THIS INVENTION relates to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and includes computing, calculating, counting and data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, supervisory, or forecasting purposes. More particularly, the invention relates to education and teaching a student self-discipline, dedication, drive, and appreciation of finances in a fun way. More specifically, the invention relates to a software implemented system used in such method.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

A myriad of software implemented systems and methods have been invented in the past and are disclosed by way of patents.

Business management and management of personal finances are but two personal growth skills known to be taught with the aid of games. For example, U.S. Patent number 3, 737,167 issued to Kelley describes using a board game to teach personal decisionmaking skills. U.S. Patent number 3,765,682 issued to Braude describes using another board game to teach property investment management skills.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,628 describes a board game used to train bank personnel. Still other games, such as described, for example, in U.S. Patent number 4,386,778 issued to Hall, U.S. Patent number 5,207,792 issued to Anderson, and U.S. Patent number 5,456,473 issued to Whitney are used to teach various aspects of the construction business.

USA Patent Application number US2017337841 for an invention entitled: ‘Interactive Multimedia Story Creation Application’, invented on 30 December 2016 in its abstract specifically discloses: ‘software application for teaching literacy... for presentation on a computing device with a display... can earn rewards based on performance.

Although many different aspects of scholar learning skills are covered by games and fun concepts that have been patented, a software implemented system and method for teaching financial awareness and combining a point arrangement linked to academic performance tracking, which point arrangement is in turn useable to purchase items with, are believed to be conspicuously needed in industry.

The applicant believes that the system and method described herein are discernible from known systems and methods and addresses a void in current student learning processes.

In this specification a selection of terms, commonly known in the art to which the invention relates, are used. The terms are named and have the meaning described in the table below.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a broad concept of this invention there is provided a method, implemented on an electronic computing device, for teaching a student selfdiscipline, dedication, drive, and appreciation of finances, the method comprising: linking a payment received from a student benefactor to an account of a system administrator; creating an action and display interface on which points allocated to said student can be depicted, and which points may be used by either the student or said system administrator via actions taken directly by said student on said computing device or by said system administrator in communication with said computing device; obtaining performance data via a performance tracking arrangement on a recurrent basis throughout a performance period, from external sources containing a student performance track record, and storing same on, or linking same to, server means in communication with said computing device; and determining, firstly, a number of points equivalent to the sum of money received from said benefactor and, secondly, subtracting from or increasing said first allocated number of points to generate an available number of points, depending on the most recent performance data of said student, and making said available number of points available for use by said student.

In an embodiment of the invention the performance tracking arrangement may be configured with software instructions to, at any given moment in time, assess said students' individual performance to identify consistent improvements and sustained progress when compared to an earlier date in time, and to link said student performance to a tiered system wherein higher tier levels are associated with increased spending power and access to benefits obtainable via said action and display interface. In an embodiment of the invention the method may include a determination, via the action and display module, of career path options and display of same on the electronic computing device to the student, and/or student benefactor, based on, and calculated from, historical performance data throughout the performance period.

Moreover, the action and display module may be configured with software instructions to prompt the student to access intervention work in the form of curated academic content designed to help the student close learning gaps using captured performance data from previous assessments, which indicates scope for improvement in student performance such that said student’s engagement in intervention work assists the student in earning the remainder of the points up to an equivalent of the sum of money received from the benefactor.

The method may further involve a student selected from the group consisting of academic learners, athletes, sportsman, cultural performers, learning musicians, leadership apprentices, office personnel, and trainee artisans.

The method may also involve a student benefactor selected from the group consisting of parents, school management teams, guardians of said student, investors, sponsors, government representatives, relatives, and charitable persons or entities.

In an embodiment an investor or sponsor may be invited to invest in and sponsor the performance of the student and make a payment to the administrator account in exchange for exposure of the benefactor’s brand to the student on the action and display interface.

