Teaching Financial Literacy Through Online Resources and EdTech Apps

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There are many reasons why kids don’t get the financial education they need early on. It could be that their parents aren’t financially literate themselves. It could be that these kids aren’t living in a state where personal finance classes are required to graduate from high school.

Another reason could be that teachers don’t know where to start and are unaware of the resources available to make teaching financial literacy seamless and engaging. There’s at least a solution to this, as various online resources and edtech apps strictly for teaching financial literacy to students exist.

Digital Resources and Apps Teachers Can Use to Teach Financial Literacy

There are many subjects to learn to master money management and become financially stable, including budgeting, saving, investing, credit, and debit.

Teaching kids financial literacy is important to ensure that they can effectively manage their money for years to come. Among the subjects that they need to master are budgeting, saving, and investing. Children should also be familiar with the concept of credit and debt. There are a variety of ways to teach children about these ideas.

Teachers can use technology as they are integrating these ideas into their classroom. For example, there are mobile apps that can simulate investing and how to apply for and use credit cards and loans. Social media is a perfect place for teens to find jobs and learn about financial responsibilities like paying bills and budgeting.

Let’s explore these and another digital resource that can streamline teaching financial literacy in the classroom and make the experience as entertaining and enjoyable as it is educational.

Interactive websites

The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry revealed that U.S. kids 8-12 years old spend anywhere from 4 to 6 hours a day online, while teens can engage up to 9 hours a day.

Yes, the goal is to decrease screen and online time to something significantly lower. But if your kids are going to spend time online, use this to your advantage. Introduce them to interactive financial websites that teach kids financial literacy.

Practical Money Skills is a great financial literacy website that offers a range of interactive games, lessons, and tools that teach kids how to evaluate and manage their finances at whatever level they’re at. There’s also a blog that delves deeper into money management topics.

You can make sites like these a part of your in-class lessons. Bring them up on the projector and walk through certain tools or aspects of a site to highlight specific financial literacy lessons.

Sites like these can also easily be incorporated into student homework. You can have them play a game or use a tool on a certain website to help them complete their assignment. Whether you introduce these sites in the classroom or have your students explore them on their own through homework, they can act as another teacher and offer lessons in various ways to accommodate the learning capabilities of every student.

Social Media

You probably experience every day just how entrenched social media is in your students’ lives.

But it can also be a tremendous digital resource for teaching financial literacy to your students. You’ll have to monitor their use, but allowing students to use social media in class to engage in a financial literacy lesson can work.

For example, you could have everyone pull up Warren Buffet’s Secret Millionaire’s Club on YouTube and watch a few kid-friendly videos on stocks, finance, or how to build a successful business.

Or, you could have students follow popular social media influencers who cover financial literacy for kids and teens, like Spencer Hochhaus and Callum Carver, and have them do projects and reports on lessons these influencers are covering.

Successfully using social media to teach financial literacy in the classroom comes down to strict monitoring and intentionality.

Mobile Apps

As great as interactive websites and social media can be, the ever-growing list of mobile apps geared toward financial literacy for kids and teens might be the best resources you have.

Students are already using apps on their mobile phones. Why not find apps that can teach them the important lessons about money management? The following are some of the most entertaining and educational financial literacy apps for kids and teens:

• Savings Spree;
• Bankaroo;
• AdVenture Capitalist;
• FamZoo;
• Homey.

You can gamify your financial literacy curriculum in the classroom with these apps, making the experience much more engaging and entertaining for your students. They can also use these apps at home to continue their lessons in finance.

Keep in mind that for mobile apps to work in and outside the classroom, you need a solid internet connection. If logging into the school WiFi isn’t the best option for you and all your students, consider getting a hotspot.

Hot spots access the internet wirelessly on a mobile device from nearly any location. It’s also essentially a private network. This allows for your students to browse the internet more safely, as hotspots connections can be more closely monitored for security threats, as opposed to public WiFi. This makes them perfect for in-classroom use.

How to Integrate the Above Tools into Your Curriculum

Integrating technology and online resources into your classroom starts with a well-documented plan. Determine what technologies and digital resources are available to you already and what external resources and tools are approved for use.

Once you know this, you can choose which ones you want to use. Define why you want to use them and how you will do so to further your financial literacy curriculum. Identify exactly what lessons you want to teach and which tools you want to use to teach them.

With a detailed plan for teaching financial literacy through online resources and Edtech, you can assure the lessons are executed successfully and actually stick with your students.