Decentralized Education - dTeach

Enlace para versión en Español abajo

Link para versão em Português abaixo.

DETAILED PROBLEM STATEMENT

1. Teachers don't access funding to build and share authentic content on which they are experts – as the Government does not support them with working hours, funding for supplies, or any extra cost related to a good quality teaching resource.

1. School teachers and students still don't know much about blockchain or Cardano. Educational content about blockchain is made in grand part to attract investors and traders, not people in middle and high school.
2. There is great research in education being produced in Brazilian and Latin American public universities. However, master and Ph.D. students don't access funding to communicate their results to the teachers using more accessible and democratic ways (like YouTube videos and online materials). They get stuck with academic papers that no one reads.
3. Funding for educational resources production in Brazil is too concentrated on corporations and large publishers (Mello, 2016; Anped, 2020).
4. Part of the open educational resources is just teaching more of the same. They lack quality and innovation to really make an impact on learning.

Further explanation:

Online educational resources and teaching materials are a great support for teachers looking to innovate and bring new content to their students. However, there is still much to advance regarding teacher professional development, especially when it comes to providing Open Educational Resources (UNESCO, 2019) that value teachers' autonomy. We need to create learning opportunities where contemporary research on education is considered and reaches the classroom by making use of collaborative perspectives instead of top-down and homogenizing programs.

Although there is a myriad of online educational resources being made by EdTechs in Latin America, they tend to tell teachers what to do, without knowing what the school looks like. Large publishing companies and EdTechs concentrate funding for educational content production, while they do not necessarily deliver appropriate solutions to the challenges of our teacher's time (Ball, Junemann & Santori, 2017). There is a gap between these corporations and the classroom, not to mention the lack of expertise from their content creators. Much of the content is being delivered without quality checking and being distributed in prescriptive and homogenizing perspectives to the teachers. On the other side, good educational researchers and educational practitioners don't have the funding to build and share authentic content on which they are experts.

Therefore, based on the works of Paulo Freire and the Pedagogy of the Authonomy, we advocate for a process where teachers and students are not seen as passive consumers. As it is well known, a teacher's continued education is key to the student's success and for a better involvement as an educator. More than just attending online courses indistinctly to accumulate certificates, nowadays, teachers also need content that supports them in the development of contemporary themes with criticality and literacy (Freire, 2018; Freire, 2021). 

DETAILED SOLUTION

1. We want to create a platform (A.k.a. dTeach) where high-quality educational content is produced using principles of decentralization during its "manufacturing" stages.

1. We will bring Blockchain (and Cardano, of course) to school teachers and universities. We will create educational content not to simply attract traders and investors, but for people beyond the financial system.
2. Teachers and researchers produce the educational content, teachers validate it, and teachers are the ones who "improve the code". In the end, the authors are also the users and validators.
3. We are using the Catalyst model of decentralization to inspire our platform. A decentralized model for project funding, which we want to reproduce for education in Brazil and then scale up for Latin America.
4. The platform will have a variety of open educational content that supports Brazilian teachers to cope with the new demands in the curriculum and the skills that our students need to develop in the 21st century. Including technologies like blockchain.

Further explanation:

Our educational content will not tell teachers what to do, but rather help them to analyze the reality in which they are immersed, to appropriate ideas using criticality, and to find their paths towards educational innovation.

By high-quality content, we mean that we will bring enough depth and clarity to explain complex subjects without falling into naïve, misconceived, or obvious explanations. We expect to raise questions and deconstruct rigid misconceptions. All the content will be produced collaboratively with experts in each field, experts on what are the demands in a classroom (the teachers, for instance), and will be research-based. A large pool of collaborators will contribute to different stages of educational content production.

Our solution helps not only independent teachers to produce and share content, but helps also independent researchers in the universities. We will connect scientific research and school practice.

Target group: teachers, researchers, educational practitioners, and students (basic education).

Further benefits and impact from our solutions:

• A chain of resource production (process) that ensures quality - community, decentralization, several quality-checkpoints, peer-reviewed and based on proven expertise.
• Fair remuneration to the entire educational chain involved in the production of resources: from authors to teachers in the classroom. Everything is done in ADA and with transparency.
• Valorization of teachers' profession by investing in them and their local initiatives towards innovation in the classroom.
• Diverse, contemporary, relevant, up-to-date, and open-source content that improves the quality of education and reaches teachers widely.
• Give capillarity to quality research in education, to access schools underserved by the states and other institutions.

SDG GOALS:

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

SDG subgoals: 4.4 - 4.6 - 4.7 and 4.c. Detailed link: https://bit.ly/3pCP794 (Google Docs)

PHASES:

This platform has two phases before it reaches full capacity. We are requesting funding for the first phase and will request funding for the second phase when we complete the requirements to evolve the project in a sustainable and robust manner.

Phase 1:

We will create a small pool of teachers, researchers on education, and instructional designers. This pool of contributors will create the initial content to feed the platform and make it relevant to other teachers.

