12/06/2018
Guwoo: A New Model for Learning
Education is the cornerstone of society. It is what paves the way for innovation, discovery, and progress. It is no question that the world cannot survive without qualified people to run it. Unfortunately, education is nowhere near as accessible as it is necessary. According to a 2017 report from UNESCO 264 million children did not receive an education. Furthermore, 83% of those that did complete primary school, and only 45% completed secondary school. There are a lot of children being left behind, and these numbers will persist in the coming years if nothing is done.
Every nation recognized the importance of education from the start and thus took it upon themselves to establish systems of compulsory, government-organized public education. Most education is carried out in traditional classroom settings, with lessons delivered in person by teachers to classes of students. Students are evaluated on their learning based on their performance in standardized tests. Their level of qualification is then assessed based on how their performance compares both to established standards and to the performance of others.
While this current system of education has been effective in some environments, this efficacy is limited, and as technology moves forward, it has become outdated. Governments are finding it increasingly difficult to address not only the imbalance of educational attainment but also the quality. One reason is that these education systems, being government run, are inherently concentrated. This poses the same issue as of any other concentrated industry. The lack of encouragement for competition between education providers means that there is less incentive to deliver measurable, desirable results.
Furthermore, concentrated control over the content of education compromises credibility. These systems also do not receive attention from private investors, who instead invest in private schools. This means that education systems depend on a government that adequately prioritizes and funds them, which is largely not the case. Recently in the United States, for example, there has been a spread in teacher walkouts surrounding the ongoing debate about funding for education.
Education funding has been a persistent issue all around the world, but the fact there is any debate at all goes to show that education is not receiving the full attention of national governments. As a result, there is little innovation in traditional education, leaving costs high, quality stagnant, and favorable results out of reach.
How can this be addressed? There are a number of possibilities to be considered in facing this issue. A report put together by HolonIQ hypothesizes five different scenarios for education in 2030 based on numerous insights compiled via machine learning. To briefly summarize, five potential models for education in the future are as follows: In the first scenario, traditional education continues as is, leaving "uneven access to basic education globally" and "serious labor shortages [in] advanced economies." In the second scenario, regional alliances are formed between governments, and that collaboration leads to greater efficiency and lower cost in the delivery of education.
In the third scenario, free-market policies regarding education lead to an oligopolistic education industry where a few giant corporations form agreements with governments to provide sufficient education. In this situation the cost of education is unchanged, but education becomes much more modernized and specialized in line with the demands of the workforce. In the fourth scenario, education is modeled after peer to peer networking. This would mean that education has been decentralized, with many different providers offering specialized "micro-credentials" at a much lower transaction cost. In the final scenario, education has been automated and is run by artificial intelligence which shapes each student's curriculum in response to data on their performance. This leads to a substantial decrease in delivery cost and greatly improves efficiency.
These scenarios are by no means predictions for the future, nor does HolonIQ claim any of them to be, but they are possibilities that can be looked in to and built upon. Guwoo specifically aims to be a combination of the last two scenarios, providing a platform where teachers from across the world can develop and offer their curricula for students to choose based on their individual needs and interests while also incorporating Blockchain and AI technology to track student performance and shape their learning paths appropriately.
With Guwoo, students select curricula in exchange for a cryptocurrency called Clear Tokens and then rate these curricula based on efficacy. This rating and rewards system paired with the wide decentralized platform creates a competitive market for education where teachers are rewarded for the quality of their curricula. Student performance and curriculum ratings are then recorded with a blockchain, creating an immutable and credible record for students to track their credentials and select the best curricula. When it comes to the delivery of education, AI analyzes data on the student's performance to make recommendations and create a personalized learning path for each student, resulting in an individualized, cost-efficient education.
Put all of this together, and all the deficiencies of traditional education are addressed. Education, in general, becomes much more accessible online, and the cost is significantly lowered by the peer to peer nature of the market paired with automated delivery. The competitive market will continue to push the quality of education forward, and individual teachers will be able to innovate and shape their curricula without the massive infrastructure changes and bureaucratic barriers inherent to government-managed education systems. Students will receive individualized attention to maximize their potential without having to pay the extra cost of private schools. This system paints a bright picture for students in the future and presents many opportunities for education to progress.
Gavenraj Sodhi
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