Use by the student, as envisaged in this invention, may comprises utilization of the available number of points to purchase goods or services offered on, and via, the action and display module. Alternatively, use by the student, may comprise making an investment into a financial services product offered on, and via, the action and display module of an amount of the available number of points to thereby gain interest thereon.

The action and display module may be programmed to intermittently display shortformat financial literacy content sponsored by a person, being either an individual or an entity, to a student. Based on consumed content within a pre-set or prescribed timeframe, the action and display module may prompt the student to view and complete quizzes so that a Financial Literacy score of the student can be recorded

In an embodiment, the student benefactor may receive updates via a communication channel being either short messaging service, WhatsApp, email, to inform about financial literacy score, progress, or status of the student.

In an embodiment, the action and display interface may include conversion of performance data or points earned into a fiat currency or digital currency value or cryptocurrency value that can be withdrawn by the student.

In a further embodiment of the invention, a computer implemented system may be provided for teaching a student self-discipline, dedication, drive, and appreciation of finance, the system comprising: server means, in communication with and accessible from a computing device of the student, which server means comprises: a payment processing module for receiving a sum of money from a benefactor of the student; a payment hosting module for linking the sum of money to an administrator bank account and for reflecting receipt of the sum of money on the computing device; a performance tracking arrangement having interrogation means to recurrently interrogate, external sources containing student academic records or performance data, throughout an academic period and store same on, or link same to, the server means; a point allocation module having software instructions to, firstly, allocate a number of points equivalent to the sum of money received from the benefactor and, secondly, subtract from or increase the first allocated number of points to generate an available number of points, dependant on most recent performance data of the student stored on, or linked to, the server means; and an action and display module, apt to function on the computing device and having software instructions to permit the student to electronically view and use the available number of points to purchase goods or services offered on, and via, the action and display module; or invest an amount of the available number of points to gain interest, as a result of investment thereof.

The method as described above may be utilized online, on a pc, laptop, tablet, smart phone or the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the invention is now described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying non-limiting diagrammatic drawings. In the drawings:

Figure 1 shows a diagrammatic view of computer implemented system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, for teaching a student self-discipline, dedication, drive, and appreciation of finances;

Figure 2 shows a diagrammatic view of a method for implementing the system shown in Figure 1 ;

Figure 3 shows a high-level diagram of a tiered system built into a performance tracking arrangement of the system of Figure 1 ; Figure 4 shows a coding extract depicting how a point allocation module functions to determine points earned after communication with the performance tracking module;

Figure 5 shows a coding extract depicting how a point allocation module functions to determine bonus points earned after communication with the performance tracking module;

Figure 6 shows a coding extract depicting how a point allocation module functions to determine total points available after use of the performance tracking module;

Figure 7 shows the payment of initialization funds by a benefactor using the system shown in Figure 1 ;

Figure 8 shows the display of funds received based on a benefactor’s sponsorship on a device used with the system of Figure 1 ; and

Figure 9 shows the display of student points available for use by a student after allocation of said points based on student performance and as calculated by the programme manager of system of Figure 1 .

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

This description is presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the invention. In this regard, no attempt is made to show structural details of the invention in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention, the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how at least one of the several forms of the invention may be embodied in practice. Referring to Figure 1 , a software implemented system (10), in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention, is shown in diagram format.

The system (10) is configured and specially put together for use in teaching or training a student (11) self-discipline, dedication, drive, and financial literacy. Although it is believed that the system (10) will be most appreciated and used by young adult scholars and academic learners, it is envisaged that same may also find application as a tool to teach young children self-discipline, dedication, drive, financial awareness and skills, obviously with the required permission from parents or legal guardians.

Apart from being shown and described herein with reference to academic learners, the system (10) and its associated method (100) is, in other embodiments of the invention, believed to also benefit students in other speres of life such as, for example, athletes, sportsman, cultural performers, learning musicians, leadership apprentices, office personnel, employees, and trainee artisans. The advantage of making system (10) and its associated method (100) available to persons as listed above can benefit not only the personal growth of such listed persons, but also the instructor, person, government organisation, or entity recommending use of the system (10) and its associated method (100).

