The document discusses emerging trends in educational technology for 2018, including: 1. Increased exploration of blockchain applications such as verifiable credentials and research provenance. 2. Potential uses of learning analytics to help address challenges from Brexit, such as retaining international students, and adapting education through personalized and adaptive learning. 3. Speculation that academics may increasingly turn to dark web technologies to share restricted information and combat issues like predatory publishing. 4. A growing focus on libraries and librarians taking on expanded roles in supporting open scholarship and changing models of information dissemination.

1. From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018
Martin Hamilton
1From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018

2. Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018
1. Blockchain with everything
2. Learning analytics for a better Brexit?
3. Going underground: Academia takes to the DarkWeb?
4. We are all librarians now
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3. About Jisc
» Not-for-profit company serving the HE, FE and skills
community:
› 18 million users of shared services like Janet, eduroam,
JiscMail, shared data centres
› Devising national deals with IT vendors and publishers,
e.g. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Elsevier and Springer
› Providing advice & guidance to the sector on digital
technologies in research and education
» My role:
› Leading a small group exploring emerging technologies
like Augmented Reality and brain computer interfaces
› Helping institutions devise/implement digital strategies
and building evidence base around new technologies
3From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018

4. » Not-for-profit company serving the HE, FE and skills
community:
› 18 million users of shared services like Janet, eduroam,
JiscMail, shared data centres
› Devising national deals with IT vendors and publishers,
e.g. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Elsevier and Springer
› Providing advice & guidance to the sector on digital
technologies in research and education
» My role:
› Leading a small group exploring emerging technologies
like Augmented Reality and brain computer interfaces
› Helping institutions devise/implement digital strategies
and building evidence base around new technologies
About Jisc
4From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018

5. » Not-for-profit company serving the HE, FE and skills
community:
› 18 million users of shared services like Janet, eduroam,
JiscMail, shared data centres
› Devising national deals with IT vendors and publishers,
e.g. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Elsevier and Springer
› Providing advice & guidance to the sector on digital
technologies in research and education
» My role:
› Leading a small group exploring emerging technologies
like Augmented Reality and brain computer interfaces
› Helping institutions devise/implement digital strategies
and building evidence base around new technologies
About Jisc
5From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018

6. 1. Blockchain with everything
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7. Silicon Snake Oil or Digital Gold Dust?
» Like Ubik, the entropy-reversing spray from Philip K.
Dick’s cult novel of the same name, blockchain is
everywhere right now
» Blockchain crops up as a miracle solution so often that
you could be forgiven for thinking that it was the
solution to all the world’s problems
» But there is real Edtech potential for blockchain, e.g.
› A start-up company called Doctors Link has created a
blockchain-based “digital passport” for doctors,
which gathers together a verifiable record of
professional accreditation and training
› University of Northampton-supported Blockchain
Alliance for Good has developed a cryptocurrency
that records social value
7From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018
Photo CC BY-SA Flickr user fstorr

8. Blockchain:What’s the fuss about?
How we got here:
» Blockchain is the underlying distributed ledger
technology that powers Bitcoin:
› “The blockchain is a distributed database that provides an
unalterable, (semi-)public record of digital transactions.
› Each block aggregates a timestamped batch of transactions
to be included in the ledger – or rather, in the blockchain.
› Each block is identified by a cryptographic signature.
› These blocks are all back-linked; that is, they refer to the
signature of the previous block in the chain, and that chain
can be traced all the way back to the very first block created.
› As such, the blockchain contains an un-editable record of all the transactions made.”
» From AudreyWatters / Hack Education:
http://hackeducation.com/2016/04/07/blockchain-education-guide
8From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018
From Audrey Watters / Hack Education

9. Blockchain in research & education
Credentialling
» e.g. Blockcerts from MIT et al - “Build apps that issue
and verify blockchain-based certificates for
academic credentials, professional certifications,
workforce development, and civic records”
https://www.blockcerts.org
› Is Martin really a medical doctor? Should I let him
perform brain surgery on me? (apparently he
qualified in Nambia…)
› Martin wants to transfer course to another
university and take his academic credit with him
› Martin has been doing a work placement and his
employer has some feedback to add
› Martin has lost hisA Level / degree certificates…
9From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018
Blockcerts activity flow - from blockcerts.org