A limited number of educational resources will be produced collaboratively and according to each contributor's expertise. Teachers, researchers, and educational practitioners are collaborators and will get paid for their collaborations. We detail which resources will be produced in the section below (PRODUCT).

Tokenomics is done manually without a smart contract and using ADA wallets. We want first to investigate what are the conditions and challenges to run the smart contract on a blockchain without issues. We want to investigate what can be executed in a smart contract and what cannot. To learn from the mistakes before moving forward.

Phase 2:

*** This proposal refers only to phase 1. We are including phase 2 here just to give a dimension of the project in the long-term***

In phase 2, we will invest energy and resources in the technical aspects that can be done in a blockchain, investigate what can be done through the use of smart contracts. We expect to partner with projects that are already dealing with the same issues. Therefore, any kind of cooperation is more than welcome.

We will transform the educational resources into NFTs for noncommercial use and facilitate their distribution on other platforms as well.

We will work to make the project run pretty much like the Catalyst project: every contribution that improves the system (in this case, educational resources) is rewarded. Either reviewing, expanding, or assessing. We will establish a larger pool of contributors and expand to entire Latin America.

To feed the project financially in the long term, we will seek partners interested in decentralizing education and having blockchain applications beyond financial markets.

PRODUCTS AND THEIR FORMATS:

Phase 1: we will concentrate on digital educational resources for school and curriculum innovation.

Below there's a list of resources that will be created. And here's one example of a similar educational resource that we have done already: https://dteach.de/  

(Portuguese version is complete, English is being concluded. Spanish will be released in February)

List of educational resources to be produced by the community of teachers and researchers in phase 1:

1. Computational Thinking
2. Blockchain technology as a learning content
3. Media literacy
4. Escola Livre – Schools without borders
5. Conflict mediation and non-violent communication
6. Youth protagonism and entrepreneurship
7. Engineering in basic education
8. Technology, social media, and mental health in the youth
9. Games and education
10. Art-education
11. Climate action and urban planning

You can find a detailed explanation of each educational content in this link: https://bit.ly/3pCP794 (Google Docs)

These topics were chosen because they are part of the new Brazilian National Curriculum Reform (BRASIL, 2018). Many of our teachers have not been prepared to work on these topics in the classroom because they come from an outdated background. Therefore, there's a big demand to learn how to use these topics and projects with students in Brazil.

After phase 2 of the project, products will be expanded to: Courses; Guides; Videos; Texts; Books; Lesson plans; Classroom activities; School projects; Textbooks; and any other media that can be accessed and remixed by other teachers.

UNIQUENESS

• Community-based construction and assessment of educational resources. Just like Catalyst, but for education.
• We came from the classroom and understand very well what we are talking about. Our background is entirely on education, the problem that we are dealing with. We are educational content authors working on a project on education.
• We position educators as content producers/exporters and not as consumers of foreign innovation.
• Diversity of innovative educational content - we cover from blockchain to pedagogic themes and explain complex topics with clarity. We keep the school informed about contemporary themes.
• We decentralize resources. Therefore, we don't give the money to those who already have enough political and economic capital. This has a big impact on the teachers' community and independent researchers in education.

KEY ASPECTS

• Bring in-depth and research-based discussions, while still accessible to the big public.
• Elevate the debate on each of the topics, approaches, and methodologies, avoiding naïve and shallow discourses.
• The process of creating, editing, and reviewing the Guides is made according to criteria that match the quality of educational research.
• All the content is Open-Source and can be simultaneously anchored in several platforms.

TEAM

Gustavo Pugliese [Proposal co-author and executive coordination in phase 1]

• 7 years of experience in educational projects management and 8 years of teaching experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Portuguese, Bachelor's Degree in Biology, Master in Science Education, and Ph.D. in Education.
• Author of a schoolbook approved in the Brazilian national textbook program (200,000 copies printed/year). Link: https://bit.ly/3pwBbgR
• Proven experience in the educational resources that will be produced in phase 1: https://dteach.de/
• 3 years of experience offering workshops on educational technology to teachers of different backgrounds. Direct contact with more than 3000 teachers across Brazil.
• Author of online (LMS Platforms) and in-person courses, as well as didactic materials for students and teachers all over Brazil.
• Fellow in the German Chancellor Fellowship, a program of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/apply/sponsorship-programmes/german-chancellor-fellowship ); and fellow in the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative, a program of the US State Department (https://br.usembassy.gov/2018-ylai-participants/ ).

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustavopugliese/?locale=en_US

Beatriz Calil [Proposal co-author and executive coordination in phase 1]

• Bachelor's degree in Art education. Master's Degree in Visual Arts.
• 6 years of experience in educational content production.
• Author and editor of more than 20 textbooks for the Brazilian National Textbook Program. These books are distributed to all Brazilian states and to all schools in Brazil.
• Books edited/produced have reached more than 20 million Brazilian students since 2017.
• Coordinated the production of the best-seller textbook in 2019.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/beatriz-mogadouro-calil-0929a167/

Badin Borde [Proposal co-author]

• Educational Project manager at Siemens Foundation
• 3 years of experience in educational program management in Latin America
• 3 years of experience in international networks of cooperation in educational projects.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/badinborde/

SUCCESS IN THE SHORT-TERM (6 months)

A community of content producers, editors, instructional designers, assessors, and teachers collaborating to improve their own practices.

