From Playgrounds to Protocols:The Future of Blockchain Ed |Elizabeth Sullivan-WAGMI Consulting Group

[Music] what going on this evening it's going to be fun but I appreciate you holding up until we talk first before you go on and have some fun uh before we start I want to get a feel of who I'm talking to here so how many of you here would consider yourself new to crypto maybe in the last year or so just by show our hands all right what about ogs do we have any ogs out there longer than a year yes absolutely okay now if you are a firsttimer or got drugged here by your spouse your partner your significant other raise your hand you have no idea what's going on but it looks pretty cool doesn't it yeah I have something for everyone today so I come here on a mission and my mission is this to simplify blockchain technology Concepts see I feel that everybody deserves a chance to learn and grow as the technology of the world shifts and I feel that we should be able to explain blockchain technology to your kids your parents your grandparents and maybe even simplify it so that you yourself can understand it you ready for this so for the newbies here I'm going to start with two Basics okay we'll catch you up to speed the first first basic is what is blockchain technology all right let's get technical so blockchain technology is a decentralized digital Ledger that records transactions securely and transparently across the network of computers so instead of relying on one single Authority it operates through a distributed system where each transaction is verified by multiple participants before being added to a chain of data I see eyes glazing over already okay let's let's add a little bit of spice so let me simplify this for you imagine that you and your friends are keeping a list of Trades everybody has a copy of the record of who has what that is called transparency if somebody wants to make a trade say person a and person B want to make a transaction everybody within the network can look and see that person a and B have what they say they do approve that transaction that approval that joint decision is called consensus once they decide that that can be approved it is then added to the blockchain and gets locked in and that is why it is a secure that information is then onchain information it is a block on the blockchain which brings us full circle to transparency because everybody has a copy you following me here now we're here at East Denver so what is ethereum well ethereum is a decentralized blockchain platform that allows developers to build and run smart contracts in decentralized applications without relying on a central Authority ethereum was founded in 2005 it is the backbone of nfts I love nfts so let me reiterate this ethereum is important to blockchain because it introduced smart contracts which let people create automatic agreements without a middleman ethereum upgraded to proof of stake in 2022 which then made it more energy efficient now my friends we have a lot of big words here and it's going to be awfully hard to onboard people and talk about it if we don't understand the terminology of what we are saying so that's where I come in my name is Elizabeth Sullivan I am an author and an educator and for the past over two years I have decided to simplify basic blockchain technology Concepts to kids more specifically fifth graders through children's books as of right now I am on to 17 children's books published each one specifying specific blockchain technology concept and then after seeing the need for educational components especially for our kids in this area I then published curriculum targeted at the fifth grade but fourth to sixth grade level for blockchain Basics we have unit one two and three and coming soon are unit four so I mentioned smart contracts and ethereum I want to give you an example of how smart contracts can be explained through something like a children's book so I wrote this book called pixel perfect pets and it follows a girl named Paige and she's exploring bit bill which is an online world and she comes across this virtual pet adoption agency so of course she wants to adopt a pet right she picks out a pet a lovable puppy named pixel and when she chooses to adopt this pet in bit Bill the smart contract automatic Ally takes the adoption fee from her wallet and then transfers into her pixels health records as well as the ownership to it the fun thing about children's books is if you've read one you could see at the back of it is a wonderful area to add a little bit extra so I took advantage of this and all of them to not just tell the story but reiterate the concept that is being taught in the story this can be done through ways like question and answers terminology it can be a glossery honestly children don't want the story to end so adding something in the backs of your books is a great way to keep their attention you see we Associated smart contracts with the adoption of a pet now that is something that we can all kind of get familiar with and to be honest that's really all learning is learning is simple associating something you know with something you didn't know yet when it's cold and it's snowing it's cold outside it's not warm so that must mean something when it gets to a certain temperature of coldness it turns from rain to snow that must mean something this is how we learn so I have a few tips for you first off if you're talking to kids like or anybody really any newbies your grandparents you want to meet them where they are you don't want to jump into a conversation Beyond somebody's level of understanding because they're not going to understand you beyond their current level of understanding and also it can be intimidating but I would say start simply I know that none of us feel like we're all the way up here because there's so much to know as far as blockchain technology goes but if you keep the conversation basic it opens it up for everybody to partake in and then my next piece of advice would be to Simply start I know it can be an intimidating but we are so early my friends be the leader of the conversation in your area whether it be at work in school within your family just simply start and you might be asking yourself well how do I do that I am not a programmer I am not a coder I am not an artist insert reason here I say that because I literally thought those exact things I want wanted to bring something to honor the space and I thought I'm not an engineer I what do I bring that would be worthy of this well my friends here's a secret new tech same base I'm here talking to you at the Denver about children's books and yet we're at a blockchain conference an ethereum conference new tech same base so if you are not a developer a coder somebody who can put out the next app nft project maybe you can put out a book I personally have found that stories are a fantastic way to get your message out there and you can quite literally pick the level of who you're talking to so if you don't feel comfortable at a certain level take it down a notch write what you know as far as books it's incredibly simple to write one I found out that I could design children's books on canva and that was like kitty bar the door that's why they're 17 now so just use whatever you find as a creative Outlet I personally use canva you're basically going to need a PDF file of your cover a PDF file of your interior and then you can take those and you'll go to kdp.com that's kindled direct publishing you can use their free ISBN and get your book out there in the world it is not that hard we make it way harder in our minds and to be honest people need to hear your perspective and what you have to bring to this world now we're talking books and I found that books in blockchain at first I doubted it but then I thought you know how else are we going to on board the older generation and the younger generation who are not quite allowed maybe online or into those areas yet well books are very familiar and let's not forget that getting in them into the hands of kids is essential through parents who also want them using familiar trusted technology now as far as the classroom I said meet them where they are right so when we're talking about educating kids well they're going to learn educational things in a classroom it's hard to get curriculum into the school system these days but there is a way so remember I told you about canva and that's how I was able to use it to design children's books well that same thing can be done to create worksheets resources quizzes you name it and those resources that you create can then be listed on sites like Etsy or teacherspayteachers.com and that can quite literally get in the hands of Educators and out there in the world or you can just keep it simple if you are already part of a current project maybe just take one of the characters and create an activity page or a coloring sheet a coloring sheet is a fantastic way to onboard kids as as well as uh you can use it for lead generation you can use it as a freebie on your website I mean it's it's super simple so I guess my question for you right now now that we've removed all those oh I'm not a this I'm not a that you can do a lot so how will you share you could tell a story tell your story storytelling is the core of human Comm communication or you can educate your community you can use or create your own resources just like I listed to teach and inspire you another thing you can also use the tech don't be intimidated to use the tech yes I write children's books but I have also created po apps I have created an nft project before I have created a way to burn something for a physical product it's not hard but while you're using the tech talk about the journey because when you talk about it it just makes it all more relatable we're all all new here this is just the beginning I have a few housekeeping items I want to do before I finish up if you'd like to connect this is my link tree choose the path whichever you would like also I have a clipboard down here if you would like a free copy of unit three of the blockchain curriculum and that's for fifth graders it's adaptable for fourth through sixth graders just go ahead and put your email there or catch me and I can send you a free copy of that I also have coloring sheets of course with me if you have little ones at home you're free to take some of those I want to end with this my friends the technology of the future is here it is here today this is our time to learn about it to use it and to teach it thank you [Music]