10. Blockchain in research & education
Research provenance and reproducibility
» Blockchain could “reduce overhead and accelerate
the scientific process”, from
http://www.blockchainforscience.com/
› Where is the code and data linked to Martin’s
paper? (maybe stored on IPFS?)
› Who has cited Martin’s paper / code / data?
› Who has re-used Martin’s code and data?
› What grants has Martin brought in?
› What collaborators and what equipment has
Martin been working with?
› Has Martin published in enough prestigious
journals to get a bonus / tenure?
10From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018
Blockchain for Open Science and Knowledge Creation -
living document from http://www.blockchainforscience.com/

11. Blockchain in research & education
Efficiency, effectiveness and social value
» “Blockchain provides a new way for organisations to
engage with technology to reduce cost, improve
speed and transparency and integrate social value” -
Nick Petford, University of NorthamptonVC & CEO
› Martin’s student loan is automatically approved
and tuition fees paid on confirmation of his place
› Martin’s institution tracks provenance of goods
and services, e.g. https://www.provenance.org
› Martin’s library fine is automatically deducted
from his eduCoin account
› Martin decides to switch to a course at another
institution - credit transfer takes place
automatically
11From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018
Social Value and Intangibles Review - February 2017

12. Avoiding the pointless Blockchain project
» From https://www.multichain.com/blog/2015/11/avoiding-
pointless-blockchain-project/ :
1. Must be a database
2. Must have multiple writers / updaters
3. You don’t trust the folk updating the database
4. You don’t need a trusted intermediary to vouch for
updates / updaters
5. Transactions are often dependent on each other
6. Database contains rules for assessing the legitimacy of
transactions
7. Database contains a mechanism for conflict resolution
8. Information / asset in database can be drawn down, e.g.
funds transfer
12From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018
Dogecoin logo CC BY-SA Flickr user
flyingblogspot. More Shiba Inu goodness
at http://dogecoin.com/

13. Silicon Snake Oil or Digital Gold Dust?
Some issues
» Public/private? cf. GDPR + initiatives like Sovrin self-
sovereign identities https://sovrin.org
» Immutable? See Accenture’s “chameleon hash” work
http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/accenture-blockchain/
» Permissionless or permissioned?
» Real data on the blockchain, or just a cryptographic
hash (fingerprint) of the real data?
» Proof of work versus proof of stake, aka “do I need to
use vast amounts of compute time to mine virtual coins?”
» Transaction speed and potential scaling issues
» Hippies versus nerds 
13From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018
Photo CC BY Flickr user arenamontanus

14. 2. Learning analytics for a better Brexit?
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15. Brexit - boom or bust?
» Another more controversial use of
blockchain could be in reducing the friction
of border checks and customs processes
when the UK leaves the EU
» And with today’s economy predicated on a
highly mobile professional workforce, the
UK can use all the help we can get
» But there’s another side to Brexit that we
need to be planning for:
› what happens if international students
simply can’t get to the UK to study at
their universities and colleges of choice?
› can we use technology to help
international students and institutions?
15From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018
Photo CC BY-SA Flickr user fstorr

16. From degree to nanodegree?
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17. From degree to nanodegree?
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18. From digital exhaust to intelligent campus
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https://futurecities.catapult.org.uk/project/smart-campus-university-of-glasgow/

19. Learning analytics for retention and attainment
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20. Learning analytics for retention and attainment
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21. Learning analytics for retention and attainment
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22. Learning analytics for retention and attainment
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23. From predictive analytics to adaptive learning
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24. 3. Going underground:
Academia takes to the Dark Web?
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25. From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 2018
Data vandalism
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26. Data vandalism
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27. Radical librarians
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28. Radical librarians
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29. 4. We are all librarians now
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30. We are all librarians now
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31. We are all librarians now
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32. We are all librarians now
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33. We are all librarians now
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34. We are all librarians now
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35. We are all librarians now
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36. We are all librarians now
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37. Wrapping up
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38. Continue the conversation…
38
Except where otherwise noted, this
work is licensed under CC-BY
Martin Hamilton
Futurist, Jisc
@martin_hamilton
martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk
From Blockchain to Brexit - Edtech trends for 2018 - BETT 201820/02/2018