The Future of Education

Since appearance of www protocol in 1991, the trend in different aspects of e-commerce is diminishing the role of mediators. “Disintermediation” become the keyword defining many e-commerce technologies. Bitcoin, the original application motivated development of blockchain technology, aimed removing banks as the mediators and trusted third party in financial transactions. But the scope of this underlying technology is much broader than purely the word of cryptocurrency. Blockchain technology offers new paradigm of connectivity, information exchange and information use, exploring decentralized, distributed data processing, and encrypting via public and private keys.

Blockchain was launched as the underlying technology in introducing bitcoins. Research conducted on the dynamics of publications addressing blockchain, shows that this technology deserted recently from purely bitcoin / crypto-currencies application domain. The intensity of publication addressing applications of this technology demonstrated its relevance to different business domains, mostly Internet of Things (IoT), but also sectors as Energy, Healthcare, and Finance, mostly related to retailed services.

Consideration of blockchain technology from this broader perspective, justify the needs of introducing it to students in fields like Computer Science, Information Systems, and Information Technology, but it is especially valuable for programs training Data Science competences.

The paper shares experience of introducing blockchain technology, which is still in its infantry stage according to maturity life cycle, in Data Science Master Program. Resolving problems like lack of sufficient well-developed training materials, lack of competent trainers, and lack of adequate equipment to experiment are among the overcome major barriers.

Dynamics of innovations in area of information technologies and shortening the life cycle from discovery to wide distribution forces education institutions, traditionally conservative in adopting innovation, to develop experience in fast adjustment of their curriculum to react to the emerging challenges. The case of incorporated blockchain related content into curriculum is discussed as a possible practice.