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A new cloud-based platform that uses blockchain technology will allow learners to carry with them a digital, trusted record of their achievements that can be easily and quickly verified by any future employers or educational institutions.
Image: Sony Global Education.
In a world where more and more students are gaining certifications from non-traditional methods — online certifications, MOOCs, bootcamps, and badges — it is becoming essential that they have a certified way to prove their qualifications. A new cloud-based platform will allow learners to carry with them a digital, trusted record of their achievements that can be easily and quickly verified by any future employers or educational institutions.
Sony Global Education announced that IBM Japan and Sony Corporation have developed a new blockchain-based student education records platform. The new platform, developed using IBM Blockchain, uses blockchain technology running on the IBM Cloud to track students’ learning progress, as well as establish transparency and accountability of scholastic achievements between students and schools.
By using “technology that makes mutual use of educational achievements and activity records in an open and safe way,” this newly developed system can record student data, allowing school administrators to manage students’ educational data from several schools, as well as record and refer their learning history and digital academic transcripts.
The IBM Blockchain will allow students to manage a variety of services offered by different parties and consolidate them in a single verified repository of information while allowing them to share their certificates and achievements directly to prospective employers.
Educational institutions, on the other hand, can use this blockchain technology to share data to help teachers more easily determine and implement unique teaching methods for each student.
But, what is blockchain? In short, blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger for recording the history of transactions that cannot be altered. Blockchain technology can help bring transparency and help build trust to transactions. It enables users to create networks that are immutable; meaning they cannot be changed or altered by any one party. When a transaction takes place on the blockchain, all members of the network can see it.
“Blockchain technology has the potential to impact systems in a wide variety of industries, and the educational sphere is no exception when educational data is securely stored on the blockchain and shared among permissioned users. We are pleased that we have worked together with IBM to build a new system which can help effect real change in the education sector,” said Masaaki Isozu, President of Sony Global Education.
Sony Global Education is currently working with various educational institutions to tailor the service to their needs with the intent to launch the blockchain-based service in 2018.
For more information visit the IBM Blockchain site.
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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
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