#PaiRED: Gatekeeper Confidence

Since the University of Bologna was established in Italy in 1088 A.D. society has put its faith in Higher Education as a trusted institution to issue credentials. For a long time, it was unchallenged. People had faith in these institutions as gatekeepers of knowledge. They trusted their integrity and valued their credentials. In 1995 something changed. When the Internet came onto the scene in 1995, it opened doors to learning. Online Higher Education took time and space out of the equation. Student loan debt continued to increase. Where people went for information changed. You could Google it. Tuition continued to soar. New models of education began to spring up. Our faith in Higher Education as the gatekeeper for creating new knowledge, distributing existing knowledge and preserving prior knowledge changed.

As long as employers, governments and society at large continue to value Higher Education credentials we will be willing to pay for them. Higher Education will remain the gatekeepers for opportunity. But outdated pedagogy and an unwillingness to change to new ways of learning has put a dent in credibility even at the most prestigious schools. A lecture has become the process in which the notes of the teacher go to the notes of the student without going through the brains of either.

Standards of trust and accreditation like academic tenure and the Carnegie hour are being challenged. New models of learning continue to spring up. Models that are professional, transferable, stackable, experiential, chunk-able and credentialed. The changes we face and continue to face with AI moving at lightning speed require an ability to problem solve, collaborate and communicate. Roles are being redefined not in terms of job descriptions but in terms of dynamic tenets. Organizations are becoming more agile.

Blockchain and AI together are incredibly powerful. They offer employers the ability to match projects with proven capabilities. Higher Education has not yet used advancing technologies effectively to break down the division between institutions, professors, industry, parents and students. This will require institutions to make deep structural changes quickly. Time is not on their side. Blockchain offers trust, security and integrity and the ability to create a global network of learning accreditation without walls.