From Education to Edutainment: The Evolution of Sharing Knowledge

Written by jamesh | Published 2021/08/11
Tech Story Tags: online-education | education-technology | edtech | edutainment | technology-trends | education-reform | what-is-edtech

TLDR Edutainment is not a new term, but this term has gained more prominence since the computer and the Internet have become increasingly popular. It can be anything from simple story illustrations, cartoon shows, online movies, street plays, online games such as educational quizzes, or puppet shows. The importance of education lies in its contribution to the development of human moral, mental and aesthetic senses. Education is about sharing knowledge. It's about harnessing creativity and harnessing ideas to help kids run.via the TL;DR App

Education is about sharing knowledge. The importance of education lies in its contribution to the development of human moral, mental and aesthetic senses. Today, education has become more career-oriented and has lost the values that education once held. Now it's more competitive and focuses only on the technical development of the human being. The stress of routine classroom teaching added to the pressure and the development of other negative tendencies.

Educative development

The stress of a fast-paced, routine lifestyle leaves less time to explore the true purpose of education. Students are always forced to speed up and finish the race without fully understanding why they are doing it. Teachers are also helpless, always running out of options or facing the challenges of finding more effective teaching methods. It's where edutainment plays an important role. Edutainment is not a new term, but this term has gained more prominence since the computer and the Internet have become increasingly popular.

Most people think of edutainment as those educational records and games that entertain students. No, it can be anything from simple story illustrations, cartoon shows, online movies, street plays, online games such as fun & educational quizzes, or puppet shows. Previously, teachers used to organize picnics, field trips, plays, puppet shows, and other cultural programs to update students and explain their lessons in this way. But edutainment has become more interesting and attractive with the advent of technology.

Edutainment is an eclectic mix of education and statement with the help of modern interactive technology. Edutainment stimulates the child's thinking process. Any edutainment purpose is designed or coordinated for the sole purpose of directing a child's thought process in the right direction. Students always love to explore their surroundings on their own. Therefore, this edutainment endeavor encourages the child to explore the hidden meaning of purpose and explore the best alternatives to the current situation.

Parents' hand in education

Providing students at home with the correct instructions in terms of behavior and learning is a concern of parents. In these delicate times, they can be shaped by thoughts that leave deep imprints on their minds. Students who are in playschools or entering their full term of schooling do and enjoy a variety of activities. Even for pre-adolescent students, activities are a way to learn new things, especially those things that can leave a mark on their behavior patterns in their developmental stages.

But put in a well-understood way, the job of coaching youngsters in the correct way and direction is easier spoke than we do practically. Students' ways of learning and education are always being innovated. Playful schools appear in large numbers, as students under 4-5 years old adapt to the conditions of going to school and learn the basics through pictorial and graphic representations. Outside of playschools, when students are in their preteens, there is still a need to learn. This learning will no longer revolve around alphabets and rhymes.

Entertaining education as a new way of learning

In the post-games, students are required to learn the significance of healthy statements and etiquette skills. At this stage, you can identify your interests and hobbies. Since each child has a different mindset, personalized attention and giving room to grow is key. Edutainment is a new way of learning in the 21st century, where learning is provided through entertainment. Taking playful monkeys out of students is not only charming, but it also gives them space where their minds are most receptive.

Bringing students together

In an environment where students connect with others in their age group and work together to achieve a common goal, It's the core of edutainment. By creating such an environment, students can be made to learn many things, although not necessarily related to studies. In a way, it's about perfecting extracurricular activities and getting him to learn different things from a young age. As a result of this effort, cooking classes for students are started in various institutions, where the emphasis is on recreational education. People want their students to learn the basics of cooking, and interested students can enroll in cooking classes for students, where they meet to prepare a simple dish such as cake, with the guidance of an expert. Modern dance lessons are even organized in these types of courses. Gathering several students under the same roof or on a particular occasion can be a sporting affair. By communicating with others, etiquette skills can be cleaned up, and this is done by hosting birthday parties indoors or outdoors. Students are sometimes encouraged to cover the area at the balloon party site by blowing up the balloons and placing them in different arrangements.

How to achieve edutainment

There are different ways that edutainment can be done. It's about harnessing creativity and ideas to help kids run will flow freely.

  1. Use of software

Educational programs that focus entirely on specific skills have a place. For example, students below grade level need basic skills to master more complex abilities. This in no way replaces the teacher. The role of the teacher is to be creative and engaging and to prepare interactive lesson plans that motivate students. Educational programs can relieve the teacher of making individual packages for students and focusing their energy on the skills for which they are hired. Educational programs and edutainment have their venues. We don't want to get rid of the learning skill of the text and then pass the test. However, this should be combined with engaging and interactive materials because everyone has different learning styles.

2. Use of edutainment toys

Games that are formed from high-tech electronic devices embedded with semiconductor chips are generally known as edutainment games. The quality and substance of your game may be limited by the number of buttons a child can press. Some promise to challenge the child by allowing him to interact with the educational content to learn it. They can watch educational videos using this system or press buttons on the tray to influence what happens on television.

3. Open versus closed games

Open games encourage free to play with an unlimited number of scores. For example, the construction kit can be used to build a variety of different structures. On the other hand, the closed game such as fun and educational quizzes has a limited number of results and can give hints to the players, which can increase their success rate.

Not all closed games are bad. After all, stacker is a classic closed educational game - it can only be assembled correctly one way. However, to solve the stacker, the child must develop and use logic and fine motor skills.

On the other hand, a closed edutainment game may require the child to press only a few buttons. In the end, this leads to a dead-end, and the child gets bored and puts the game aside. These types of edutainment games are not timeless. It's destined to be replaced sooner rather than later by the next great product in the field of edutainment that uses the latest technological innovations.

Negative effects of educational and recreational games

In general, parents may not want to encourage students, especially younger ones, to play educational and entertainment games that involve televisions and computer screens very often. Educational and recreational toys, computers, and televisions emit electromagnetic fields, "invisible fields of force whose potential health effects range from headaches to sleep disorders. They can also cause cancer. Students' developing brains run the faster risk of these external influences ".

The final caveat about edutainment games is that they can foster acceptance of disposable consumer culture in students. A timeless toy like this wooden block set will stand up to extensive use for generations and can be played simultaneously by students of all ages. On the other hand, educational and recreational games are generally played by only one child at a time and generally have a shorter playtime and lifespan. Students quickly master them and get bored with them, or their high-tech components break down, rendering the toy useless and then discarded, releasing toxic chemicals and metals into the environment.

What can parents do

As technology and the Internet increasingly permeate society and people's lives, it makes sense to introduce students to computers and other inventions that they will need to use as they grow up. The game is not necessarily bad or useless because it involves technology. However, smart parents should examine the stated purpose of an edutainment game, assess how and what they learned, and determine whether their students can get equal or greater value from a simpler classic game. Roberts warns of the dangers of a parent using high-tech games as babysitters, substituting machine interaction like a single-player computer game for what should be "the best real-life learning experience for young students when they design, create, explore and develop their initiatives through play."

The sad truth is that such edutainment is only available at the kindergarten level. While in the higher education sector, it's still the rat race that leads. Kindergarten students have been found to show greater comprehension skills than upper-class students because they learn through different playful methods. These fun and engaging educational methods always open students' minds and help them develop socially, physically, and mentally. Even students in the upper classes find it easier to gain a good understanding of teaching concepts when they are presented through interactive lessons.


Published by HackerNoon on 2021/08/11