Panel Discussion DAT205
Blockchain for Education - Research, Products, and Skepsis
Date Friday, Nov 29 Time –
Decide based on insights from this hot panel debate whether blockchain technology as a means to keep track of personalised learning will be of use to you and in your context. Gain a deeper understanding of the potential and pitfalls of blockchain in education. Hear critical ethical views on blockchain as a means to keep track of personal, formal and informal learning journeys.
Inge De Waard
Strategic Instructional Designer, InnoEnergy SE and The Open University UK, Belgium
Inge de Waard (PhD) is currently leading the learning part of an InnoEnergy project that alleviates skill and competency gaps by combining Artificial Intelligence (AI, specifically Natural Language Processing), Human Resources (HR), learning analytics to provide a personalised learning trajectory (including micro-credits, blockchain in education, informal and formal learning options...). This project combines the expertise of people working at InnoEnergy, The Open University (UK), FutureLearn and many European University partners working on renewable energy.
Since 1999, Inge has set-up, coordinated and developed several innovative online, blended and mobile learning projects, always with a focus on participation and durability. These projects involved partners and individuals from both the Northern (Canada, United States, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Germany, UK) and Southern regions (South-Africa, India, Peru, Morocco). As an avid enthusiast of open science, she is an active international speaker giving keynotes and guest lectures, as well as providing and receiving knowledge input through seminars, SIGs and workshops.
Enlightened by the first connectivist MOOCs, she set up the first MOOC on mobile learning, called MobiMOOC (2011 & 2012). This was a community and project-oriented MOOC, enabling international learners to realize their own project by the end of the MOOC.
Her core sentiment on learning is: “I have come to realize that there is no single solution for all. The diversity which is at the core of nature’s success, is replicated by the diversity in learning preferences and ways to achieve learning success in humans”. She loves to exchange ideas, so feel free to talk to her.
Links
Jan Renz
Research Assistant, openHPI Team, Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany
Jan Renz is a researcher at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam Germany and part of the knowledge tech group at the Internet-Technologies and Systems chair.
Before entering the academic world, he spent more than 10 years working as a CTO of an internet agency. He published his first magazine in the age of 13 (4 pages, 20 copies). He worked for publisher organisations, school book publishers, founded an online travel website and a company that build a content management application for truck and bus manuals.
In 2013 he joined the HPI and is working on improving the learners experience in scalable web environments.Recent paper publications have dealt with mobile and offline learning, gamification, interactive coding exercises, social learning and learning analytics.
Currently he is working on digital learning for Africa and building a ”German School Cloud”. The School Cloud should help to achieve digital transformation in schools and to enhance interdisciplinary lessons with digital content. Non-code related activities involve running and riding motorcycle. He is also involved in working on digital certificates for univeristies and life long learning.
Links
http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/
Ed Zabar
CEO, Verif-y, USA
Digitally Sharing Credentials: A More Reliable, Less Expensive, Real-time Verification Process with Verif-y
Ed Zabar has over 25 years of professional experience, most recently founding and managing Verif y. Prior to founding Verif y, Ed served as a turnaround CEO of a UK technology company with $40M in revenues, where he returned the company to profitability and prepared it for a sale.
Prior to this role Ed was a senior investment banker with several leading boutique firms in New York and Philadelphia. In these roles, he focused mainly on mergers and acquisitions and funding of early and expansion stage Technology, Media and Telecom companies. In addition to his role as managing director at Oberon Securities in New York, Ed also fulfilled the roles of COO and CTO and was a big part of the management team's success in propelling the investment bank to a strong market position. Prior to his work as an investment banker, Ed was a Vice President at a New York based venture capital firm as well as a US/Hong Kong family office where he executed multiple transactions with technology companies in various stages of development.
Prior to these roles, Ed served as an Executive Vice President of sales and marketing at ViewTrade Securities where he was instrumental in increasing the company's global client base and its revenues from $500,000 to over $15M; and a financial and technology consultant at Goldman Sachs and PwC where he advised many fortune 500 financial services and manufacturing firms. Ed also co-founded and exited two technology startups in the late 90's early 2000's.
Ed holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BS in Finance and Information Technology from New York University.
Moderator
Ilona Buchem
Professor for Communication and Media Sciences, Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Ilona Buchem (PhD) is Professor for Media and Communication at Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw (Poland), Concordia University (WI, USA) and University Duisburg-Essen (Germany).
She studied Educational Sciences at Humboldt University in Berlin and obtained her PhD degree in Business Education in 2009. Her research and teaching focus on the intersections of digital media and society, with special focus on emerging technologies such as social, mobile, wearable and smart technologies. Her research interests include Digital Collaboration, Digital Diversity, Digital Learning and Digital Leadership.
Ilona Buchem has led a number of R&D projects dedicated to emerging digital media for learning and digital strategies in organisations. She is the Chair of the Special Interest Group on Wearable Technology Enhanced Learning at the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning (EATEL), the founder of the Europortfolio German Chapter and a member of several organisations related to distance education and technology-enhanced learning, including the Association of Media in Science (GMW) and the European Distance Education Network (EDEN).
She has initiated and has been actively involved in a number of national and international projects both as a project coordinator and a researcher, including Open Virtial Mobility (Erasmus+), Open Badge Network (Erasmus+), BewARe (BMBF), Digital Future (Stifterverband), fMOOC (BMBF), BeuthBonus (BMBF, BMAS, BA, ESF), Credit Points (BMBF, BMAS, BA), Wikipedia Diversity (Wikimedia), Mediencommunity 2.0, iCollaborate and Future Social Learning Networks (FSLN).
Links
http://www.beuth-hochschule.de/