The Intersection of Web3 and Education May Change Learning Forever

A couple of months ago, I paid over $30,000 for a Web3 Publisher NFT with a friend. I did this because of how this innovates and introduces a new model and network effect for the somewhat (mostly) broken education system. And has the potential to positively impact education for billions of children (and adults).

In fact, one of my predictions for one of the biggest impacting fields of web3 innovation and disruption includes Education. There is no way around it that there are major flaws that are hard to solve by traditional means and past technologies. Blockchains, web3 tech, including NFTs begin to allow the evolution of education, especially in a virtual environment like a metaverse. And these new types of NFTs enabled by Web3 benefit teachers, students/children alike as well as a clever new third party which I’ll talk about later, in an intriguing and potentially game-changing new way.

A key to this investment of my time, money, and attention was that the right players had presented themselves to lead the charge on this new initiative in the web3 and education space. Animoca Brands, who I believe is the leader in web3 right now, acquired a company called TinyTap which creates and enables teachers to create educational content, as well as educational games, and together, are spearheading the push into web3 educational change.

The intersection of web3 and education will positively impact billions of kids

Education is really important to me. Though I struggled in school, I do wish I had a better alternative all those years ago. Now that I have a child, I want her to have the best education possible, so I began looking into options beyond the traditional pathways considering both replacements and supplements.

I found the traditional education system is incredibly stuck in its ways. It works for some people and really doesn’t work for others. I can personally attest to this. Especially non-traditional learners like me, who would challenge traditional ideas and desire more relevance, ask “why,” and desire practicality or hands-on experiences involving what they are learning. The flaws with the traditional educational systems go on and on, but I digress for now.

Anyone with kids will, at a minimum, understand the desire to give their children the best education possible targeted to them individually. Whatever that means for your child. And it certainly isn’t always Ivy league schools or, for some, maybe not even traditional education at all. It really is about what’s working best for them individually.

Wouldn’t it be great if all of the kids of today were taught about important life skills such as conversation, thinking, handling money, time management, credit cards, self-defense, etc., and all the way up to entrepreneurship and cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain, Ai, AR/VR, and crypto? Instead, we overload children with memory exercises and stressful unpractical “gotcha” exams and teach them about things they will never use or need.

Helping the teachers ultimately benefits the children; web3 enables this

It’s a proven fact, teachers just aren’t generally paid well, and it’s wrong. Some teachers have to buy their own supplies to give the children a remote shot at learning or finding something interesting. Yet teachers have to educate 140 million new kids every year globally, one of if not the most critical jobs on the planet. Web3 educational models and publisher NFTs begin to provide a solution to the problem.

By holding one of these NFTs, a third party can be introduced to the equation who is not a school or an institution, yet it can be anyone motivated to get the content or course into more hands.

Instead of being forced by a school to teach a certain curriculum, teachers can teach what they want. Students and parents will be attracted to the content they resonate with, or they won’t. It forces content to be created that’s actually good. And it begins a feedback loop. If parents and students like the content, they will rate it well, and others will continue to buy it. If it’s not good, it won’t. This creates a free marketplace around education, where the network effect can kick in anytime for the teacher to earn well beyond an average salary. It would also be, in many cases, more cost-effective for the parents and result in content and learning that is more profound for their child.

Network effects with this much potential only worked on viral apps and social networks

Now for the first time, education can benefit from a virtually unlimited network effect. The virality of educational content was something that only really existed on YouTube. But there was never a third-party incentive introduced like there is now with web3 to own or co-own this kind of content unless you were the creator. A big part of this new model is that ownership of the courses can be divided to various parties. It’s not an affiliate model at all. And all the parties have incentives and financial rewards. This creates a sustainable model and rewards teachers and creators with helpful content that people actually enjoy and get value from.

The third parties holding the Publisher NFTs can go and market the course and bring in more students, which creates a network effect that does not necessarily have geographical bounds in a virtual web3 environment. This network effect and direct financial incentive of all parties help the course or educational game/material reach infinitely more students and parents.

What I think we are seeing here is the early days of education utilizing Web3 technology, collaborative and sharing ethos, but nonetheless, massively impactful and ripe to disrupt.