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Sony Develops Blockchain Tech for the Education System

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:46 PM
Samburaj Das
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:46 PM

Sony is looking to leverage blockchain and its secure properties by developing a blockchain-based technology that establishes secure open sharing of academic proficiency and progress records through encrypted transmission.

Sony Global Education (Sony GE), a company with the vision to offer new innovative educational services to people around the world has today announced the development of a blockchain-based technology for the educational system.

The technology looks to usher in a new educational infrastructure system that will enable the sharing of academic records over a distributed ledger “in a number of ways.”

In a press release , Sony explained the potential application(s) of the technology, stating:

For example, after taking an examination to demonstrate his or her academic proficiency level, an individual could direct the testing organization to share the test results with one or more third-party evaluating organizations.

This would be a first, if implemented on a system-wide basis.

Blockchain Technology Beyond Bitcoin and Finance

Sony GE notes that blockchain is most popularly known as the technology that powers bitcoin and also references the growing number of bitcoin exchange platforms as a testament to the potential of the technology.

The Japanese company claims blockchain holds promise for applications beyond the realm of finance with secure properties that enable participants to freely and securely share information without the need for an established trust between the relevant parties.

With the advent of its newly developed technology, Sony GE believes that new educational services will come to the fore in the future. This will stem from the diversification of the ways in which tests are designed and individuals are evaluated by different organizations, the company explains.

With this infrastructure in place, each evaluating organization sent an individual’s testing records could assess those results and calculate a score in a way that fits its own methods.

Sony also hopes to bring credibility to its open-yet secure educational infrastructure platform by drawing in educational institutions to participate and adopt the technology.

Although no further details have been revealed of the prototype technology, Sony GE revealed that its “new educational infrastructure” will see the light of day in 2017. The blockchain-based technology will be initiated within the company’s own existing programs while pushing for wider adoption afterwards. The first program that will see the utilization of the new blockchain-based educational infrastructure will be Sony GE’s Global Math Challenge, a competition that has attracted over 150,000 participants in over 80 countries around the world.

Serving as a pilot program for the new blockchain technology, the competition will make for a good testing ground for the technology as it calculates a candidate’s overall test taking performance, beyond correct and incorrect responses. In this regard, evaluating organizations looking at parameters such as time taken to answer questions and more can find the blockchain-based innovation to be useful.

Sony Global Education was established  in April 2015 after Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Science Laboratories announced plans for a new company that will offer educational services in Japan and a number of other countries around the world.

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