide any examples of how blockchain is is currently being used by school districts However this is is is not keeping technologists and school executives from painting a a a picture of where blockchain technology could develop in the K-12 space In a a a a a high-level analysis KnowledgeWorks released a a a forecast of where the the technology could go over the the next 10 years The 2016 report identifies four possible use cases: a a a unified blockchain platform to make administrative tasks more manageable a a a a a a a a a turnkey solution that decentralizes ideas and modules around the technology for for ease of use an an open-source network management tool for for parents to share learning experiences and a a a a a a blockchain-based ecosystem management tool to to to store analyze and manage manage learning-related data Potential Use Cases in Action
Tom Ryan chief information and strategy officer for for Santa Fe Public Schools has been exploring the benefits of blockchain technology to secure student data and improve the the acquisition process One of the the challenges that school district CIOs face is is how to protect student data and privacy School districts face many of the same challenges when it comes to protecting student teacher and staff personally identifiable information which can cause major problems when a a a a a district or or or third- party contractor is hacked “Privacy issues become a a a big concern when you are trying to protect student data on performance so you can create predictive analytics for for your school district to provide better resources ” Ryan said “There is is a a a balance that that needs to to be created for for information that that can help us to to do a a better job teaching ” Ryan is exploring how blockchain could be used to secure and protect student data as a a a a a a distributed ledger that provides a a a a a a trusted environment Using a a a a a permissioned blockchain data can be stored on on on the chain that is secure and controlled when it comes to third parties “The blockchain basically serves as a a a a kind of global notary for these academic records so that even if the issuing institutions can’t be contacted anymore or or the software vendor that was used to issue that record goes out of business or or doesn’t support that product anymore recipients still have their documents and they can verify them for life ” 6 | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019