2022 Azbee Awards of Excellence
Category
Online > Web Feature Article > Pacific
Awarded to
Jeffrey R. Young, Managing Editor, EdSurge
Entry details
We Wondered If NFTs Could Change Education, So We Decided to Sell This Article on the Blockchain
Issue or publication date: 8/9/2021
Publication name: EdSurge
Publishing/parent company: ISTE
Website home page: http://edsurge.com
About the publication's mission and readership:
https://www.edsurge.com/about
Description of the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:
We cover the edtech space at EdSurge, and one of the biggest tech trends of the year was NFTs—those blockchain-based digital collectibles. So we wondered if NFTs might play a role in education.
But with all the hype, it was tough to get basic details about how this technology works and why it is getting so much attention (and why some artists and athletes are making millions selling them). So we decided to make our own NFT to document the process and explore its potential in the education sector. And our experiment raised all kinds of issues—we had to revise our contract with the artist making the illustration, figure out how to purchase crypto-currency (most credit cards don’t allow crypto purchases) and research the tax implications for our nonprofit newsroom.
The story did spark a small bidding war among educators for the NFT, but our bids were in the tens and hundreds, not millions. And that makes this feature article a more realistic and clear-headed take on this trend than most of the overheated coverage out there, leading the article to be shared widely on social media.
We also found a surprising number of potential applications of NFTs for the education space. Our story quotes professors and students experimenting with the tech, and we scored an email interview with billionaire Mark Cuban, who is a player in the NFT space, about his thoughts. Despite his enthusiasm, though, we didn’t make a fortune. Our final take: about $190.
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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-08-09-we-wondered-if-nfts-could-change-education-so-we-decided-to-sell-this-article-on-the-blockchain
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We Wondered If NFTs Could Change Education, So We Decided to Sell This Article on the Blockchain
Category
Online > Web Feature Article > Pacific
Description
Publication name:
EdSurge
Publishing/parent company:
ISTE
Winner Status
- Regional Silver Award
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