Transcript Edutainment

Edutainment
in Action
or how to use modern means
of communication
for effective financial education
of the society
Marcin Polak
© 2007-2008 Think Point Ltd. & edunews.pl
Edutainment in Action
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intro
 For last six years, running 10-15 programs a year, I have
used at least 16 models of delivering financial
knowledge to various target groups – from simple to very
sophisticated ones, including electronic delivery tools.
 This is not enough, I feel we must develop again and
again new methods. Why? Because the education
process in 21st Century requires innovations.
 Web 2.0 (blogs, wikis, social networking, etc.) and eLearning do influence the development of collaborative
and informal learning worldwide. A new world of
learning is appearing, and a new learner wants new
approaches.
Edutainment in Action
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intro
 Being 21st Century educators, we must think not only
about the quality of the teaching/learning process but
about proper communication channels to deliver
personal finance knowledge too.
 This is a new dimension of effectiveness. If we want to
be effective, we must develop new tools of education –
like blogs, m-learning courses, podcasts, vodcasts, and
various mass media forms.
 Just look around – a new world of learning offers you
fantastic opportunities to deliver financial education to
people, only mentioning some: YouTube, iTunes, Scribd,
Slideshare, Digg, Facebook, Mobile Phones, Digital TV.
Edutainment in Action
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intro
 According to various surveys informal education is 8090% of all learning processes today.
 The life long learning requires most of learning
activities to be done informally throughout the whole
life. It applies to personal finance education too.
 Modern digital devices, mass media, Internet and social
networking etc. are yet natural learning environment
for many people – this must be considered while
planning any educational activities.
 Surveys in many countries confirm that people want to
learn economics and finance from mass media or so
called new media.
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Media, Education & Economics
 In my presentation I would focus on modern mass media
as a channel that has a great educational potential for
personal finance education.
 Talking about involving mass media it is not about
placing economic experts in various programs. People
don’t like [boring ☺] talking heads in the television or
radio programs. They usually look for entertainment.
 In the mass media it is quite easy to combine financial
education and entertainment. And a tool that gives
great potential for economic and financial education is
Edutainment.
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Edutainment
 The essence of Edutainment is a combination of
education and entertainment. In other words „learning
through playing”. There is also a hierarchy in it. The
purpose of Edutainment is education. A form of
entertainment only facilitates and makes the process
more attractive for learners. It helps to hide the
educational message in the program too.
 It is highly effective tool promoting knowledge and
skills. There are many evaluation reports in the world
that confirm these programs facilitate and develop the
education process and result in a real social change,
especially when an improvement is desired by the target
group.
Edutainment in Action
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Edutainment Case Studies
 Edutainment as a tool for economic and financial
education worldwide was incorporated in the strategy of
economic education of the National Bank of Poland
(NBP) in 2006.
 Since then, there were several complex Edutainment
programs run 2005-2007, with many positive results
when it concerns the range of programs and
effectiveness of the education process. There are some
new programs prepared to be launched this year.
 Here are four cases to illustrate the method:
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Gold for the Bold - TV show
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Gold for the Bold - TV show
 „Gold for the Bold – Poles & Money” was a 120 minutes
long dynamic television show on Sunday evening in
the TVN - most popular private television in Poland
(February 2006). Viewers had opportunity to test their
knowledge on money and personal finance issues.
 The program was based on a format used by the Dutch
TV producers for such nationwide television shows.
 The test of financial knowledge was addressed to an
average viewer and to make it more attractive, each
question was illustrated by a film material from famous
comedies or cabaret scenes. Just to offer more fun for
viewers.
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Gold for the Bold - TV show
 To organize the show a large film studio was rearranged
to host a group of 100 players, media celebrities and
organizers. There were four teams in the studio
competing to get the financial prize. Each team was lead
by two popular TVN celebrity stars.
 There were several fields of economics chosen as test
areas, among them: money and monetary policy,
personal finance (savings and investment).
 The test questions were programmed not solely to deliver
knowledge, but also to offer entertainment and fun to
viewers, and to attract people’s attention to important
personal finance issues.
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Gold for the Bold - TV show
 The test competition was not only in the studio but also
online. The main prize was a car sponsored by the car
company.
 Results of the show:
 Main television show – 8 Million viewers;
 Press inserts to popular TV Program weekly, including a test form
for those willing to participate in the test – 800.000 copies;
 10 educational articles in the main Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza
and one of the most important weeklies Wprost,
 The web site www.zloty.onet.pl visited by 250.000 people;
102.000 solved the test online at the same time when program
was broadcast in TVN.
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Gold for the Bold TV show
…and more results:
 Radio programs devoted to personal finance issues in the Polish
Radio Program 3 got on average additional 750.000 listeners.
