Web 3 and Implications for Education

The buzz around Web 3 has been building up steadily over the last couple of years. On the one side are big supporters like a16z and tech bros who talk about it as the panacea to all current ills and on the other side are the skeptics like Jack Dorsey who are warning that Web 3 might perpetuate the same ills it promises to solve if we are not careful. As this debate rages on I have been going deeper into this rabbit hole and pondering over how our education system will evolve in the coming decade in response to this paradigm shift in technology. Before addressing the issues of education, it would be useful to agree on some basics of Web 3.

Web 3 as I understand it

There is a lot of complex and ever-changing terminology around Web 3 but at its core, it promises to be the next generation of the internet following Web 1 and Web 2. Web 1 which arrived in the 1990s comprised a collection of links and homepages. Websites were static in nature, and one could only read things and publish basic content for others to read. Web 2 was the “read/write” version of the internet, which let users contribute content in addition to consuming it. It enabled the rise of platforms like Youtube as people created and shared videos, Facebook, and Instagram as individuals shared photos, and memes, Tumblr, Reddit, Quora as people shared blogs, responded to questions, and marketplaces like Craigslist and eBay where individuals traded goods and services. In Web2 a large part of the value is captured by platforms that are the intermediaries.

Web 3 can be understood as the “read/write/own” phase of the Internet. Rather than using free tech platforms in exchange for our data, users can participate in the governance and operation of the platforms. Users become participants and shareholders and capture value commensurate to their contribution. The value is measured and traded as tokens or cryptocurrencies which are built on the foundation of Blockchain technology- a digitally distributed, decentralized, public ledger. Holding enough of these tokens gives one a say over the network.

Key themes associated with Web 3.

1. Decentralization: leading to a shift in power from large platforms to smaller communities, middlemen to creators, and eventually nation-states to the sovereign individuals
2. Native Payments: leading to the rise of Token Economy both fungible and non-fungible as acceptable units of value
3. Permissionless transactions: driven by the removal of governing bodies like central banks who historically have provided the stamp of authenticity
4. Pseudonymous economy: because personal data and its authentication are not required either for financial or knowledge transactions. An avatar can accrue both financial and reputational value.

How this affects education and learning

Our current learning system is built with the ‘institution’ at the center of the system. At all levels of education, be it pre-school, secondary school, high school, or university, an institution defines the options available to the learner in terms of ‘what they learn’, ‘how they learn’ and ‘ how long it takes them to prove that they have mastered the content and are ready for the next stage.

Traditional education system

Institutions have traditionally added value by providing

• Credentials: like a diploma or a degree that are socially accepted proof of an individual’s ability. Companies use these credentials as a mandatory requirement when hiring for different roles within the organization. A student who completed 8 semesters at a university and got an undergraduate degree would be a much more attractive hire for an employer than an equally capable candidate who completes 7.5 semesters and drops off without getting the degree.
• Filtering: Organizations looking to hire smart people depend on universities to filter in the best talent through a rigorous admissions process. Making it into a sought-after university has a strong signaling value that you are smart because you made it through that difficult entrance process. Organizations looking to hire talent, use that as a proxy for skills, intelligence, and hard work.
• Social life and peer learning: Deep friendships one develops at school and college are indisputably one of the biggest values provided by institutions. The networks we build during the formative years of schooling and colleges have a lasting impact on our career progressions and life trajectories.

However, as we progress towards the big wide world of Web 3, a fundamental transformation is taking place which is diminishing the role of the institution at the heart of our education system and eventually transferring the agency to the ‘learner’. It will not happen overnight but given the promised tools, opportunities, and infrastructure of Web 3, a learner will be able to define what to learn, how to learn, and over what period of time.

Change in the education system with the evolution of Web 3

The evolution of Education can also be categorized as Ed 1, Ed 2, and Ed3 albeit it has lagged the Web evolution by almost one generation. Ed1 was all about universities and schools transferring knowledge in offline mode and making some content available online, Ed 2 was about online platforms like Khan Academy, Coursera, EdX, Outschool, Udemy making knowledge available to learners worldwide and also providing a level of credentialing and peer collaboration. I believe we are still in the Ed 2 phase of evolution and the transition to Ed 3 is going to be deeply shaped by the following themes.

1. Decentralization

In a Web 3 world, given the ability of blockchains to maintain proof of work and proof of history, a single institution will no longer be the sole custodian of credentials. A learner will be able to create a learning portfolio that will include collaborative projects, peer mentoring, internships, and of course structured courses from universities. They would reflect micro-credentials, educational NFTs, experience letters, awards, research papers testimonials on something akin to a learning passport stored and validated on-chain.

A number of leading universities like MIT and IIT Kanpur are already issuing recipient-owned digital /virtual degrees stored on the blockchain.

