The document discusses the integration of modern communication methods, particularly 'edutainment', in the financial education sector, highlighting its effectiveness in engaging learners. It provides examples of successful programs from Poland, such as 'Gold for the Bold', 'A Motel Halfway', and others, demonstrating increased financial knowledge among a diverse audience through entertaining formats. The author emphasizes the need for continuous innovation in educational approaches to meet the evolving needs of 21st-century learners.

1. 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

2. 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 e-Learning do influence the development of collaborative and informal learning worldwide. A new world of learning is appearing, and a new learner wants new approaches .

3. 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.

4. intro According to various surveys informal education is 80-90% 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 .

5. 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 .

6. 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 6

7. 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:

8. Gold for the Bold - TV show

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. … 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% . Gold for the Bold TV show

13. A Motel Halfway - Radio Novel

14. 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 .

15. 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% ). A Motel Halfway - Radio Novel

16. Poles Own Wallet Portrait

17. 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.

18. 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% ). Poles Own Wallet Portrait

19. What? Internet Film Portal

20. 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% ).

21. 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.

22. Thank you Marcin Polak Think Point Ltd. Consumer Education & Communications [email_address] Aleje Niepodleglosci 186 00-608 Warsaw, Poland www.thinkpoint.pl www.edunews.pl