The Kids are All Right
Last year, my team got to create a financial literacy platform for teens from scratch. It involved nine separate modules on financial topics as well as a 3D game, in which learners take three characters through a year of their lives and help them make financial decisions.
Part of the fun came from the fact that we were given free range to write an irreverent, funny (well, we think it’s funny) script and pair that with fun, creative animations and activities. But the other fun part was actually getting to see teens taking the course.
At the beginning of the project, we created a prototype of the course to try out on a group of teenagers. I sat in a chair right next to some of our learners (who, for most projects, I never even get to see) and watched every move they made. I asked them to speak up and let me know what they were thinking (and they weren’t shy about doing so when something sounded condescending or confusing). Perhaps the most telling feedback was their facial expressions (and no, it didn’t hurt at all when they rolled their eyes at a joke I’d written. Really. Not even a little bit.) Getting real feedback from real users that we could then use to make the course even better (and, I hope, funnier) was invaluable.
Now that the courseware is complete and being deployed to schools and organizations all over the country, it’s pretty amazing to hear that the project we worked so hard on is actually making an impact on teens outside of a test environment. The course has gotten quite a bit of press (it debuted at the 2009 TED conference), but it’s stories like the one below that really make me proud to have contributed to this project, and even more proud of those kids.
That doesn’t sound condescending, does it? Well, if it does, feel free to roll your eyes. At least this time I won’t see it.
Maria Parrott
Content Producer
NogginLabs, Inc.