We are witnessing core changes in education and dealing with new generations that want to gain knowledge in completely different forms. Traditional teaching methods are no longer effective with today's generation of students that want to be free from grades and strict requirements. The main educational dilemma is to make children and adults care about the learning process, to make exploration of new things more purposeful, joyful and diverse. Edtech could answer this question.
Edutainment definition
Educational entertainment (also known as edutainment) is a form of entertainment that aims to educate people. People have been interested in incorporating education into entertainment since the 16th century in schools. The concept of edutainment was further developed by Walt Disney in 1954. Today, we see it prospering with the development of edtech for educational purposes.
Edutainment has been utilized in numerous ways by academics, businesses, and government institutions to disseminate knowledge in classrooms and multimedia, influencing viewers beliefs and actions.
Television productions, film, museum exhibits, and computer software, gaming are examples of modern forms of edutainment, which use entertainment to attract and maintain an audience while incorporating educational content.
The main characteristics of edutainment are an example of blending education and entertainment.
How do we know that particular entertainment is educational?
Edutainment vs gamification
Gamification isn't just a buzzword but an exciting way to bring gaming elements into a non-gaming sphere. It is one of the tools under the edutainment umbrella that allows students to have a better learning experience.
Play is a fundamental aspect of children's development. Playing helps children to engage and interact with the world around them. The same approach could be applied to learners of all ages.
Incorporating gamification means taking game principles and inserting them into a learning programme. Games help motivate students thanks to the reward system that teachers can set up beforehand. Additionally, gathering points and badges, being on leaderboards, and collecting trophies encourage a fun, competitive spirit among students, and give them a boosted interest in learning whilst driving learning outcomes.
Gamification in the corporate world
In May 2010, Google decided to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the game Pac-Man and embedded a browser version of the game into the logo on the search engine home page. 4.8 million hours of employee time worldwide were spent on this game, which led to a worldwide loss of productivity of 120 million dollars.
Playfulness as a personal trait is connected with intelligence. It is associated with better student performance in exams. Those who considered themselves playful had more interest in learning the required material and even took the extra mile to explore the subject more deeply. Research shows that people who apply games in their occupation are more capable, proactive and successful.
While gamification could be helpful to boost motivation and productivity in the workplace, we should apply it smartly. By gamification, we understand game methodologies beyond the play context. Points, badges, and levels are basic tools of gamification. But they work poorly in the short term. We dont encourage badges for work for the sake of doing a task.
And most importantly, we need to make sure that the work makes sense for employees. The business must create value and make a profit. Thats why companies need a much more elaborate game, with a profound analysis of the legend and the motivation of employee-gamers for a specific task. Employees should be well-rewarded, have confidence in the future, and have opportunities for development and satisfaction in their work. Then gamification will not hurt but will bring a little bit more joy.
Benefits of edutainment
Being entertained and educated at the same time is exciting. When a student is entertained and learns something new at the same time, they tend to remember those things a lot better. Edutainment is available both for traditional in-person lessons and for remote learning. It gives more freedom - learning in a comfortable environment for learners self-expression, creativity and cooperation. Edutainment includes personalized learning goals and using all the possible edtech tools - apps, websites, and learning management systems.
Edutainment is a life saver for teachers too because using smart technologies for planning, detecting students' habits and assessing the result of learning is way easier. Also, the same material could be acquired in different ways: with videos, multimedia, games, field trips, online museum visits, VR technologies, etc.
Technologies for edutainment
Lets discover different technologies that help to transform education.
Immersive tech solutions like VR, AR, and ML increase student engagement and reduce corporate training expenses. With these tools, tutors can provide learners with valuable virtual experiences that they would not be able to get in a traditional classroom. The price of these technologies has dropped. These tools are getting accessible, and most educational institutions will be able to invest in high-tech learning experiences.
Online interactive learning activities are ideal for K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and corporative training.
Coding and Technology education apps and services for all ages They use boot camp-style solutions to teach coding and robotics to both adults and children and facilitate upskilling for more advanced learners.
The apps teach critical computer literacy skills, grasping logic and the importance of iteration.
STEAM software
is rapidly evolving as a current advance over traditional STEM-based teaching. Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Math STEAM-based learning applications are the best software for building engaging experiences for learners of all ages.
K-12 and Pre-K.
Early childhood education (Pre-K) has experienced a boom in interest in edtech. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, the usual classroom had to adapt to remote settings. Early childhood learners and instructors must rely on numerous applications to stay up with the curriculum.
Pre-schools and nurseries have a tremendous opportunity to embrace modern technology as it becomes an effective tool for promoting essential social-emotional and self-expression abilities.
Educators respond to the most demanding features of the pre-K and K-12 areas by replacing traditional teaching with engaging edutainment delivered via AI or VR. Apps can provide tools for pupils of all ages to acquire language and life skills.
Online courses.
As a result of the pandemic, many students and corporate learners were lured into education through corporate studies, university courses, and MOOCs. Responding to the rising demand for high-quality educational material and features, online courses have evolved, forging new partnerships with educational institutions.
E-learning makes education more accessible in terms of time, money, and location. This accessibility has reduced the demand for traditional educational institutions because students can gain the same real-time classroom interaction and knowledge or even better online.
Language learning.
This is possible with apps and web platforms that provide a variety of engaging exercises for enhancing vocabulary in a particular language. Some apps can improve your accent, reading, and listening comprehension. Aside from that, e-learning apps for language learners have the potential to lead the edtech industry.
This industry has had tremendous expansion, numerous innovations and ongoing investor interest. As a result, improved video and audio technology, speech recognition, and AI-powered capabilities began to revolutionize this category market. English learning applications, courses, online tutorials, and other services are becoming mainstream in the edtech industry.
LMS.
A learning management system (LMS) combines administrative capabilities for tracking and reporting student-related data. LMS also provides communication between students, teachers, and administration. They also offer a space for delivering and maintaining interesting instructional resources and everything required to establish an academic course.
LMS platforms foster open and flexible learning environments by transferring teachings outside the conventional classroom.
Why do we need edutainment?
Edutainment
- learner-centered learning
- presents educational messages through popular entertainment mediums
- raises awareness of global issues
- increases theoretical and practical knowledge
- motivates people with leaderboards, points and other gamification tools
- changes attitude to the learning process
- often leads to positive changes in society
How can we make education more engaging and entertaining?
Treat education as a service to be offered rather than a mandate to be imposed
Treat students like customers: Give them what they ask for, not what you believe they need. Discontinue educational offerings that garner little interest
Entice students to learn new topics in the same way advertisers entice us to buy products we never knew we needed.
Education is the passport to the future
Edutainment can support students of all ages with learning new languages, science, coding, exploring life, satisfying curiosity and just keeping their minds in shape. Edutainment approaches are a useful supplement to face-to-face in-school and possibly replace traditional learning to live online classes and learning management systems.
They can all help in their different ways by improving students engagement, motivation and by providing teachers with useful data and assessment features. Learning should be pleasant because its the best thing we can provide students with. Positive emotions during studies are one of the crucial aspects of remembering the material and understanding it.
As an edtech software development company with nearly 10 years of experience, PioGroup understands why businesses struggle with online/ offline learning. Moreover, we know how to help train staff members, optimize employees and client management, provide smooth business scalability and automate routine.
Let's talk about your educational ideas and challenges. And we will help you to come up with a suitable edtech solution to skyrocket your business.
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Anastasiia Dyshkant
Content Marketing Manager