The first cohort of educational resources will be available to all teachers in Brazil.

The quality of the content will match our principles.

Positive impact in the community of teachers involved in the production and distribution of the resources.

SUCCESS IN THE MID-TERM (1 year)

To gain visibility in the educational media and among teachers from different parts of Brazil.

We will achieve funding to evolve to Phase 2 and to continue the production of open educational resources.

SUCCESS IN THE LONG-TERM (2-3 years)

To evolve as a platform with open and high-quality content for educators in Spanish and Portuguese.

To be positioned as a platform that reaches teachers who are looking for ways to innovate, learn and teach contemporary themes, but have limited offers for professional development.

To have a full operating system in which the payments are made on the Cardano blockchain through automatization of smart contracts, and the digital educational resources are converted into NFTs. This system will work through decentralized governance, pretty much like Catalyst (but with a focus on open educational resources).

ROADMAP

In months

1st: We establish the pool of collaborators (teachers, researchers, editors, assessors, and designers), align and start the production of educational resources.

2nd: Follow up the production of each resource with weekly meetings. (Coordination, authors, and designers)

3rd: We have the first version of the 11 educational resources and run the community assessment (teachers create, different teachers assess). Partial payments are made here.

4th: We return resources to authors and designers, so they can make improvements based on the assessment stage.

5th: Authors conclude final adjustments, designers as well and they start loading the platform.

6th: We release the platform and work on the communication and dissemination. We will be actively engaged in our network of teachers and educational media to expand our audience. Final payments are made here

KPIS

1. 11 units of educational resources offered online.
2. Number of teachers and students impacted by the platform's content.
3. To establish a pool of teachers, content producers and validators to the initial content. (Minimum 20 collaborators).
4. At least 5 thousand unique access on the page after 6 months of public release.
5. Public dashboard controlling all the stages, goals, and accomplishments of the project.
6. Overall quality assessments made by teachers who were using the content to learn (they will be invited to evaluate).
7. Completion of phase 1 with all deliverables.
8. Structure to submit a proposal to develop phase 2.

AUDITABILITY

We will provide public information about each step on our website. Every step (ADA transfers, deliveries, assessment, deadline, and progress) will be presented using a dashboard made with Google Data Studio.

Beyond that, every resource will be released under an open-source license (for non-commercial use) and can be accessed by anyone.

BUDGET

Products:

$1500,00 allocated to each educational resource. Description:

$800.00 – Content elaboration (teachers and researchers)

$200.00 – Editing (Editors)

$100.00 – Assessment (Like the CA's role in Catalyst)

$400.00 – Instructional design (Web designers)

11 Educational resources x $1500,00 = $16.500,00

Communication kits:

$500,00

Human resources:

Executive coordination

25 hours/week during 6 months = 600 hours. Tasks: Implementation and executive coordination of the educational resources production; communication activities; dashboard updates; and website elaboration. $20,00/hour x 600 hours = $12.000,00

Total budget required: $29.000,00 USD ($16.500,00 + $500,00 + $12.000,00)

REFERENCES

1. ANPED, "Livro Didático, produto do mercado editorial | ANPEd." 23 Mar. 2020, https://anped.org.br/news/livro-didatico-produto-do-mercado-editorial . Accessed 3 Dec. 2021.

1. BALL, S. J.; JUNEMANN, C.; SANTORI, D. Edu.net: Globalisation and education policy mobility. Nova York: Routledge, 2017.
2. BRASIL. Ministério da Educação. Base Nacional Curricular Comum. Brasília: Ministério da Educação, 2018. Disponível em: hthttp://basenacionalcomum.mec.gov.br/ . Acesso em: 26 mai. 2021.
3. FREIRE, Paulo. Pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury publishing USA, 2018
4. FREIRE, Paulo. Education for critical consciousness. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.
5. MELLO, Gustavo Affonso Taboas de et al. Tendências da era digital na cadeia produtiva do livro. BNDES Setorial, Rio de Janeiro, n.43, 2016.
6. UNESCO. UNESCO Recommendation on OER. Available at https://en.unesco.org/themes/building-knowledge-societies/oer/recommendation. Accessed 26 Nov. 2021.

Tradución libre en ESPAÑOL hecha en DeepL: 

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xIsoZJrJqOUWMNNAp0YbDJaOYT0w5LqL/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116760986106985716734&rtpof=true&sd=true

Tradução livre para o PORTUGUÊS feita com o tradutor DeepL:

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jgU6jsERaldawKfEzGqFOCNXWVece9Dw/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116760986106985716734&rtpof=true&sd=true