A couple of my classes are currently participating in a large mock-economy exercise designed to simulate the economic climate of the 1880’s through early 1900’s in the United States. We have a “Rockefeller,” a “Carnegie,” and a “JP Morgan” character is starting to emerge. Prior to starting the activity, I showed a couple of Common Craft videos to the classes as reinforcement for the banking concepts that we have discussed. The class watched Borrowing Money in Plain English and Investing in Plain English. I have embedded Investing in Plain English below. If anyone is interested in a digital copy of directions and handouts for the mock economy exercise, send me an email at richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers.com and I’ll send it to you.

Applications for Education
Common Craft has three videos that could be used in a business class, economics class, or in any setting that requires students to have an understanding of banking practices. Here are direct links to each of the three videos: Investing in Plain English, Borrowing in Plain English, Saving in Plain English.

Here are a couple of related resources that may be of interest to you:
The Crisis of Credit Visualized
Understanding the Financial Crisis – Say It Visually