This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Media and digital literacies in Canadian teacher educators’ open educational practices: A post-intentional phenomenology

Blockchain - glossary item

From the US Education Department's website, blockchain is described as a:

record of chronological transactions, much like a traditional financial ledger. Each new set of transactions, “blocks,” are recorded and cryptographically linked to the previous record, forming a chain. Key characteristics of a blockchain are: (1) Integrity – records are cryptographically linked, making them nearly impossible to change; (2) Transparency – because every network user has their own copy of the entire blockchain, updates are shared and transparent; (3) Democracy – blockchains enable verification of peer-to-peer transactions to occur without a centralized mediator. Blockchains and other types of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) are the foundation of many high-profile technologies, like cryptocurrency (e.g. Bitcoin), and promise to change how data is managed and shared in a variety of industries, including education.

As suggested by Lemoie and Soares (2020), blockchain has potential to impact the efficiency, durability, and connections between education and work through the integration of blockchain in areas such as credentialing to "provide more granular descriptions of skills and improved communication among education and training organizations, individuals, and employers" (p. v). Blockchain, in particular, holds promise to create more efficient and durable connections between education and work.

You can learn more about blockchain in education with this U.S. Department of Education video: Introduction to Blockchain

References
Lemoie, K., & Soares, L. (2020). Connected impact: Unlocking education and workforce opportunity through blockchain. American Council on Education. https://www.acenet.edu/Documents/ACE-Education-Blockchain-Initiative-Connected-Impact-June2020.pdf

Privacy Technical Assistance Center. (2019). What is blockchain? U.S. Department of Education. https://tech.ed.gov/files/2019/06/Blockchain_PTAC_6-19_print.pdf

Blockchain in Education. (n.d.). Office of Educational Technology. Retrieved June 27, 2023, from https://tech.ed.gov/blockchain/

This page is referenced by:

Glossary 19 alphabetic listing of glossary items with links to notes that describe each item plain 2023-06-28T15:29:30+00:00
Here is an alphabetic listing of the glossary items included in this dissertation document. Each item is linked to a note where the item is defined, described, and/or examples provided. These glossary items are also embedded throughout the document as notes within pages, where they provide 'just in time' clarification for you, the reader.
- Actor Network Theory
- Affinity Spaces
- Alternative Dissertation
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Black Box technology
- Block Chain
- ChatGPT
- Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS)
- Creative Commons
- Cynefin framework
- Data Gathering
- Digital Rights Management (DRM)
- Educommunication
- Emirec
- Episteme / Phronesis
- Faculty of Education (FoE)
- #FemEdTech
- Free and Open Software (FOSS)
- Homo Faber
- Hupomnemata
- Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)
- Learning Management Systems (LMS)
- Makerspace
- Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
- Media and Information Literacy (MIL)
- Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
- Open Educational Practices (OEPr)
- Paywall
- Platforms
- PDF
- Portable Graphics Network (PNG)
- Post-Intentional Phenomenology (P-IP)
- Practice - both noun and verb
- Research Ethics Board (REB)
- Safety, Security, Privacy, Permission (SSPP)
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada (SSHRC)
- Teacher Candidates (TCs)
- Teacher Educators (TEds)
- Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs)
- TPACK
- Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans
- UNESCO
- Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
- Universal Serial Bus (USB)
- Visitors / Residents
Dimension 1.1
Communication as a human right for a common good
Belshaw (2011) suggests communication as a nuts-and-bolts element of digital literacies, one of the eight essential digital literacies identified in his research, although also recognizing that digital literacies “are transient: they change over time, may involve using different tools or developing different habits of mind … They can be scaffolded and developed but to do so involves more than training, it involves education” (p. 204, emphasis in the original). Belshaw (2011) draws on research by Tornedo (2004) who brings to mind a linkage to media and digital literacies where communication is a basic human right within a growing and sustainable democracy. Many participants spoke of their belief of their role in education to extend learning as a common good.

As noted in the findings, communication skills and fluencies using web-based tools are foundational to the participants’ open teaching practices. This is evident through their lived experiences in self-directed learning and self-driven explorations of digital communicational technologies to enhance their teaching, and their students’ learning experiences, for example, Vega's push to learn how to create podcasts for their course during the pandemic as a means of communicating course content. The communication strategies applied by the participants include the use of technologies that take a turn toward oral traditions (Belshaw, 2011) as well as increasingly visual forms of text production to communicate in multiple formats. Participants mention their active use of video and audio communications to supplement and enhance text-based messages for coursework to ensure student understanding.

As also noted in the findings, the participants grapple with the ethical use, creation, and communication of media produced with digital technologies, but more worrisome for a few of the participants are those media productions by technologies which are occurring with the advent of increasingly capable artificial intelligence software options (Borenstein & Howard, 2021; Chen et al., 2021; Gibbs, 2022), particularly with the ChatGPT form of artificial intelligence writing software, bringing this to the forefront in current educational contexts (ContactNorth, 2023). A shift in OEPr and MDL will potentially emerge as the application of block-chain technologies impact educational practices, as mentioned by ER. These technological changes require additional skills, fluencies and competencies to further inform TEds’ MDL as they push toward OEPr as a communicational mechanism as a human right for a common good.