Sealund’s Serious Games Blog

Effective Fun for Learning

We’ve known for a long time that the more fun learners have, the better they learn, and learners perceive rewarding interactivity as fun. Our clients always ask for the most interactivity they can get in eLearning, so learners can experience the adventure of exploring new topics and reinforce what they’ve learned. And we always build our custom eLearning courses and games with plenty of interactivity – with immersive virtual worlds, avatars, and games where you can always improve on your previous personal best.

Now, we’re thrilled to announce an affordable and easy-to-use new tool with which you can build your own interactivities! With our new INTERACTIVITYCreator™, you can build games, add fresh interactivities to existing courses, or make your new courses even more exciting … and engaging. And therefore more effective. (But you knew that!)

Zero Programming

You can create professional-looking activities with zero programming by using its simple and intuitive interface. INTERACTIVITYCreator™’s 15 Flash-based activities include these functions:

• Matching
• Rollover
• Sequencing
• Fill-in-the-blank
• Hangman
• Dictionary/Glossary
• Question Spin
• Image Reveal

… and these games templates:

• Maze
• Trivia Game
• Blok3™
• Answer, Pass, Score!™
• Connect3™
• Fun Feud™
• PaddlePass!™

I bet you’re thinking, “Where was this last year when I needed it?!” I know that’s what I’d been thinking as we’ve been developing game engines for our own use. That’s why we built it, and that’s why it’s available to you!

Outside the Box – an Inspiring Client Idea

We know our Sealund team is creative, but often our clients inspire us with their ingenuity, too. One high school purchased five copies of INTERACTIVITYCreator™ at the 5-copy discount price and had students use them to design their own learning activities. That’s how easy it is! And what is the school using these student-created activities for? A fund-raising project! The school is selling the CDs to raise funds for school activities that, in this economy, need all the support they can get. (Sure hope those student activity-developers get plenty of extra credit!)

I’m sure you can think of ways INTERACTIVITYCreator™ can earn a respectable ROI in your organization, in quicker time-to-publication and faster, more reliable transfer of new knowledge and skills to jobs.

Please try some of the sample activities yourself and see what they inspire you to do with such activities for your own organization. And please let me know what you plan to do with it!

What do you think? Please share your comments.

Financial Literacy Month is April, and the Financial Literacy Update, a newsletter published by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, announces events related to it. These include:

• National Credit Union Youth Week
  April 18–24, 2010 (Nationwide)
• Michigan Jump$tart Coalition 2010 Professional Development Conferences
  March 25, 2010 (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
  April 24, 2010 (Mackinaw City, Mich.)
• Money Smart Week Chicago
  April 17–24, 2010 (Chicago, Ill.)
• Money Smart Colorado
  April 24–May 1, 2010 (Statewide)
• 2010 Symposium: Financial Literacy: Implications for Retirement Security and the Financial Marketplace
  April 29–30, 2010 (Philadelphia, Pa.)

The Jump$tart Coalition’s annual awards dinner also occurs in April – on the 14th, at the Renaissance Washington, DC, hotel. The coalition will honor two Members of Congress and one state coalition, and announce the winner of the prestigious Odom Award.

During Financial Literacy Month, 100,000 Senior Market Advisor organization members—advisers, educators, athletes, celebrities and business coaches—will hold sessions in classrooms around the country to raise awareness of the importance of financial literacy.

Resources on the Financial Literacy Month Website

The Financial Literacy Month website offers you ways to commit to and build your own financial wellness.

You can take a pledge to establish and follow a financial plan through having healthy attitudes about money.

There are tools for success, including worksheets for income, net worth, debt load, financial priorities and goals, expenditures and expenses, and an eBook with tips contributed by financially adept consumers.

The Tips for Change desktop gadget for keeping up on consumer tips. You have a choice of gadgets that work with Vista, Google, and Facebook.

Are there Financial Literacy Month events planned in your community? What do you think? Please share your comments.

Bankruptcy has increasingly become a necessity for private citizens everywhere in the world. CNN Money reported that in the third quarter of 2009, the total number of bankruptcies filed had risen 33%, the highest level since 2005, and the American Bankruptcy Institute, an industry research firm, recorded 388,485 bankruptcies filed during the last quarter of 2009, compared with 292,291 in the same period of 2008. These unfortunate statistics demonstrate that Americans are experiencing the harsh consequences of what we didn’t know about credit management. The 1,117,771 bankruptcy filings in 2009 represent 1,117,771 American individuals’ and families’ sad lessons about financial risk – and we’re far from the only ones. Reuters’ January 5, 2010, report on global consumer and business bankruptcies demonstrated that Americans plenty of company, with 89,402 business bankruptcy filings globally in 2009, compared with 64,584 in 2008, and personal bankruptcies increasing to 1,357,565 in 2009, from 1,031,562 in 2008.

In order to help our clients and partners become better informed and more highly skilled in their financial options, we’ve introduced the Considering Bankruptcy course in our Alaris™ Financial Literacy eLearning Credit Management curriculum. This course builds users knowledge about key items they need to consider to determine whether bankruptcy is a viable option for them. When learners complete this course, they will have more confidence in their decision about filing for bankruptcy to resolve their financial situation.

The Considering Bankruptcy course guides learners through building their skills in:

• Describing the Types of Bankruptcy - Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.
• Identifying which debts bankruptcy eliminates, and which debt does not.
• Using credit counseling and meeting debtor education requirements.
• Identifying the items that require research when considering bankruptcy.
• Understanding the consequences of bankruptcy and the reasons for avoiding it.
• Identifying alternative debt-elimination options other than bankruptcy.
• Considering the complexities and consequences associated with bankruptcy.
• Understanding how to qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
• Identifying the initial steps in declaring bankruptcy.
• Coping with declaring bankruptcy.

I hope our other Alaris™ Financial Literacy eLearning curricula can help the vast majority of consumers avoid bankruptcy, but for those who are considering it, this new course will help them deal wisely with the decision-making and, if necessary, declaration processes and their aftermath.

What do you think? Please share your comments.