Implementing blockchain technology to educational field, Sony Global Education, Inc. today announced that it has developed technology that enables open and secure sharing of academic proficiency and progress records. The new technology has been built by leveraging blockchain’s secure properties to realize encrypted transmission of data between two specified parties.
“The technology has the potential to realize an entirely new infrastructure system for sharing records securely over the network in any number of ways, opening new doors of possibility for academic records and how they are assessed”, the company said.
Sony Global Education's new technology will facilitate open and secure handling of academic data, further leading to the emergence of new educational services in the future. Moreover, it has the potential to draw many educational institutions to the network, resulting in high credibility in test administration.
The company said that the technology can be applied beyond the scope of educational sector, such as medical care, environmental services, energy and more. It views blockchain as a core technology that has the potential to significantly shape the educational landscape of the future.
The company aims to build a new, widely applicable educational infrastructure that enables diverse methods of evaluation.
It concluded saying, “Sony Global Education aims to begin developing a new educational infrastructure in 2017, when it will incorporate application programs utilizing its new blockchain-based technology into its own service offerings, starting with the Global Math Challenge.”
Global Math Challenge is a worldwide competition that tests participants' arithmetic and creative thinking skills. It is said to have attracted more than 150,000 participants in over 80 countries across the globe and it calculates test takers' scores based on not only their correct and incorrect responses, but also their overall test taking performance, including the time taken to answer questions. This final score indicates test takers' ability, and is consistent with international standards.
