DAO x Education = The Perfect Marriage ❤️
How DAOs can Revolutionize Education
Happy Monday!
I hope everyone stayed warm over the weekend. For my friends on the west coast, I hope you stayed dry. Welcome to the 2,000 LEARNERS from around the globe who have joined the LearnDAO community since last week!
Here's a little background on today's article. Early in 2021, a friend of mine sent me an article by Packy McCormick, entitled "Power to the Person." There was a particular excerpt that resonated with me. Packy wrote,
"We're on the precipice of a creative explosion, fueled by putting power and the ability to generate wealth in the hands of the people."
This article opened my eyes to how web3 technology has the potential to empower individuals in a way that traditional systems have failed to do.
In regard to our education system, we're at a point where we can collectively agree that systemic change is needed. When where a child is born is still the most significant indicator of future success, there's an obvious problem.
So, a little about me: I come from an education-focused family. My mom worked in education, and I was homeschooled for a period of time. I even homeschooled my brothers for a year. But my experience in traditional education was vastly different. I felt like a robot programmed to get good grades because that's what I was told would lead to my future success. I felt like a passive recipient of information rather than a partner in learning, sitting in classrooms where I was told what to learn and how to learn it.
Today, we'll explore why I believe a DAO and education create the perfect marriage.
So, let's dive in.
When I've talked to students, most of them talk about feeling trapped by grades, standardized tests, and curriculum that doesn't align with their interests or goals. And the story is similar for educators. The educators I've had the opportunity to work with have expressed that they feel constrained by a lack of autonomy, rigid curriculum guidelines, and a focus on test scores rather than student learning.
So, let me throw out a crazy idea...what if the system allowed students and educators to work together in harmony to maximize the potential of both parties?
What if we treated students and educators as equal partners in learning? What if we empowered both parties to take ownership of the system itself. This shift in perspective has the potential to completely transform the way we think about education and could lead to a more empowering system for all learners.
Enter the DAO (or Decentralized Autonomous Organization). For those unfamiliar with DAOs, they can be thought of as a group of people united by a shared mission and working together towards a common goal. DAOs seek to create a more representative governance structure, allowing members to collectively make decisions on how to use resources to achieve the DAO's goal(s).
However, a DAO structure isn't always the answer. But here's why DAOs and education are perfect for each other. In a recent paper, Vitalik Buterin argues that centralization is convex and decentralization is concave. Meaning decentralization works best when there isn't a single optimal solution. In regards to education, we all know that there is no one way to teach or to learn, so plurality is required to optimize the system. Decentralization creates a playground of cooperation and compromise, allowing all stakeholders to shape the system.
Just imagine an education system developed and fostered in its purest form...by its educators and students.
It's my belief that a DAO in education could be the catalyst for this change. By allowing learners to have a say in how and what they learn, a DAO for education would create a ripple effect of challenge, collaboration, and curiosity in the classroom. It would encourage students to take an active role in their own education and become co-creators of knowledge rather than simply passive receivers.
But the benefits of a DAO in education go beyond just empowering individual students. It would also create a sense of community and co-ownership among students and educators, with everyone working towards a common goal and shaping the education system together. This kind of agency is often lacking in traditional education models, where students and educators can feel like they have no control over the learning experience.
Our goal should be to create a learning-centered and empowering system that focuses on collaborative decision-making. The core aim of the education system should be to help students discover what they love and then help them become great at it.
I want to propose the use of an Outcome-based Democracy (OD) model to lay the systemic foundation to foster this partnership between students and educators. Outcome Democracy was introduced in a recent paper by DAO researcher, Andrew Furmanczyk.
OD is a governance model where voters do not vote on how something should be done, but rather on the desired outcomes they'd like to achieve. It's imperative that governance creates a balance between students and educators, not allowing either side to go unchecked. Direct democracy has been used in classrooms and has seen some success, but direct democracies come with their own set of challenges, especially voter ignorance. If I propose some cool and flashy thing, you may vote on it simply because it's cool and flashy and sounds awesome with no understanding of potential technical holes within the proposal.
The OD model addresses this issue by creating a balance between student and educator decision-making. Think of OD as a scale, with outcomes on one end and implementation on the other. Students or educators have the ability to propose an outcome, while students or educators with the required expertise have the ability to implement the design to achieve said outcome. It's important to note, you must have the required expertise to be involved in implementation.
