Can Games Transform Financial Literacy?

In the last post, we asked if games could be transformational.

This time, we ask, can game-play transform financial literacy and financial decision-making?

Let’s consider role-playing games, or RPG’s for short. In an RPG, each player selects a character through which they play the game.  The character has strengths and deficiencies that can impact how successfully the player can play the game.  Also effecting player success are the player’s strengths and weaknesses.  The player must merge her skills and knowledge with those of character, which creates a new character.  The player has the power to develop skills, knowledge and abilities of this new character through game play.  In fact, character development is required if the player is to progress in and succeed at the game.

The player not only brings her existing skills, knowledge and abilities to the game, but also personal beliefs abut the world, the game, the game genre.  These personal beliefs are challenged as the player merges with the game character and attempts to develop the character’s abilities to succeed at the game.  One could say that transformation is taking place in this specific game environment as the player develops her own and her character’s abilities to win challenges.  Transformation could be taking place in this specific game world whenever as new hypotheses are tested.  Personal beliefs related to this game environment are challenged and modified as the player continues to progress in the game.

If transformation can take in entertainment games, why could this not happen with a well designed financial literacy education game?  Forget, for the moment, about whether or not such a game actually exists and consider, what if such a game did exist?

Imagine a game where a player/learner plays a financial RPG as a character who has who has strengths and deficiencies that impact that character’s ability to make effective financial decisions in the game.  The player also has his own set of knowledge, skills, abilities and personal beliefs about money, finances and all those elements that impact financial success.  In this financial game, the player has to merge his skills and beliefs with those of his character, and during the course of game-play, discovers how his personal beliefs help or hinder his success at the game.  Would not such a game be considered transformational?

What do you think?  Do you think such a game could transform a player/learner’s financial decision-making?

A Nutrition Game

In an earlier post, we asked if games could be transformative.  Here’s a game that looks like it could transform how children think about nutrition: Fitter Critters.

You can read about the game here: http://appsforhealthykids.com/submissions/6134-fitter-critters

You  can play the game here: www.fittercritters.com

Okay, so it’s not a financial literacy game, but it is worth taking a look at for it’s transformative potential.

The game is fun to play.  I played only a few levels to get the gist of the game.  My guy’s name is K A Tribblekip — the player can choose its name.  Tribblekip is given three challenges per level which can include eating & shopping — two of my favorite activities — exercise, and a way to earn some money. All of the foods in the game have nutrition labels.  Tribblekip’s shopping and eating challenges require that he read the nutrition labels in order to successfully complete them.  I can see over time how these activities could teach children both how to read nutrition labels and to think about reading nutrition labels in the store or when deciding what to eat.  It also teaches them about healthy food alternatives, and over time could possibly get them to select healthier foods outside of the game.

So, here’s a game that I think has great transformative potential.

Go play the game an let us know what you think

Can Games be Transformative?

Can a game be designed to transform how the player/learner thinks?

We know that a game can help the player/learner acquire and improve a skill set.  A game can develop problem-solving skills.  Players can become active learners in that they seek out information that empowers them.  A good educational game encourages player/learners to apply concepts and principles, to develop and test theories and strategies.  In an earlier post, we suggest that a good game can be a form of problem-based learning in that it invites the player/learner to seek out the knowledge and skills, and to collaborate with others  to craft solutions to ill-defined problems presented in the  game.

But can a great game transform the lives of the player/learner with respect to the subject of the game by the vary act of playing the game?  Can game-play change a player/learner’s attitude about the subject of the game?  Can it affect the personal beliefs about the subject of the game?

Jane McGonical thinks so. (you can learn about her in an earlier post).  She even created a game that transformed her life called Super Better. She created this game to help her overcome brain injury, and has since helped others to adapt Super Better to transform their lives by managing severe illness.

We thinks games can transform lives, too.

What do you think?

In the next post, we’ll explain why we think transformation is important in financial literacy education.

Games and Financial Literacy

There are many types and uses of games (and simulations) that can be used to educate learners.  There are board games, card games, and  activities that use game features to make them more engaging.  They can be even more engaging when structure as simulations, ARG’s (alternate reality games) or role-playing games.  Games can be implemented at a distance,  online or face-to-face.

In their quest to encourage their target audiences to make better choices, financial literacy educators try to include some sort of game as part of their instructional strategy.  And most of the available games, when implemented properly, can make a lesson about financial skills and concepts more fun.

Most of the available financial games are actually opportunities to practice concepts, principles and skills that have been introduced in class.  They may be fun, even engaging, but are these games transformative? Do they lead the player to change their attitudes or beliefs about money?  Most of these games do not transform lives.

World of Cheddar knows that the right kind game can be transformative.  The right kind of game can put a player/learner in a situation where they discover their own personal truth about money.  The right kind of game allows the learner/player examine how their personal beliefs about money impacts their decision around money, and they can experience the effects of the decisions that these beliefs cause them to make.

We’ll explore this idea in a future post, but for now, what do you think?  Do you know of any transformative financial education or financial literacy games? Do you think it even possible  that “the right game” could transform a player/learner’s financial decision-making skills?

