'Edutainment' In The Classroom: How Technology Is Changing Education
'Edutainment' in the classroom: How technology is changing education
In simple words, edutainment is education + entertainment. Although with this simple equation 'What is edutainment?' There is no complete answer to that question. Simply put, edutainment is a form of entertainment in which learning is achieved through enjoyment.
Walt Disney first used the word 'edutainment' to describe his series of "True-Life Adventures".
Technological advancements, availability of materials, and entirely new forms of programming have made edutainment much easier to use. Thus, the growing interest in improving teaching and learning through the use of educational technology is also increasing day by day. Now let's know about several examples of edutainment.
Boulevard (Blvrd.Com)
At the same time, art classes and virtual visits to some of the world's best art museums can be experienced through this platform called Boulevard. The platform states its mission as: "Creating rich arts education content to provide immersive and user-controlled experiences through any virtual, augmented and mixed reality environment."
The list of "Best Teaching and Learning Apps" published by the US-based organization Tech Advocate Group mentions about Boulevard that this platform allows students to learn about art by traveling to 6 art museums and getting acquainted with famous works of art.
ABC Mouse (Abcmouse.Com)
ABC Mouse is an international award winning online learning website for 2 to 6 year olds. ABCmouse.com offers a new way for teachers to teach the basics with 850 chapters and 9000 exercises organized into 10 different levels.
Even some of the teachers using the ABC mouse scored the highest in various tests. The site's awards list includes Learning Magazine's Teacher's Choice Award.
Prodigy (Prodigygame.Com)
More than 20 million students, teachers, and parents use the site's free, curriculum-focused math games and exercises for students in a variety of grades. The site contains over 1,200 lessons on important math skills.
It also monitors student learning with real-time reports. As a result, teachers can understand what skills students are achieving and where they may need more support.
Crash Course (Youtube.Com/User/Crashcourse)
Crash Course is one of the most viewed educational channels on YouTube with over 8.5 million subscribers and nearly 1 billion views.
Crash Courses offer concise and engaging lessons on many topics. These include physics, philosophy, economics, government, politics, astronomy, physiology, world history, biology, literature, ecology, chemistry, psychology, history, mythology, computer science and more.
Lego (Education.Lego.Com)
Famous building block toy maker Lego dates back to 1949, but today it's helping children learn how to build mobile robots with packages like 'Mindstorm' for teachers. As a result, Lego is now being used in the classroom as well. 'LEGO Mindstorm' is designed to empower kids with coding, robotics and real-life problem solving.
Whether it's a new technological innovation related to art or something traditional like Lego, the edutainment market is expanding rapidly with the proliferation of new creative products with children and teenagers in mind.
Let's look at some of the benefits and criticisms of edutainment from an educational perspective.
Benefits And Problems Of Using Edutainment In The Classroom
One of the problems in the use of edutainment tools and materials in educational programs is that students get too used to the various flashy entertainment materials. As a result, they risk becoming completely dependent on these edutainment models to learn anything.
Other issues related to edutainment are:
• The use of devices may actually push some students away from learning.
• Not all students have equal access to technology inside and outside the classroom.
• Over-reliance on technology can damage relationships between students by reducing the amount of human interaction between them.
• Even the idea that studying is not very 'fun' is damaging.
But criticism of this new technology in education is outweighed by its success stories in the classroom and the list of wonderful benefits. Increased use of digital facilities for educational purposes will help students master and become proficient with all the tools needed to survive in the technology-driven world, both personally and professionally.
In addition to helping students acquire the “media literacy” skills necessary for success in the digital age, edutainment can also facilitate students' learning in a number of ways, such as: