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Students at Wooranna Park Elementary School, located in Victoria, Australia - one of the six states that make up the most prominent nation in Oceania - are experimenting with Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies as part of a program called "School on the Blockchain ", Which involves a repertoire of areas designed to immerse students from pre-sixth grade stages-from 8 years and older-into the block chain; In addition, the school is working in its own digital currency, called Woorannacoin.
One of the most striking aspects is that the students of Wooranna Park Primary have studied Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies from an early age. The "School on the Blockchain" program has taken over five years of development and received significant support from the group known as Blockchain Center in Melbourne. The latter is a community in which different companies maintain a collaborative effort - with more than 2,000 people to give Blockchain technology the greatest possible boost.
It should be emphasized that Wooranna Park Elementary School already has the approval of the technology industry, as the US software developer, Andrew Kwon, on his first visit donated the negligible amount of 21 bitcoins - at that time the equivalence was $ 30 thousand -, after being surprised with the group of young talents encodadores that owns the institution. According to The Standard newspaper, Kwon's investment was the first bitcoins donation to an Australian school, but the thing does not end there, and the programmer also donated virtual reality glasses, 3D printers and programmable robots.
Nolan says that the project evolved from a proposal made in 2012, which was planned to develop the first agnostic-automated platform - the term refers to ecosystems where the tools do not depend on the technology in question, and That the same work with several schemes - of the institution, "School in the Cloud". The next step was "School in the Blockchain", a proposal that consists of different fronts:
Minecraft in Blockchain: Minecraft server - Mojang AB's game and 4J Studios - from Wooranna Park Primary is stored via FTP in the io block chain. It is an international server in which about 8 schools and learning spaces collaborate around the world.
Immutable Authentication Report: Each class or environment is configured with a Steemit node - the well-known Blockchain-based platform for distributing digital content - to generate what the team responsible for the program calls "Immutable Authenticated Reporting," which Means that the student's work is safe and immutable using Blockemain by Steemit.
Proof-of-importance: This is a guideline that allows students to vote on what computer hardware should be purchased for college.
Building Complete Nodes: In the words of Keiran Nolan: "Our goal is to build complete nodes for several block chains and thus to deploy different projects in the classroom."
Steam Blockchain Center: In the words of Keiran Nolan: "We are building a facility to physically represent how the different block chains look, as well as how they work."
Virtual Reality: is a section for students to explore Blockchain through the advantages of virtual reality, using Bitcoin VR: the simulator of Indiesquare released in March this year.
Proof-of-Existence: In the words of Keiran Nolan: "Students are learning as much as possible about this online service, conducting tests such as showing that a photo they have taken really belongs to them."
According to Nolan, the opinions of the students have been really positive since the program came into force. The network specialist stated:
There have been really adult discussions about the origin of electronic money and why it is important, and POW (Proof-of-Work) vs. PoS (Proof-of-Stake) ... even a student asked: why do not we have a basic income Universal based on the block chain? "
I think we are entering a phase where it is really important for schools to focus on teaching coding to their students, as this is a way of educating financial and digital literacy; Is an area that teaches students how computer networks talk to each other. If students do not have these skills today, as simple as schools are giving them a service that is not optimal. If the schools only get into arithmetic and common literacy, that will not get someone to get a job in the future. Children need these skills. "
Thus, the primary school has created its own cryptomoneda called Woorannacoin. The asset was conceived to serve as an attractive voting system for students, but it was not long before it became a true learning tool for how the institution was to create its own digital currency. Woorannacoin allows developers to create prototypes and alternatives to Bitcoin that have no value, but Nolan claims that it already has a group of fourth-year students who want to make their Initial Coin Offer (ICO).
