Translating simply from English edutainment is a combination of education and entertainment. This is a situation in which a person simultaneously entertains and learns (learning entertains). In the Polish language, we still have not lived to see our own unified concept. Sometimes you can see such substitutes as smart entertainment, eduroentertainment, entertainment education.
The main goal of edutainment is to increase student activity during lessons, which in turn is expected to make the material presented much better absorbed. This way also arouses motivation to explore the topic further. In addition, it builds a deeper bond with the educator or with other students. In some cases, in addition to simply gaining knowledge in a particular field, the participant acquires new competencies (e.g., operation of specialized equipment) or skills (e.g., social). Above all, however, it is about positive learning experiences, building positive relationships with it, and unconscious (in a sense) and friendly acquisition of knowledge. It is sometimes pointed out that edutainment is quite strongly linked to the use of technology in the learning process.
Types of edutainment
First, edutainment can be divided by the involvement of participants in the game.
- Interactive and participatory play, where children can actively join in a particular game, such as: educational games.
- Non-interactive play, where children sit and watch something or visit a place, but do not actively participate in the material, e.g.: movies, a trip to a museum or zoo.
Second, you can look at what it teaches us.
- Fun, where in addition to knowledge, we learn life skills to help us in the future.
- Fun focused mainly on a particular piece of knowledge.
Third, you can pay attention to how the activity contains educational elements.
- Educational or developmental elements prevail over fun, e.g.: educational film, scientific conference.
- Roughly half and half, for example: specially prepared educational games, learning 3D printing.
- Educational elements are hidden in entertainment, e.g.: teleseminars, quizzes, popular movies and series from which we extract valuable elements.
One can also divide edutainment in terms of the target audience of the people taking part: their age, motivation, interests and other characteristics, and by the way in which a particular piece of knowledge is presented, such as a movie, game or teleseminar.
Examples of materials used in edutainment
- movie, TV series, YT videos, TikTok, TV shows
- books or comics that are interesting to the viewer
- teleseminars, quizzes
- excursions e.g.: to the zoo, museum
- educational games (traditional, board or computer games)
- educational toys
- thematic festivals or conferences, lectures
- educational projects
- experiences and experimentation
- Educational laboratories, including in the context of, for example: learning programming, mechatronics or 3D printing
- simulations
- theatrical scenes
- role-playing
- safe use of the internet
- infographics
- memes
- multimedia presentations
- gamification
Edutainment in practice – examples
- Children’s TV show Sesame Street
- Watching a historical educational film
- Trip to the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw
- Learning how to use a 3D printer
- Organization of an inter-class teleseminar on ecology
- Knowla along with Education Universe 🙂
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