Use Ripple network to learn children the value of trading and the blockchain

[ThomasTheTGV]

Thank you for creating this group I also have a few idea's I want to share.

The first idea I have is to teach/learn children the value of trading and the blockchain using the Ripple network. This can be done on different levels and age groups.

Originally (2014) I thought this up for children that have autism and that are living/working at company I used to work for.  But I see more possibilities... An easy to use interface and wallet would be needed for users and teachers. Also different developed scenario's teachers could use and setup for their pupils and management tools to check progress and intervene when needed.

Are there any teachers, educational developers, programmers that want to think with me on this?   

 

[legomaracas]

@ThomasTheTGV This is a great idea. In addition to regular kids, Is this geared towards Kids with High Functioning Autism? My eldest is Low functioning Autistic and I don’t know if he would be capable of doing that. 

I used to be a high school teacher before we decided it would be better for one of us (me) to stay home with the kids. Do you have a specific idea of how you would approach this? Which age group are you targeting? I’m assuming it’s a program that would be for purchase. I’d be interested in helping with the content. 

Maybe have like a basic introductory section teaching the basics of trading with definition. Kids tend to learn better from seeing. So maybe short videos explaining the basics in addition to the definition. And at the end of each definition/video, a short demo where they can try out e.g. buying, selling etc. To make it more interactive. And then another section explaining the blockchain and how it is used. I’d also have an area guiding them on the criteria for a good investment. And how to spot a poor investment. Then for practice have like 5 or 8 ‘dummy cryptocurrency’ scenarios where pros and cons are described and they have to choose the best crypto for an investment. Then maybe another dummy section where they can pretend to make purchases using a fake wallet. 

So I have a question here. You said that you also wanted an easy to use interface and wallet for the kids to use. Isn’t that like an exchange? If they are doing it live? 

[ThomasTheTGV]

@legomaracas Thank you for your interest! Yes you could use different complexity/scenarios for different target audiences, may be even all in the same ledger or create separate ledgers and coins for each group/scenario. I hadn't decided on the revenue model yet, but preferably it would be open source and free to use and funding of development is done by companies and/or grants (I'm in Europe).

For the how questions: Check out https://www.theworldexchange.net/ and these accompanying video's on youtube. This tackles a lot of the behind the scene technical stuff but we would still need to do lots more things like:

• Introductory section teaching the basics of trading (or other scenario's) with definition and goals for both the teacher and the pupils
• I would like to use gamification mechanics to make it more interesting to learn and keep one interested
• Easy to use environment for both teachers and pupils both mobile and on computer/tablet
• It would be really cool if environment is protected/shielded BUT via interledger still connected to the outside world. In that way one could collect 'points' which could be traded in for something like an IOU which represents a real value or why not just XRP.  

At the moment I'm afraid that I'm not really in a position to actively work on the idea, since I work at a different company in a different sector. And in my spare time I'm renovating my kitchen and bathroom. But since I thought it was a good idea (on multiple levels) I wanted to share it here!

And @legomaracas... I have to admit it rekindles my enthusiasm again ?‍?

[legomaracas]

Sounds good @ThomasTheTGV I admire the idea. They did not teach anything about investing or learning to manage your money when I was in school. I am for sure not going to make that mistake with my kids.

Something like your idea would be beneficial to many kids out there.