The system (10), as shown in Figure 1 consists of differently programmed modules that may be combined into one computer programme or may be separate but functionable together as and when required by a student user (11 ) or a student benefactor (13) over a SaaS architecture. These modules and their functioning are further described in the description that follows.

Parents and School Management or even legal guardians of the student (11 ) may be referred to as benefactors (13) in relation to the system (10). Benefactors (13) can choose whether Financial Literacy content can be delivered on mobile devices (12), e.g., smart phones or the like of students wherein they opt-in to use of the system (10) under control of the benefactors. This is typically achieved by logging in on a ubiquitous user interface and after accepting displayed terms and conditions.

Benefactors (13) can also login on the user interface (401 ) and will typically be requested to pay subscription or pay initialization funds as shown in Figure 7 of the drawings to a secure account of a system administrator (14). The administrator (14), in turn, is able to transform, via a payment hosting module of a so-called program manager, the funds received into discernable points viewable via the system (10) on the user interface of the device (12) after signup of the student to the system (10). It will be appreciated that sign-up can be attended to by the student (11) himself or herself provided he/she reached the age of a major person as defined in section 17 of the South African Children’s Act or similar legislation in if the system is used in other countries. It will be appreciated that the points value is a variable that may change, so that its numerical expression may assume different values at different times during the learning period of the student.

In one example of the invention where an academic learner is using the system (10), it is configured to connect to external sources containing student academic records or performance data such as a database of a school or tertiary education facility to request marks of the student (11). To achieve this, a performance tracking module of the programme manager is provided to interrogate and uncover and retrieve marks of a particular student (11 ). This module typically includes interrogation means containing code written to recurrently interrogate and pose questions to the database about a student’s (11) most recent marks in a particular subject. This continuous interrogation may be scheduled to occur throughout an academic period either intermittently or at regular intervals. Transfer and storage of uncovered academic records or performance data is achieved with the aid of server means (18). In cases where continuous access to student marks are deemed sensitive by the issuer of the marks (typically a university), the performance tracking module may merely be programmed to prompt return of requested marks, for a specified student, within a period of time convenient to said issuer. In another typical example of the invention, students (11 ) will be able to view shortformat financial literacy content on the action and display interface (16) provided on the device (12). On the action and display interface (16) a student (11 ) will also be able to complete quizzes based on the consumed content within a pre-set or prescribed timeframe. Such quizzes may be prepared by advertisers and/or by registered financial service providers.

The quiz results will be calculated to return a Financial Literacy score to the student (11 ). Each quiz will typically be sponsored by a company who can be an advertiser of products or a registered financial service provider. The parent, school management team, or guardian (benefactor (13)) will receive updates via various communication channels (sms, WhatsApp, email, etc.) informing them of the students' financial literacy score or status. Similarly, points added to or subtracted from existing points of the student; and which are available for use by the student (11 ) will also be conveyed to the benefactor (13).

Example: Parent will receive a sms written as follows:

"Hi Bella, Botshelo has completed his credit quiz on his first attempt, check it out here; https://C637HE.co.za/credit (link)”

The quiz is sponsored by Clear Score (“Check out your credit score using Clear Score by clicking on the link; https://www.clearscore.co.zay'

The sponsor will be able to advertise to parents in a non-invasive manner that effort is to be made to be compliant with legislation on protection of personal information across multiple jurisdictions and countries.

Students should also be able to withdraw their points as fiat or digital currency. The fiat or digital currency can only be withdrawn into an account (transactional, savings, or investment). The advertiser or registered financial service provider offering the account may be recommended. Alternatively, purchasable goods or services (or hyperlinks thereto) may be shown on the action and display interface (16) allowing the student (11) to utilise his/her available points to purchase same.

