Please describe your proposed solution.
How do you perceive the problem you are solving?
During the Covid-19 pandemic students and education in general suffered a devastating blow, with low-income communities being affected the most. Online learning failed in several ways, from degraded testing performance to social isolation that lead to startling spikes in depression, anxiety, and suicide rates amongst students. Currently metaverse experiences are very expensive and available to only a few.
In addition, disruption to school activities happens continually throughout the world. A bus can break down in a remote region and entire classes misses school, or poor weather can limit travel in areas where transportation infrastructure is underdeveloped. Illness also prevents millions of students from attending school every year. Even in well-developed countries like the United States attendance is still only at an average of around 92% vs enrollment. Since the Covid pandemic chronic absenteeism has spiked up to one in five students in the United States. Current online resources lack several key factors that encourage attendance, from social interaction to intuitive user interfaces.
To solve this we will purchase custom domes that will be used by students to create their own alliance campuses. We will also financially support community representatives that can work with local school boards and teachers to integrate beneficial aspects of alliance campuses into the school districts curriculum. Finally we will purchase equipment capable of running this softwareto both showcase its capabilities to students and teachers, and to ensure that any student that is unable to attend in person class has access to the benefits of this technology.
Your reasons for approaching the problem this way.
We aim at enabling students who normally wouldn’t have access to the blockchain or metaverse an opportunity to get involved in a metaverse framework through Cornucopias. These customizable domes will be used to create online learning centers, or "Alliance Campuses" where we can provide a central point for hundreds of schools to access communal resources like tutoring, collaborate with each other through clubs/other organizations, or engage in community building events.
A metaverse offers a medium where online information can be presented to students in a more accessible and intuitive format than traditional LMS's (Learning Management Systems). With a customizable and immersive environment students won't completely lose the feeling of community and camaraderie that in-person environments provide. In fact, with the bounds of the metaverse being more flexible than reality it can even add a sense of wonder and excitement that can augment in-person teaching. You can't replace the effectiveness of in-person experiences, but with Alliance Custom Domes we believe we can make it more inclusive and exciting!
Also through "Learn and Earn" opportunities students will be incentivized to learn while also gaining valuable resources that can help interact with the blockchain in other areas. These assets can be converted to ADA, which can help students perform more transactions on the network to help augment their learning. Examples of alternative uses range from literature access sites like BookToken.io, to creating their own governance system for Associated Student Body activities, both of which require ADA.
How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
A metaverse experience can improve on many of the issues faced by current LMS's. A metaverse environment can duplicate or enhance digitally a school that any student attends. A student knows exactly where to go to access all of the information for each class as it would be situated in a familiar setting. These schools can be accessed virtually by students that are home sick, or that have to attend appointments that conflict with their schools schedule. In addition, by being set in a secure metaverse, these learning experiences can be enhanced. For example imagine studying geology in your science class, with a subsection on volcanoes. The students could have access to and walk around in a variety of virtual volcanoes, from shield volcanoes to cinder cones. The possibilities for improving interest and engagement are endless.
What impact will this project have for Cardano besides funding the project team, and what value does it bring to the Cardano ecosystem?
Metaverses are going to be one of the dominant portals for introduction to blockchain. Integrating metaverse use cases into the education system will help on-board an entire generation through both gaming and education. As familiarity with the platform grows extra-curricular courses can be offered explaining what the Cardano Ecosystem is and how it all fits together. Also, by integrating blockchain information with the education system it will set it apart from many of the negatively perceived projects in the space. Finally, Learn and Earn opportunities will introduce students to governance tokens and the governance process early on. These types of skills can translate into their Associated Student Body activities. Blockchain has a lot to offer the governance process, from inclusivity to immutability, and showing a new generation these use cases early will help bring these values to legacy governance endeavors.
How do you intend to measure the success of your project?
The clearest measurables would be rate of attendance, rate of engagement in the education process, and testing criteria. We think that all of these can be improved at schools where they have access to a successful metaverse, especially if school have mass disruption events again.
Describe, and where possible measure, the project’s benefits for the Cardano ecosystem, and why the measures are realistic in your opinion.
With over 17,000 students in our pilot area this will offer a fantastic on-boarding opportunity by integrating a powerful product with the education system. Student Telenet Clubs in different schools along with advisor support can track the number of students engaging in metaverse activities, as well as further exploration into the Cardano ecosystem. This will essentially create a template for ambassadors of the Cardano community that can be used around the world in schools to bring the benefits of our ecosystem to students.
Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?
The results of this part of the project will be readily available to see and explore on our website. The transparency of the blockchain will allow the public to see where any Cardano Native Token rewards have been distributed and to what wallets. The MAV100 website will be updated and kept current on a regular basis. The Custom Domes will be easily showcased, while still having a layer of security for the students.