BI > MAY 2003

Online Education That's a Gas

Getting Youth To Take The Wheel

How do you present a serious, somewhat dry topic to young people? How do parents and teachers get the younger generation to put down their cell phones, CD players and video games to learn about financial concepts that could have a significant impact on their futures?

Getting Youth To Take the Wheel

These are some of the questions I hear all the time from NAIC members, chapter directors and the media. My answer: You must make learning interactive, fun and exciting, sort of like a mystery or a game. Most folks under 30 years of age are highly adept at using the computer and the Internet, so it only makes sense to use the vast World Wide Web for investment education. I'm continually searching the Internet for new and entertaining sites that offer personal financial education specifically for the younger generation.

This two-part series will look at the more creative and entertaining sites that undertake this task. Here are two of my favorites:

2020 Green

This site was sponsored by international financial services company ING in 2002. The site's content includes an interactive curriculum that helps secondary students (grades 6 through 12) learn how key personal finance issues affect their lives. The site's goal is "to instill into young men and women the discipline and knowledge they will need to make sound financial decisions."

The look and feel of this site is fun and exciting. It's designed with an eye-catching introduction that requires Flash Player software to view.

Teachers who register on the site (it's free) will receive access to a separate Resource Center that shows how to make 2020 Green work within their classrooms and curricula.

The Web site has nine major financial topics: getting a job, getting a paycheck, paying taxes, buying, banking, borrowing, saving, investing and tracking. All nine topics have read-through material with interactive activities. Every topic area also has a workbook, planner and set of resources (for example, a dictionary or related Web sites and books).

This virtual learning experience puts the students somewhere they love to hang out -- a mall. It also has elements of a business center. 2020 Green brings together under one virtual roof a restaurant, bank, credit union, brokerage firm, library, Internet café and stores. Students can navigate throughout the site with ease and have fun in real-life situations.

"Each lesson starts with a scenario that introduces a sense of place and human connection to material," the Web site says. "Rather than deal with finance as a remote, academic subject, 2020 Green brings it to life and gives students some choice in how they approach the topic."

The Road to Investment Education. Much of the content for the interactive Driving Your Future Web site is from the NAIC-authored high school textbook Investing in Your Future

Driving Your Future -- Got Wheels?

The beauty of this Web site is again the interactive nature of the learning process. A large portion of the site's content is from the NAIC-authored high school textbook Investing in Your Future (South-Western Educational Publishing). The site provides references to pages in the textbook.

This site was constructed with grant support from the JP Morgan Chase Foundation in coordination with the Jump$tart Coalition on Personal Financial Literacy. Business Professionals of America and YoungBiz developed this site in adherence with Jump$tart's financial literacy benchmarks.

Making the learning process fun is the key to success for this site, which is written for teens. Just like the mall experience at 2020 Green, Driving Your Future's theme is about financial literacy and something most teen-agers think about -- getting their drivers license and a car.

The coursework is within the site's "four wheels" of financial literacy. Students must master each topic to earn a wheel, and each wheel must be completed in order. The wheels and their related topics are:

First -- Income & Earning

• Sources of Income
• Getting Paid
• Promising Careers

Second -- Money Management

• Budgeting
• Banking
• Insuring

Third -- Saving & Investing

• Road to Independence
• Researching Investments
• Selecting Investments

Fourth -- Spending & Credit

• Smart Shopping
• Credit Cards
• Paying Bills

Students need to go through the free registration process to do the coursework. They can complete the learning experience in a number of sessions to suit flexible time frames. When students return to the site and sign in again, the program takes them to where they left off. Schoolteachers can contact BPA to obtain a videotape and instructors manual for the course.

The site's first and second modules follow the general personal finance concepts from Investing in Your Future, offering need-to-know information that comes alive with many online activities. The cars move around on the screen and make noise.

The Saving & Investing module has sections on picking stocks and mutual funds, with references to NAIC teachings and the Stock Selection Guide. The NAIC's four major principles are emphasized.

All the learning sections have a test. For each module, students must answer 19 out of 25 questions correctly to receive a wheel. Earning the four wheels puts them on the road to financial freedom.

While surveys of financial literacy among Americans show a strong need for improvement, it's imperative that the next generation of consumers, savers and investors learn these fundamental life skills. The topics may seem boring at first, but educational resources like the two Web sites listed here offer unique ways to teach, entertain and amuse at the same time.

YoungBiz Better Investing Camp

Want to see your kids get excited about money management, saving and investing? YoungBiz, a division of KidsWay, Inc., has teamed up with NAIC to host personal financial education camps for youth.

Call 888/543-7929, ext. 17, or visit YoungBiz (Camp Central) for more information or to register for any of the camps that are already scheduled.

Jeff is director of educational development for BetterInvesting. Readers interested in sharing their experiences and stories about young investors are invited to contact Jeffery Fox at BetterInvesting or at jefff@better-investing.org