Further, and in line with the aim to teach financial literacy, the action and display interface (16) will always include a clearly visible section wherein the student (11) is enticed to save some or all of the allocated points to over time increase return on investment.

The communication depicted in Figures 1 and 2, is effected by way of GSM or radio waves (20).

The methods and systems with modules described herein are envisaged to be deployed in part or in whole through network infrastructures consisting of dedicated software modules typically within a programme manager. It will be appreciated that a payment processing module is coded to receive, store and display benefactor’s (13) payment; a payment hosting module is created and suitably coded for linking the sum of money to an administrator bank account and for reflecting receipt of the sum of money on the computing device (12); a point allocation module configured to, firstly, allocate a number of points equivalent to the sum of money received from the benefactor (13) and, secondly, subtract or increase the first allocated number of points to generate an available number of points, dependant on most recent performance data of the student (11) stored on the server means (18); and an action and display module, functioning on the computing device (12) and containing software instructions to permit said student (11 ) to electronically view and use the available number of points to purchase goods or services offered on, and via, the action and display module; or invest an amount of said available number of points to gain interest, as a result of investment thereof.

In use, and referring to Figure 2 of the drawings, the method (100) illustrated by use of the infrastructure or system (10), in accordance with this invention, includes the steps of: • linking (120) a payment received from a student benefactor to a system administrator bank account

• allocating (130) points for viewing on an action and display interface of student's computing device;

• obtaining (140) student performance data, from external sources, and storing same on server means linked to said computing device;

• determining (150), firstly, a number of points equivalent to the sum of money received from the benefactor and, secondly, subtracting from or increasing the first allocated number of points to generate an available number of points, calculated using most recent student performance data; and

• and making (160) the available number of points, available for use by the student, on purchase of goods/services or for investment.

The determination or allocation of points available for use by the student typically occurs as shown in JAVA coding, via the point allocation module of the programme manager, depicted in Figures 4 to 6 of the Drawings.

Calculate Points Earned

Figure 4 illustrates coding that shows how a point allocation module of the programme manager functions to determine points earned after communication with the performance tracking module.

The system (10) takes in a program object that will define the metrics of a particular program and a particular assessment object that will define the metrics of a particular assessment.

Then it will define 8 variables:

• Total- this defines the total marks that can be obtained for an assessment.

• Obtained - this defines the marks the student got for an assessment. • Pass Mark - this defines the minimum mark the student needs to obtain in order to pass the assessment.

• Percentage - this defines the Percentage the student obtained for the assessment.

• Subjectweight - this is a number defining how much the Subject at hand weighs in relation to the other subjects in the program, this number is static and stored by the program object and is retrieved by the ‘FindAssessmentWeight’ function.

• SubjectTotalAssess - this is a number defined in the program object and it describes how many assessments will contribute toward the student's earnings.

• Assessmentweight- this is a number that is calculated by the following formula (SubjectWeight/SubjectTotalAssess)*(1 -program. getbreakdownQ), which in essence calculates how much a particular asset is worth, or how many points in total it is worth.

The system (10) then utilises an if statement that checks that the student passed the assessment if the student failed it simply returns 0 marks have been earned, and if the student’s mark is higher than the pass mark the programme manager returns the subject weight as the points he/she is eligible to receive, in other words, the student obtains all the marks he/she could for said assessment.

Otherwise, if the student’s mark is not higher than the pass mark but greater than the pass mark minus the safety net parameter then the programme manager will return half of the assessment weight in other words the student will only get half of the points they were supposed to get.

Finally, if the student got a mark lower than the pass mark minus the safety net parameter then he/she will receive no points. Calculate Bonus:

Referring to Figure 5, there is illustrated coding that shows how a point allocation module functions to determine bonus points earned after communication with the performance tracking module.

