MADISON, Wis.-The Filene Research Institute, in conjunction with Ohio University and a handful of credit unions, is poised to launch a new way of teaching young people real financial skills such as evaluating a car loan, paying rent on a budget, and investing for the future via a three-dimensional Internet application.
The interactive game will be launched on the Credit Union Island in Second Life-the Internet's largest user-created virtual community.
The aim is to attract more young people to financial education initiatives and credit unions, with hundreds of CUs already developing in-school relationships, either with physical presences like branches or through financial literacy efforts. "Our goal is to allow credit unions that are in the school systems to be able to use this as an additional tool," said Scott Moriarty, former vice president of lending at Virginia CU and member of Filene's i3 Innovation project.
Development began in 2007 under the leadership of i3, four credit unions: Ohio University CU, Sunmark FCU, Point Breeze CU and Altra CU, with funding from Members United Corporate FCU and the assistance of Ohio University's Virtual Immersive Technologies and Arts for Living (VITAL) Lab, a pioneer in virtual learning. The VITAL Lab will be conducting a study to gauge the project's effectiveness in teaching finance. The "island" is an online game where teens can text each other and interact with virtual car dealers, landlords, etc. - all the the things they would have to do in the real world. And all of it is accessible by a link from the credit union's website.
This month, Athens High School, Athens, Ohio will roll out Virtual Finance to five classes.
