Laplace

I have my thoughts mostly down but need to make a short introductory article.

Outline

what do people need to know: answer big Qs

1. what will we do?
2. why crowdfund?
   1. benefits for crowdfunders
   2. what money will get used for
3. benefits for stakeholders
4. problems to solve
5. addressing problems

What is Laplace?

Laplace is a learning meta-platform (i.e., stakeholder-owned online university) for knowledge and skill development and exchnage at the knowledge frontier.

Laplace is segemnted in multiple parts, but in summary is a learning content aggregator and platform for hackathons and jobs, visualizing and building an expert grpah of knolwedge at the Ledgerback Frontier.

%%to help online self-learners learn better, help teachers and students have a say over platforms governance, and develop knoowledge at the knowledge frontier.%%

Laplace is comprised of 2 components:

1. Learning Cooperative
2. Online platform

Learning Cooperative

The cooperative is comprised of all relevant stakeholders and they own and manage the platforms, governance, economic, and pedagogy models.

The anticipated stakeholders are:

1. Teachers
   1. Tutors
2. Students
3. Workers/Experts (primarily tools)
   1. Instructional Designer
   2. Innovators/Technologists
   3. Teaching assistants
   4. etc.
4. Schools

%%Students elect teachers onto Laplace.%%

Online Platforms

The online platform will be comprised of 5 components:

1. A learning resources (content, tools, etc.) aggregator:
2. %%social?%% contests %%ideation%%
3. %%Educational tools Tools for thought (TfT) development zone
   1. This is through contests%%
4. %%research club%%
5. Live courses
6. labor exchange
   1. Instructional Design
   2. Micro-work
   3. Call for papers & Speakers
   4. %%Graders%%
   5. %%contests%%
   6. Other Jobs
7. crowdfunding
8. %%bulletin-board
   1. for requests to make content%%

Platform Components explained

The learning resources (content, tools, etc.) aggregator is to develop an expert graph (map of learning paths) so that we can develop tools to help people navigate their learning journey%%, and help people find and relate learning content%%. Eventually, this will also include a social network.

The contests platform is to provide real-world opportunities for users to collaboratively innovate by applying their skills in developing tools, solving business problems, designing courses, and more.

The labor exchange is to provide extra work (e.g., micro-work) opportunities for users who sign up on Laplace.

%%The bulletin board is where users can post requests for content.%%

The crowdfunding is for users to crowdfund learning resources.

%%The research club is to host papers, requests for research, and citizen science opportunities, which will also link with the learning resources (content, tools, etc.) aggregator.%%

The live courses is for people to find courses being ran by teachers on/off Laplace.

%%

How will work be done?

We will be developing a knowledge/data commons on information relevant to the project, and a newsletter to help people keep up with Laplace.

%%

What are the problems that Laplace anticipates addressing?

Here is a non-exhasutive list of problems Laplace may address:

• The use-value of contests generally is not shared with the contest participants
• There is a large amount of online learning content so it is hard for online learners to navigate and also for teachers to promote themselves because of the high supply of existing courses
• students have little say over curriculum provided nor in learning path development
• instructional designers need a place to find individual teachers
• Teachers find it hard to re-purpose content
• Lack of sustainable business model to support all teachers
• Most online teachers do not have assistants to help them manage courses
• Lack of experience, skills and achievements recognition from online courses, crowdwork (i.e., gigwork), and other knoowledge work (e.g., answering questions on Quora)
• Learning platforms are not owned by the users and tend to harm them
• Learning platforms take a fee from teachers for every student
• Hard to find courses on new tools and subjects
• Experts are not always the best teachers
  • %%https://waterbearlearning.com/instructional-designers/ %%
• Lack of variety in assessment methods for online courses
  • Users cannot create their own assessment methods
• Lack of ability to engage in p2p learning for creation, teaching, assessment.

Problems we will address

The problems we will specifically address are:

1. Platform governance and economics of online learning platforms and digital labor
2. Creation, navigation and re-use of courses and other learning resources (including a p2p fashion)
3. Development of self-directed learning paths

Initial plan to address them

1. Developing a learning cooperative
2. Developing an online platform for content aggregation and labor exchange

What are the benefits of Laplace?

• own your meta-learning platform,
• development of novel economic models for producing and consuming learning resources
  • teachers offering courses as NFTs and offering social tokens
  • play-to-earn (P2E) model for students who undertake learning resources
• recognize knowledge and skills that are [un/under]recognized, such as data labeling
• students get to participate in the co-creation of learning materials
• students can develop their own learning paths
• teachers can re-purpose content by licensing it out to third-parties
• teachers can run their courses on their own sites and use their own tools
• users will have access to use-value from contests
• teachers can find assistants to help manage courses
• a progression system to recognize experience, skills and achievements
• users can find alternative schools
• learners can rate courses, leave comments, and chat with each other in an online forum
• teachers can find adaptable learning resources to use in their own courses
• anyone can teach a course and the original creator gets compensated
• experts can find instructional designers to help design courses
• users can create new assessment methods and certifications
• anyone can find learning resources on:
  • study methods
  • tools for thought
  • instructional design
  • etc.

%% Here’s how to become an instructional designer:

1. Learn the instructional design theory
2. Learn the eLearning development technical skills
3. Learn visual design and composition
4. Build your instructional design portfolio
5. Network with other instructional designers
6. Create your instructional design resume
7. Ace the instructional design interview %%

What work is coming out soon from of the Laplace project?

We will be releasing a static site to help start curating learning content (Component 1) and labor exchange opportunities (Component 5). We will be primarily curating:

1. Tools
   1. Authoring Tools
   2. Tools for Thought
2. Learning
   1. Instructional Design
   2. AI training (e.g., data labeling)
   3. Cooperativism
   4. Study methods
   5. Web3
3. Work
   1. Citizen Science
   2. Micro-work
4. Profiles
   1. Schools
   2. Brands
   3. Experts
   4. Builders
   5. Students
   6. %%Graders?%%

We will allow experts to host their profiles on the site, curators to suggest,rate and review content, and visitors can sign up for the cooperative’s waitlist.

We will be developing a knowledge/data commons on information relevant to the project (Platform Component 1), and a newsletter to help people keep up with Laplace.

Additionally, we will be working on a public draft of the Laplace whitepaper.

What future is Laplace transforming towards? (i.e., vision)

A learning meta-platform owned and managed by its users, that develops knowledge and tools to help anyone learn anything, help more people work at the knowledge frontier and apply their skills in new sustainable ways, and helps recognize knowledge and skills that are [un/under]recognized.

Crowdfund

1. what will we do?
2. why crowdfund?
   1. benefits for crowdfunders
   2. what money will get used for