The programme manager takes in a program object that will define the metrics of a particular program. And a particular assessment object that will define the metrics of a particular assessment. Then it will define 8 variables:

• Total Marks - this defines the total marks that can be obtained for an assessment.

• Obtained - this defines the marks the student got for an assessment.

• PassMark - this defines the minimum mark the student needs to obtain in order to pass the assessment.

• PercentageObtained - this defines the Percentage the student obtained for the assessment.

• Subjectweight - this is a number defining how much the Subject at hand weighs in relation to the other subjects in the program, this number is static and stored by the program object and is retrieved by the ‘FindAssessmentWeight’ function.

• SubjectTotalAssess - this is a number defined in the program object and it describes how many assessments will contribute toward the student's earnings.

• Assessmentweight- this is a number that is calculated by the following formula (SubjectWeight/SubjectTotalAssess)*(1 -program. getbreakdown()), which in essence calculates how much a particular asset is worth, or how many points in total it is worth.

The system (10) then utilises an if statement that checks if the student has a mark that is greater than the pass mark minus the safety net parameter which is provided by the project object. If they do, they have their bonus marks calculated by the following formula: Double bonus = (percentageObtained-PassMark)*(p.getMultiplier() *AssessmentWeight);

The multiplier parameter is provided by the program object as well.

Then a final check to ensure that the bonus value is greater than or equal to zero, if it is less than zero return 0 otherwise return the bonus marks.

Then is the last part of the check simply says that if the student has not obtained a mark greater than the pass mark - the safety net parameter then simply return 0 for the bonus marks.

Calculate Total Earned

Figure 6 illustrates coding that shows how a point allocation module of the programme manager functions to determine total points available after use of the performance tracking module.

This function will take in a program ID, an amount deposited and a MarkMatrix which is essentially a report of the student’s different subject and the assessments in each subject.

This function has only 1 variable defined which is the totalEarned variable that will be used to return the total available number of points or so-called “Thuto coin amount”.

The programme manager first uses the programlD to get the program the system (10) wants to apply when calculating the student's points.

Once the programme manager have the program object loaded in memory The programme manager then loops through the matrix column by column and for every assessment in the column vectors of the matrix the programme manager performs the following operations:

1. It calculates the total points earned by the student using the function described above and multiply the value returned (which is a percentage) by the amount deposited to obtain a thuto coin value, related to how much money the student has access to in their account

2. It calculates the bonus points in a similar manner only using the calculate bonus function as described above. It then also multiply it by the amount deposited to obtain a real thuto coin value.

3. Lastly it simply adds up the Earned Coins and the Bonus Coins and append that value to totalEarned Variable until the loop is complete and then return the final result.

Intervention Work Feature

The programme manager may further employ an intervention work feature comprising an algorithm (so called Thuto algorithm) to assist, especially in cases where academic performance of a particular student remains unchanged over a considerable period of time.

The Thuto algorithm is designed in such a way that a specific assessment is assigned a specific amount of tokens as configured by the programme manager such that should a student get 50% for their initial assessment which means they will earn 50% or so of the tokens that have been made available to them. The remaining tokens are then attached to intervention work, which is a feature within the programme manager that makes it possible for the student to access curated academic content designed to help them close their learning gaps using their performance data captured by the system from previous assessments. The academic content is delivered to the students in the preferred method of content consumption or knowledge absorption, such as audio, video, text, or extended reality. The student’s engagement and performance with this intervention work made available to them earns the students the remainder of their points, such that at the end of the academic term, all students have earned most if not all of their tokens/points. This intervention work feature is meant to help us achieve maximum platform benefit for both the student and business. For the students, the inventors had to find a way to make it possible for them to earn the rest of their points irrespective of their performance in order to maximise earning, and for the business, more earning for the student means more circulation of the money within the platform.

This addition to the programme manager is believed to assist the student in building drive, dedication, and a feeling of accomplishment even though academically he/she may not be able to perform at the highest level, as proven over a considerable time period via results obtained from external academic sources where the student studies, works, trains, or educates him or herself.

