Interview with Dr. Michael J. Garbade on professional development and online education.
Today I interviewed an expert in the field of education blockchain technology; Dr. Michael J. Garbade, the founder and CEO of LiveEdu, a YouTube-like decentralized professional development and online education platform that teaches people how to build complete products in future technological fields. Dr. Garbade will run a ICO from January 15th to February 10th 2018.
1. As you have been in the online education and professional development business for a while, could you share some insights about how this sector is progressing world wide?
Professional development has been steadily growing in popularity over the last decade. As of 2013, the global professional development market was $306.9 billion USD in size. Over the next decade, the size of this market is expected to double. With the rising costs of colleges and universities, professionals in industry who need to improve their skill sets are turning to online education instead of traditional learning methods.
2. We have seen significant global increase in online education and professional development. Could you tell us some of the uses cases of blockchain in online education and professional development?
Many people lack the discipline to continue to learn things on their own, outside of a standard classroom. One way around this is to reward students for progress in their studies with blockchain tokens.
Another aspect where the professional development space can benefit from blockchain tokens, is to fix the lack of quality educators in certain fields, especially when it comes to self-paced learning. Blockchain tokens can also provide incentives to these educators, by rewarding them for creating high quality content.
3. What is your opinion in implementing blockchain education into high schools and universities? How different would it be like from the current offerings? Benefits and disadvantages?
Blockchain is revolutionizing the world around us. We’ve only begun to touch the surface of the capabilities of the blockchain, despite all of the excitement around cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Blockchain education is going to be important because it represents the future. In terms of implementing blockchain into these learning institutions, the blockchain can allow for decentralized learning. Decentralization of learning is an educational shift from conventional learning to a modern approach; where knowledge is gained from project learning, peer-to-peer learning, practical learning or learning-by-doing. In contrast to traditional teacher to student learning, decentralized learning is multidimensional.
Instead of having to go to a campus 5 days a week, students can reduce that time to something like 2 days a week. The rest of the time they can learn via a peer-to-peer network. Their progress can be recorded and verified via the blockchain, freeing them and their teachers to focus on other more collaborative tasks when they meet on campus.
4. In terms of learning, what special qualities can blockchain offer for students to acquire knowledge faster or just simply learn better?
The current education system tends to be slow and drawn out. It won’t be feasible to take 4 years to learn new skills, when the skills required are going to be changing at a faster rate than that. By the time someone finishes a 4-year curriculum, the skills they learned could be outdated. Blockchain will allow students to acquire knowledge faster because it records information in a distributed ledger. For instance, a student can complete projects on a specific topic and receive certification via the blockchain. This certification is instantly accessible by potential employers. This verifiable certification can be more quickly attained than a 4-year college degree.
5. Where can we see professional development in 5 - 10 years from now? Is it going to grow? What are the limits?
Professional development will be a major player in the next 5-10 years. Probably the most important factor leading to the growth of professional development is the fact that future technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality & virtual reality and blockchain are creating new job opportunities. Unfortunately, due to the pace of change occurring with these technologies, the current education system cannot keep up. Students will turn to platforms such as LiveEdu to meet the demands.
With technology changing things so quickly and the need for new skills constantly rising, the sky's the limit when it comes to the growth of the professional development industry.