 A special set of materials was sent out to 2500 high schools. It
comprised a game-like scenario for a lesson on personal
finance. Students were to solve a test in the classroom. In each
class four teams were established to force the competition.
Close to 53.000 students completed that test.
 In the promotion campaign in the TVN television altogether 227
advertising spots were broadcast with intensity 50% higher
than in an average advertising campaign.
 Effectiveness – Gold for the Bold brought an average increase
of knowledge of 5,62 % (after watching). In a fortnight another
test measured the indicator again - an average increase of
knowledge was 2,96 %. Within younger population the increase
of knowledge was up to 10,11%.
Edutainment in Action
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A Motel Halfway - Radio Novel
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A Motel Halfway - Radio Novel
 In November 2006 a new radio novel The Motel Halfway
was launched – 30 episodes long (once a week). This
was a third novel in the history of Polish Public Radio,
and this time it focused on entrepreneurs, a small
group of people running a motel in a countryside.
 Two other media were engaged – a popular daily tabloid
Super Express, and internet portal Wirtualna Polska
which host the program web page (www.motel.wp.pl).
 There were famous Polish actors who agreed to give
their voices for the program’s heroes.
 Over 1 Million listeners a week followed the adventures
of the Motel staff. Yet the second season of is on air.
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A Motel Halfway - Radio Novel
 Scenarios included a large number of situations where
the program heroes had to find out a solution for their
problems in their business activity, financial
management, savings or investments issues.
 The aim of the novel was obviously not to teach
entrepreneurship, but to make them think about being
entrepreneurial in everyday life. Each episode lasted up
to 23 minutes so it was a good opportunity to promote a
number of economic and financial issues included in the
storylines.
Effectiveness: after listening program episodes, the increase of
knowledge among adults was 21,5% (and in a fortnight without
listening the program 29,3%); the increase of knowledge among
young people was 9,7% (and two weeks later: 19,3%).
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Poles Own Wallet Portrait
Edutainment in Action
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Poles Own Wallet Portrait
 There was a 3,5 week educational TV campaign on
personal finance education launched within Christmas
and New Year’s Day period (2006/2007), in four
channels of the TVN television.
 The reason was obvious - to focus on „unpopular” topics
near Christmas time – savings and responsible financial
attitudes, or reasonable spending.
 To get the viewers the ‘eduvertisements’ were prepared short interviews with popular media celebrities
prepared, explaining why (and how) they try to save in
that particular time. Each interview was up to 90
seconds and viewers could easily discover that even
famous celebrities have often similar problems to theirs.
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Poles Own Wallet Portrait
 The discussion was very practical. It concentrated on
issues that are common for most of us – what is better
– a credit card or money in the wallet, what are benefits
of having a home budget, how to save and invest, what
credit is best for buying a flat, etc.
 These six eduvertisements were broadcast 266 times on
four TV channels of the TVN. People loved that form of
education – an estimated number of people who watched
at least 3 scenes was over 10,5 Million people.
Effectiveness: after watching episodes, the increase of knowledge
among adults was 13,9% (and in a fortnight without watching again
the program 11,8%); the increase of knowledge among young
people was 18,6% (and two weeks later: 19,8%).
Edutainment in Action
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What? Internet Film Portal
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What? Internet Film Portal
 A form of viral marketing to promote economic and
financial education issues in the Internet. 60 short films
were produced, each presenting an economic context in
everyday situation.
 Indirect education. People should start thinking about
what they have seen. Increasing people’s awareness
of issues that have significant influence on their lifes.
 The portal was popular – it was visited by over 4,5 M
Internet users within 6 months. Each film was viewed on
average by 120.000 users.
Effectiveness: after watching episodes, the increase of knowledge
among adults was 17,5% (and in a fortnight without watching again
the program 21,8%); the increase of knowledge among young
people was 15,3% (and two weeks later: 17,4%).
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Summing Up
 New methods of learning implicate the way the
knowledge and skills are delivered to learners. We
can imagine the process in which the most important
lifetime education will be out of schools and
concentrate on different ways of informal education.
 As financial knowledge is one of the major life skills,
Edutainment seems to be a good way of delivering that
knowledge to large audience. It is an attractive form of
learning and it uses multi-channel communication, so
people will be able to learn from different channels.
 Polish Edutainment programs of the National Bank of
Poland confirmed that this might be a great tool of
economic and financial education.
Edutainment in Action
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Thank you
Marcin Polak
Think Point Ltd.
Consumer Education & Communications
[email protected]
Aleje Niepodleglosci 186
00-608 Warsaw, Poland
www.thinkpoint.pl
www.edunews.pl
This presentation is available in www.Slideshare.net (search: edunews)
Edutainment in Action