Turning to levels, and a hierarchy of capabilities of a student, the programme manager is also containing software instructions to improve the performance tracking arrangement such that, at any given moment in time, it assesses the students' individual performance to identify consistent improvements and sustained progress when compared to an earlier date in time, and to link the student’s performance to a tiered system wherein higher tier levels are associated with increased spending power and access to benefits obtainable via the action and display interface (16).

Extending market access to multiple brands requires reciprocation in the form of valuable benefits for students. To ensure that the funds provided by benefactors translate into increased purchasing power for students, the system administrator aims to collaborate with brands aiming to join the Thuto Marketplace, the system administrator’s engagement with these brands will focus on providing students with access to special offers, savings, discounts, competitions, and more. These opportunities will directly enhance students' spending power by at least 50%. The tier system at the core of this strategy assesses students' individual performance to identify consistent improvements. Upon achieving sustained progress, students will ascend to higher levels within the tier system, starting from the "bronze" level. The higher their tier, such as the "diamond" level, the greater their spending power and access to benefits, including maximum discounts and opportunities to win valuable prizes.

Suggested structure and technical design of the tier system

The diagram shown in Figure 3 shows the hierarchy of the tier system.

The tier system uses the students overall performance as per their program. The system uses the settings of the program that the student has been signed up to in order to measure and calculate their performance increase.

The tier system, as shown in Figure 3, will work as follows:

Default allocation:

1. Students with a default total average percentage of between 40-59% will fall under the Bronze level (301).

2. Students with a default total average percentage of between 60-79% will fall under the Silver level (303).

3. Students with a default total average percentage of between 80-89% will fall under the Gold level (305).

4. Students with a default total average percentage of above 90% will fall under the Platinum level (307).

Allocation based on performance increase:

1. Students in Bronze level who increase their performance by 5-7.9% will move to Silver level, 8-14.9% will move to Gold level, and over 15% will move to Platinum level. 2. Students in Silver level who increase their performance by 5-7.9% will move to Gold level, and 8-14.9% will move to Platinum level.

3. Students in Gold level who increase their performance by 5-7.9% will move to Platinum level. The tier system will track the students performance over a month’s period, and the student will be moved to their new tier at the beginning of the new month (20 days), where they will be able to gain access to all the benefits within that tier for the rest of the month. Their new performance percentage will become the default percentage and they will be allocated to their relevant tier. For example, a student with an average percentage of 50% does well for month 2 academic term. His overall performance increases from 50 to 80% (a 30% jump). This means that the student will move from Bronze level (40-50%) to Platinum level (using the performance increase percentage (should be over 15%)). This student will then experience Platinum level benefits for the month 3, and because of his new 80% percentage, he will then be placed under the Gold level as his new standard.

Automated Program Design

The applicants recognize the immense potential of the system (10) in driving students toward subjects that will significantly impact their future well-being. To maximise its impact, the applicants created an automated version of the system (10). This automated system (10) will leverage students' historical performance data. For instance, as students transition to Grade 10, a critical point where subject choices shape their future careers, the system will analyse their performance from Grades 8 and 9 to identify their strengths in specific subjects or topics. It will then match this data with "future-proof ¹ careers. The system will use this information to design a tailored program that guides students to achieve the scores reguired for entry into a university program aligned with their desired career. Importantly, this program will be intimately connected to the point system, differentiating it from other platforms.

The automated version of the program manager of system (10) will work as follows in one example of the invention. Herein follows the performance insights/metrics of a student between Grade 8-9.

The students' top 3 strongest subjects and topics are grouped and used to suggest a career path or course that is relevant for the student.

Top 3 strongest subject and topics

The group subjects and topics are then used and a correlation score is calculated to reflect the degree to which the subjects/topics are related to each other.