2. DAOs as University alternative

It will, of course, take time for legacy systems like schools and universities to share their power and value in the value chain with other organizations but the process has already begun with MOOCs. DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) are emerging as strong communities that are redefining incentive structures in social, financial domains. It is only a matter of time before Education DAOs emerge, enabling learners to be part of a community of like-minded individuals with shared interests and financial incentives to contribute to the community. As participants run these interest-based clubs, support other members or collaborate on group projects those transactions will be recorded on-chain as proof of work.

Here are some of the DAOS that are already active and growing rapidly (Ref: Brian Flynn on Twitter @flynnjamm)

Liberal Arts -> @CryptoSocietyS1

Developers -> @developer_dao

Designers -> @VectorDAO

Analytics -> @MetricsDAO

Curators -> @scribeDAO

3. Earn as you learn and learn as you earn

Out of 1,000 kids surveyed in the U.S., almost 40% chose to be a YouTuber or Instagram influencer as their most preferred career option. Kids from the U.K. gave a similar response rate. Not an astronaut, a lawyer, or a doctor like our generation but a Youtuber. This number is only going to go up; the label might change to NFT artists. We will see the growth of platforms that enable and support students to be creators and gain both monetary and reputation value regardless of their age.

Our traditional education system is built for a sequential life trajectory where you spend your first 20–25 years finishing your education, the next 25 building your career and family, and then enjoying your golden years in retirement. The reality of today is very different where children as young as 13–14 are earning money online by being influencers, becoming gamers, doing internships, or building small businesses. They are ‘earning as they learn’. Also increasing, they are taking gap years to explore their interests and more and more adults are going back to learning/upgrading their skills. They are ‘learning as they earn’.

There are several platforms feeding this trend. 1729.com set up by S Balaji, ex CTO of Coinbase and one of the key thinkers in the Web 3 ecosystem has started a newsletter that pays you for completing tasks and tutorials. People can earn tokens/cryptocurrency by engaging on the platform. Web 3 Gaming platforms like Decentraland and Fortnite are already introducing these models and young kids and teenagers are the biggest users on these platforms. We will see more and more applications of native payment mechanisms that will enable children to earn as they play games or complete tutorials.

4. Rise of Microschools and Home Schools

As learners begin to assume more power and agency in defining their journey, we will see a massive increase in micro-schools and home schools. Homeschooling has been growing at an unprecedented rate with many concepts like micro-schools, learning pods becoming acceptable alternate modes of education, especially during the last 2 Covid induced years.

It is true that a lot of this growth has been catalyzed by COVID and it is likely that it will slow down as we limp back to normalcy; what is also true that the level of dissatisfaction among all stakeholders of the education ecosystem, parents, students, teachers or institution administrators is at an all-time high and once parents, teachers, children find a model that works many will not go back to the traditional system. Also, the availability of resources to personalize and curate a learning path for your child and something that works for your family is becoming easier and easier.

Web 3 will make it even easier and lend credibility to these models of homeschooling which have hitherto operated on the sidelines.

5. Richer online experiences with the use of Metaverse/ Microsoft Mesh

Web 3 and Metaverse are two separate ideas but they intersect quite a bit. As the foundation layers of Metaverse take shape, there will be strong use cases for education in the zones of Spatial Computing, Creator economy, Discovery, and Experience.

You only have to read the children’s book ‘ Ready Player One’ to visualize the possibilities of Metaverse for education. Big players like Facebook/Meta and Microsoft are already making big bets on Metaverse. Microsoft Mesh enables the projection of a lifelike, photorealistic self in mixed reality to interact as if you are there in person. It will enable much richer online classroom experiences thanks to holoportation, holographic sharing, and visualization that are a far cry from today’s where most children sit on their computers with cameras and microphones switched off, the teacher sharing a PPT, and when she asks a question most children respond in the chatbox with ‘Mam I’m having network issues’.

Nvidia, a leading gaming chip maker has just unveiled a ‘ metaverse for Engineers’ called Omniverse. It is meant to be a collaboration platform that allows engineers and designers to work together on projects in virtual worlds. It doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to see its application in project-based learning at school and college levels.

While Ed 3 lags Web 3, there is little doubt that it is fast approaching. There are also many competing visions for how we will get there and what it will look like but what is certain is that we are headed towards a blockchain-powered education system with richer virtual worlds, increased agency of the student to define and curate their own learning experience, gamification, and personalization of learning with lesser need for intermediaries and their declining power.

However, I'm convinced that it is not all going to be rosy. There will be challenges arising from the anonymity that the blockchain-powered education world affords and we will need to identify ways to authenticate credentialing sources. But that is a discussion for my next blog post.