To ensure the integrity of the system's core aim, it's imperative that clear and universal outcome parameters are agreed upon and defined to allow students and educators to symbiotically work together to achieve the desired outcomes.
There are two keys to the LearnDAO education model: 1) Governance should allow stakeholders to shape the system from the bottom up, allowing the system to be responsive and representative. 2) The success of the system rests in its fluidity, allowing students and educators to be interchangeable between proposer and implementer, creating an adaptive and dynamic environment.
So, what does this look like in practice?
At LearnDAO, we are building a decentralized protocol that is shaped, fostered, and developed by students and educators, optimized to serve both parties equally.
Governance will involve students, educators, and other stakeholders coming together to identify the desired outcomes for the LearnDAO protocol and then working together to achieve those outcomes through curriculum and program development, technology development, assessment, and ongoing evaluation.
To ensure that every outcome is aligned with our values and mission, feasible, impactful on the community, and sustainable in the long term, we have established five criteria that proposed outcomes must meet. These include:
Outcomes that enhance the student learning experience, such as new interactive learning modules, activities, exercises, or challenges.
Outcomes that foster collaboration and community-building among students, such as group projects, study groups, or peer mentorship opportunities.
Outcomes that increase engagement and participation, such as rewards and incentives for active participation, or new ways to earn points for both students and educators.
Outcomes that optimize the platform, such as new features, functionality, unit economics, or tools that improve the user experience.
Outcomes that provide opportunities for professional development and growth, such as workshops, mentorship programs, or networking events.
By ensuring that all outcomes meet these criteria, we ensure that the system is aligned with our goals and values and that it is responsive to the needs and desires of the community.
We are building governance into our core game mechanics, we will cover this in our next paper. We hold "contests" on a quarterly basis. Contests are periods of time during which members can propose outcomes for consideration. Any member can propose an outcome during a contest, and the community votes on which outcomes should be implemented.
We leverage a two-token system. The first token, $WEALTH, will be earned for all inputs, while our second token, REP badges (NFTs) will serve as a visual representation of an individual's reputation and expertise within the ecosystem. Only those with the necessary expertise will be able to work on the implementation of a given outcome, while any member can propose an outcome and participate in the voting process. This system allows for the active participation of all members in the decision-making process, while also ensuring that the platform is being developed by individuals with the appropriate skills and knowledge.
Badges serve as a way for users to signal their skills and expertise within the ecosystem. They are a way for users to showcase their previous achievements, both in the ecosystem and outside of it, and contributions to the platform, and serve as a way for other users to recognize and trust their knowledge and abilities. It's important to note badges can be given retrospectively. You've worked 12 years as an engineering manager at Facebook, here's a relevant badge!
In terms of governance, badges can be used to identify users who are qualified to work on certain projects or initiatives. For example, if an outcome proposal for a new AI-based grading tool is approved, only users with the relevant expertise badges (such as "Machine Learning" or "UX Design" etc) would be eligible to work on its implementation. This ensures that only qualified individuals are working on projects, and helps to ensure their success. It also allows for the allocation of resources in a way that is most likely to achieve the proposed outcome, as experts in the field are able to provide input and guidance on budget allocation.
Educators can earn badges by completing certain actions within the platform, such as creating high-quality content, leading workshops or events, or actively participating in the community. By earning badges, educators can signal the skills and expertise they bring to the platform and provide students with a way to identify qualified educators.
Students can earn badges by completing courses and other learning materials, participating in collaborative projects and activities, proposing and implementing outcomes that align with our system goals, and demonstrating expertise in specific areas through assessments or other methods. By earning badges, students can showcase their skills and accomplishments to their peers, educators, and potential employers. Badges also serve as a way to incentivize and recognize active participation and contribution to the platform.
Not only can a DAO empower individual students, but it can truly foster a sense of community and co-ownership among students and educators. The combination of community-driven decision-making, expertise-based implementation, and a fluid system that allows for the active participation and interchangeability of students and educators, creates a dynamic and adaptive environment that prioritizes student learning and community-building. Let's work together to shape the future of education and create a system that truly serves the needs of all learners.
I’ll leave you with this quote:
