Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Woolf University: the Airbnb of higher education or a sheep in wolf’s clothing?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

"You are going to hear a lot about Woolf University over the next year or so and possibly much longer," predicts Tony Bates. The reference is to a white paper titled Building the First Blockchain University (58 page PDF), which Bates recommends you read cover to cover. It will generate its own token, rely on smart contracts, and through these "support direct personal, individual apprenticeships in thinking." The model described is basically a distributed corporation similar to the model of the DAO (I wrote about it here). From the instructor's perspective, it really is (as Bates suggests) the Airbnb of learning. "This is in some ways a highly innovative proposal for a new type of university, but in other ways, it is a terribly conservative proposal, an extension of the Platonic dialogue to modern times. It could only have come from Oxford University academics, with its mix of blue sky dreaming, the latest technological buzz, and regression to cloistered academe," writes Bates. See also this article from last week in Forbes.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Dec 25, 2024 08:28 a.m.

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