1. Mathematics (Fin Maths) x EMS (Accounting) = 0.85

2. Mathematics (Fin Maths) x SS (SA History) = 0.00 3. EMS (Accounting) x SS (SA History) = 0.00

From the correlation score, Mathematics and EMS have the highest correlation score, which means they will be used to suggest careers that are related to the use of Financial Mathematics and Accounting. Careers related to Financial Mathematics and Accounting, include, Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Advisory.

The shortlisted careers are then passed through a service that generates or retrieves the “Future Proof” score related to that career.

1. Accounting = 0.65

2. Auditing = 0.80

3. Financial Advisory = 0.57

Based on the above “Future Proof’ score. Auditing will be highly recommended as a career option for this student. The system (10) will then use the various higher education institutes APS (excluding LO) to design a bespoke program for the student where the universal benchmark and dynamic subject benchmarks will be set. The entire program designed for the student will be linked to the point system to ensure that students are incentivised to reach their goals.

Turning to Figures 7 to 9 of the drawings, the user interface (401) for login purposes on the Thuto system (10) is shown in Figure 7, while Figure 8 shows the display of student points received (403) based on a benefactor’s sponsorship on a device used with the system of Figure 1. Once at least one assessment has been completed by the student and the programme manager could calculate the available points, same is viewable (405) for use (as described herein before) by the student via the user interface (401).

The network infrastructure may include elements such as computing devices, servers, routers, hubs, firewalls, clients, personal computers, communication devices, routing devices and other active and passive devices, modules and/or components as known in the art. The computing and/or non-computing device(s) associated with the network infrastructure may include, apart from other components, a storage medium such as flash memory, buffer, stack, RAM, ROM, and the like. The processes, methods, program codes, instructions described herein and elsewhere may be executed by one or more of the network infrastructural elements. The methods and systems described herein may be adapted for use with any kind of private, community, or hybrid cloud computing network or cloud computing environment, including those which involve features of software as a service ("SaaS"), platform as a service ("PaaS"), and/or infrastructure as a service ("laaS").

The methods, program codes, and instructions described herein and elsewhere may be implemented on a cellular network having multiple cells. The cellular network may either be frequency division multiple access ("FDMA") network or code division multiple access ("CDMA") network. The cellular network may include mobile devices, cell sites, base stations, repeaters, antennas, towers, and the like. The cell network may be a GSM, GPRS, 3G, EVDO, mesh, or other networks types.

The methods, program codes, and instructions described herein and elsewhere may be implemented on or through mobile devices. The mobile devices may include navigation devices, cell phones, mobile phones, mobile personal digital assistants, laptops, palmtops, netbooks, pagers, electronic books readers, music players and the like. These devices may include, apart from other components, a storage medium such as a flash memory, buffer, RAM, ROM and one or more computing devices. The computing devices associated with mobile devices may be enabled to execute program codes, methods, and instructions stored thereon. Alternatively, the mobile devices may be configured to execute instructions in collaboration with other devices. The mobile devices may communicate with base stations interfaced with servers and configured to execute program codes. The mobile devices may communicate on a peer-to-peer network, mesh network, or other communications network. The program code may be stored on the storage medium associated with the server and executed by a computing device embedded within the server. The base station may include a computing device and a storage medium. The storage device may store program codes and instructions executed by the computing devices associated with the base station. The computer software, program codes, and/or instructions may be stored and/or accessed on machine readable transitory and/or non-transitory media that may include: computer components, devices, and recording media that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time; semiconductor storage known as random access memory ("RAM"); mass storage typically for more permanent storage, such as optical discs, forms of magnetic storage like hard disks, tapes, drums, cards and other types; processor registers, cache memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory; optical storage such as CD, DVD; removable media such as flash memory (e.g. USB sticks or keys), floppy disks, magnetic tape, paper tape, punch cards, standalone RAM disks, zip drives, removable mass storage, off-line, and the like; other computer memory such as dynamic memory, static memory, read/write storage, mutable storage, read only, random access, sequential access, location addressable, file addressable, content addressable, network attached storage, storage area network, bar codes, magnetic ink, and the like.

