About
Financial literacy education in virtual reality.
Innovation presentation
VR Generation Z is virtual reality (VR) app for iOS and Android smartphones. The aim of app is to promote financial topics among young generation of students at high schools in Slovakia. Based on many studies from recent years we found that financial literacy in our country is in very bad condition and it is not getting better at all. In 2019 National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) made survey asking 4 simple questions regarding basic financials topics. Only 10% of adult respondents were able to answer them correctly. Based on this results NBS recommended to focus on high school students. It is because they will soon become adults and therefore, they will be free to start making their own financial decisions. The only problem remaining is that these youngsters (also known as Generation Z) don’t really care about finances at all. Based on another survey made in recent years, this generation is interested in theatres and galleries much more than they care about financial topics. And you can imagine how much they care about theatres and galleries... Also, their attention span is somewhere around 8 seconds (in fact little Goldfish will give you more). So, from the start it was clear to us that we need to create some sort of beautiful and attractive educative solution.
Our solution is VR mobile app – it’s actually a game you are experiencing from first person view. The app is using display of your smartphone in order to enable VR experience. All you need is our app, your smartphone and so called “cardboard” – VR headset where you put your smartphone with running app and you are ready to explore new horizons of education.
Uniqueness of the project
The main reason why we choose VR is because it provides such level of immersion that no other technology can deliver. Also we are actively using smartphones in VR cardboards – this way students are free from distractions not just because of immersive experience of VR, but also they are unable to use smartphone to do anything else – its win win scenario from education perspective.
The content of app is VR role play game from first person view. We are following life path of young photographer and his life success journey. You are starting the game as youngster in your room. During gameplay you will progress through the story, gradually get older and from time to time you need to make crucial financial/life decisions that will impact your game progress. It’s like interactive movie in VR (similar to Netflix interactive movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch). We are trying to boost not just financial literacy, but also promote meaningful approach to long term life goals.
Our VR app is first of its kind not just in Slovakia, but also from global perspective.