Using Gamification in Survey Research

Here’s an interesting application of gamification: Using gamification to take the monotony out of answering surveys.

Gamification.co published the op-ed Magazine Question Hunt: Using Gamification in Surveys for Children by Betty Amadou of ResearchThroughGaming. Ms. Amadou’s quest is to turn the survey-taking experience into a fun experience.  In her op-ed, Ms. Amadou describes the outcomes of a survey that she created for children using gamification principles.  The results were beyond expectation.  Her client wanted 500 responses from children ages 7-10 years old in two weeks.  Her result? 700 responses in 7 days!  From kids, no less.

Sounds like an interesting idea.  Would you be more inclined to complete a survey if it engage you like a game?

[Remember our post on Manipulation?  If gamification is used to make a survey more engaging to coerce… er, motivate you to fill it out, is this manipulation? And is it wrong to do it?]

Video Games & Problem Based Learning

Is a good video game a form of problem-based learning (PBL)?

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered instructional strategy that asks learners to solve real, meaningful, complex and ill-defined problems. In pursuit of  solutions (there are often multiple solution alternatives) students draw from their own experiences, actively acquire knowledge or skills that help them define and develop solution alternatives, and typically interact with others in the process.

Doesn’t that sound like the winning strategy  for a well designed video game:

• It provides a series of complex, ill-defined challenges (the P.C. term for “problems”);
• There are multiple solutions that the play can use to meet the challenge;
• Players draw from their existing experiences,
• They actively seek out skills, knowledge, tools that will help them understand the challenge and defeat it, and
• Players can work with other players to meet the challenge, and create or join online groups that discuss the game and share strategies.

In an earlier post, Gee: What we can learn from video games, we posted a short video by James P. Gee that describes video games in a way that shows the similarity between video game-play strategy and PBL.  Go take a second look.

In their March 21, 2012 Edutopia post  James Gee: What Do Video Games Have to Do with Project-Based Learning?, Buck Institute for Education project-based learning experts David Ross and John Larmer ponder the PBL nature of video games that they learned from attending a James Gee presentation on the topic.

So as financial educators, a good financial game could provide and opportunity to use PBL to teach effective financial decision-making skills.  What are your thoughts? Have you found such a game? If you have, please share the name of and your experience with the game.

Is It Dangerous?

In our July 9 post we introduced the idea of gamification as a form of manipulation.

This time we ponder: Is gamification always a good thing?

In her blog post “Gamification Can Kill,” blogger Nicole Lazzaro — founder & president of XEODesign, Inc., and player experience design expert —  wrote that gamification can kill the intended positive outcome.  She describes a gamification attempt to shape driver behavior on the Bay Bridge that produced unintended negative consequences.

Throwing game elements at a process or task doesn’t always work as expected.  As educators we have to think through some of the latest instructional strategies that purport to make learning “fun” to ensure that learning goals are met.  Or at lease experiment with these new strategies to find out if they actually help our learners.  Students can recognize the difference between an engaging game and a learning exercise that is dressed in game clothing.  If if the game is poorly conceived, it wastes everyone’s time and educates no one.

Gamification should be used responsibly — or not used at all.

Your thoughts?

Is It Wrong?

Is manipulation wrong?

The answer is, “It depends.”  If manipulation is used to make us make decisions that we eventually regret, then we think of manipulation as distasteful, bad, or even evil depending on the end result.

“Manipulate” tends to have a negative connotation.  According to Merriam-Webster.com, “to manipulate” can be defined as:

2 a : to manage or utilize skillfully; b : to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one’s own advantage

3: to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one’s purpose

Sounds sinister, doesn’t it?

But what if a business, designer or teacher induces “change by artful… means so as to” increase sales or productivity, to make overcoming personal illness “fun,” or to encourage students to develop a deeper understanding of physics?  What if a business, designer or teacher chooses to gamify a process to make an unpleasant task more enjoyable which in turn encourages their target audience to do something they’d rather not do?  Is this manipulation, and if so, is wrong?

Nir Eyal, behavioral engineer and creator of the blog http://www.nirandfar.com, writes about manipulation in this post: The Morality of Manipulation . He discusses the idea that the intent behind the activity defines four types of manipulation.  Here’s a table from his blog post that identifies four categories of manipulation:

Read his blog post to learn more about these four types of manipulations.  Then let us know: a) is “gamification” a type of manipulation?  and b) in which category do you think it falls?

[Need a refresher on gamification? Read our earlier post on gamification by clicking here.]

It's All About YOU!

The blog Richdad.com, from the author of the best selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad gets it right in this post http://bit.ly/Nhlzpk

In this post he focuses on your income source: Don’t rely on only one source of income, despite what you’ve been told by society.  In today’s economy this is sound advice.

We agree that your financial freedom depends on you, but we take a bigger view.  Your financial freedom starts with understanding what you want from life, and making decisions about your career, spending habits and savings goals that will give you the life that makes you happy.

What do you think about the reality of implementing this richdad.com post advice?