The methods and systems described herein may transform physical and/or intangible items from one state to another. The methods and systems described herein may also transform data representing physical and/or intangible items from one state to another.

The elements described and depicted herein imply logical boundaries between the elements. However, according to software or hardware engineering practices, the depicted elements and the functions thereof may be implemented on machines through computer executable transitory and/or non-transitory media having a processor capable of executing program instructions stored thereon as a monolithic software structure, as standalone software modules, or as modules that employ external routines, code, services, and so forth, or any combination of these, and all such implementations may be within the scope of the present disclosure. Examples of such machines may include, but may not be limited to, personal digital assistants, laptops, personal computers, mobile phones, other handheld computing devices, medical equipment, wired or wireless communication devices, transducers, chips, calculators, satellites, tablet PCs, electronic devices, devices having artificial intelligence, computing devices, networking equipment, servers, routers, and the like. Furthermore, the elements depicted in the drawings may be implemented on a machine capable of executing program instructions. Thus, it will be appreciated that the various steps identified and described above may be varied and that the order of steps may be adapted to particular applications of the techniques disclosed herein. All such variations and modifications are intended to fall within the scope of this disclosure. As such, the depiction and/or description of an order for various steps should not be understood to require a particular order of execution for those steps, unless required by a particular application, or explicitly stated or otherwise clear from the context.

The methods and/or processes described above, and steps associated therewith, may be realized in hardware, software or any combination of hardware and software suitable for a particular application. The hardware may include a general- purpose computer and/or dedicated computing device or specific computing device or particular aspect or component of a specific computing device. The processes may be realized in one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, embedded microcontrollers, programmable digital signal processors or other programmable devices, along with internal and/or external memory. The processes may also, or instead, be embodied in an application specific integrated circuit, a programmable gate array, programmable array logic, or any other device or combination of devices that may be configured to process electronic signals. It will further be appreciated that one or more of the processes may be realized as a computer executable code capable of being executed on a machine-readable medium.

The computer executable code may be created using a structured programming language such as C, an object oriented programming language such as C++, or any other high-level or low-level programming language (including assembly languages, hardware description languages, and database programming languages and technologies) that may be stored, compiled or interpreted to run on one of the above devices, as well as heterogeneous combinations of processors, processor architectures, or combinations of different hardware and software, or any other machine capable of executing program instructions.

Thus, in one aspect, methods described above and combinations thereof may be embodied in computer executable code that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps thereof. In another aspect, the methods may be embodied in systems that perform the steps thereof, and may be distributed across devices in a number of ways, or all of the functionality may be integrated into a dedicated, standalone device or other hardware. In another aspect, the means for performing the steps associated with the processes described above may include any of the hardware and/or software described above. All such permutations and combinations are intended to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

While the disclosure has been disclosed in connection with the preferred embodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications and improvements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present disclosure is not to be limited by the foregoing examples but is to be understood in the broadest sense allowable by law.

The use of the terms "a," "an." and "the" and similar referents in the context of describing the disclosure (especially in the context of the following claims) is to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms "comprising," "having," "including," and "consisting" are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning "including, but not limited to,") unless otherwise noted. Recitations of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein may be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., "such as") provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the disclosure and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the disclosure unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the disclosure.

It is envisaged that the method (100) and system (10) of this invention will teach self-discipline, dedication to learning, and enhance cognitive skills related to finances to learners of all ages, in an enjoyable manner.

Although the invention is described in this specification by way of one embodiment, e.g. software implemented system (10), the applicant believes that other ways such as electronic variations of this apparatus and methodology, whether it is in data or software application form, also fall within the scope of this invention.

The subject matter for which patent protection is sought is defined in the set of claims that follows herein.