Edutainment
Edutainment (sometimes Germanized, fun learning ') is a portmanteau word that a contraction of the words education ( education ) and entertainment ( Entertainment ) composed. There is a broader and a narrower meaning of the term. The broad meaning of edutainment encompasses all forms and offers in the cultural and leisure sector that combine entertainment and education. This also includes modern leisure centers with themed worlds, interactive museums, complex adventure centers, as well as multimedia exhibitions and events. The narrower meaning of edutainment refers to concepts of electronic knowledge transfer , in which the content is conveyed in a playful and at the same time entertaining way. This includes corresponding television programs, computer / video games or other multimedia software systems.
The combination of education and entertainment should increase the motivation to learn and make learning more efficient and successful. Edutainment can also be used to direct the focus on certain societal , social or health issues.
term
concept
Traditional forms of learning, mostly frontal lessons with or without text-based materials, have always been viewed by children and young people as work and effort. In contrast, there is a media world in which entertainment and fun are in the foreground, but learning does not play a major role. Edutainment tries to successfully combine both aspects. Playful and entertaining methods are used to make learning faster, more efficient and more successful. Various studies show that interest, motivation and fun are fundamental requirements for successful learning. By conveying content through the integration of entertaining methods, the joy of learning should be increased. The relationship between learning on the one hand and play and entertainment on the other can be very different in edutainment. However, neither of the two aspects should be too prominent.
Demarcation
The distinction between edutainment, learning programs and games is very difficult and not clear due to the flowing transitions. Learning programs convey school or factual knowledge. The focus is on imparting knowledge and defined learning goals are pursued. In contrast, edutainment programs present more cross-topic knowledge. Games and fun are more important.
Different shapes
Depending on how strongly either playful or learning-oriented accents are set, edutainment programs can be further subdivided:
- Teach-Tale-Tainment : Teaching or narrative-oriented products with an entertaining character. Learning content is presented in a playful and narrative way (e.g. radio play cassettes, electronic picture books).
- Tooltainment : Programs that serve as "tools" and support learners in their own creative design
- Skilltainment : entertaining games to promote general knowledge and skills (for example strategy or tactical games)
- Simtainment : Simulation programs for the representation of complicated scientific processes, for the purpose of simplification and explanation of relevant content (for example simulation of a volcanic eruption on the computer)
- Infotainment : entertaining communication of educational content with a non-fiction character (for example on topics such as dinosaurs or knights)
properties
New media increasingly determine people's everyday lives. When used sensibly, the characteristics of the new media can expand or replace existing forms of communication. Edutainment software is usually designed as hypertext . In contrast to learning with text-related materials, the transfer of knowledge is therefore not linear . The learner can move freely within the program and define his or her own learning sequence. Edutainment programs also mostly contain multimedia applications . Different texts, graphics, animations, audio and video can be included and combined. Another characteristic is the high level of interactivity . With software, the learner can influence what is happening and design it creatively himself. He is thus actively and playfully integrated into the transfer of knowledge.
Advantages and disadvantages
advantages
Children and young people usually have little fun with normal learning software . Due to their characteristics, edutainment programs can offer a multitude of advantages:
The hypertext structure enables individual access and handling of the information offered. Learning thus becomes a self-organized, intellectual process. You can freely choose the pace and order of learning and develop a topic independently. This creates a lot of freedom to discover connections and at the same time encourages experimentation and reflection. By combining the exercise phases with playful elements, the motivation for independent learning is increased. Activity and creativity promote the learning process and media skills . The integration of multimedia aspects enables various channels of perception to be addressed, which facilitates the absorption of knowledge and memory. Errors are immediately checked through playful commentary and contextual feedback.
disadvantage
In addition to these advantages, possible negative effects of edutainment must also be considered.
Often the knowledge presented in edutainment programs has no context in relation to pedagogically based educational content. The knowledge content sold as education is mostly only partial knowledge. Disadvantages for the learning process can arise if the relationship between entertainment and education is not balanced. There is a risk that entertainment will determine the media and that information and educational aspects will be neglected. The moment of play must not become too dominant in the concepts if learning becomes a marginal aspect at the same time. The effort to learn is often played down in edutainment programs. In spite of fun and games, there has to be a discussion and cognitive processing of the knowledge presented. Often too little attention is paid to this aspect.
Edutainment on TV
The term edutainment first appeared in connection with pre-school programs for children on television in the USA in the 1960s . Even then, television was a mass medium for entertainment, even among children. The Sesame Street was to design one of the first attempts, children's programs, where the entertainment is connected to the learning aspect. Children should learn numbers, orders of magnitude or the alphabet with funny characters and entertaining stories. The series achieved great popularity among children in the USA and Germany. However, the hoped-for learning success did not materialize. The program with the mouse , developed in 1971, is considered a children's program that combines “laughing” with “factual stories”. Entertaining cartoons alternate with informative contributions that explain certain phenomena. In the children's program Löwenzahn , individual questions are embedded in an overall story. The moderator deals with the topic in an entertaining way and looks for answers. This creates a mixture of curiosity and wit. The program Teletubbies , a television series for toddlers, is a more recent program . Here, too, the topics to be conveyed are integrated directly into an entertaining story, mostly experienced by kindergarten children.
The animated series from Once Upon a Time by Albert Barillé are also known and popular . With the exception of the series Once upon a time there was space , which has a purely fictional plot, knowledge of history, geography, the human body, the environment, etc. is imparted.
The Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf originally wrote her novel Little Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey with the wild geese to introduce Swedish schoolchildren to cultural studies. In the later film adaptations, which were not made for this purpose but only for entertainment, the focus was more on Nils' adventures, so that the original teaching intention was no longer recognizable.
The Bayerische Rundfunk produced two course series for children: Playtime - English for Children (English, 30 episodes) and Viens jouer avec nous (French, 39 episodes).
In the adult sector too, the transfer of knowledge is increasingly being combined with entertainment. Quiz and knowledge programs achieve high ratings. Soap operas and feature films can also contain elements from the edutainment area and aim to convey specific content to the audience. For example, the film The White Rabbit deals with cyber grooming , the film The Gambler with Gambling Addiction, and the film I Belong to Him deals with forced prostitution with recruitment using the “loverboy method”. Other topics often dealt with in films are history, the résumé of famous people, tolerance, integration and dealing with certain illnesses or disabilities.
Social aspect
Entertainment offers on television can also specifically incorporate information and knowledge elements in the sense of education. Broadcast formats such as soap operas in particular, which are also seen by lower social classes and young people, are a suitable means of transport for conveying social messages or developments. For example, health policy issues such as HIV and cancer, but also social problems such as violence and unemployment, can be taken up in the action. In this way, special topics are brought to the attention of society in the media. Such formats are used in developing countries to support literacy measures or political or professional knowledge . In industrialized countries , young people can thus be reached with topics that cannot be dealt with in sufficient detail in school.
See also
literature
- Erlinger, Hans-Dieter: New media, edutainment, media competence . Kopäd-Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-929061-24-4 .
- Neuss, Norbert / Koch, Claus: Teletubbies & Co. Does television harm our children? Beltz, Weinheim 2001, ISBN 3-407-22826-0 .
- Papert, Seymour: Revolution in Learning. Children, computers, school in a digital world . Heise, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-88229-041-2 .
- Reinhardt, Ulrich: Edutainment - Education is fun . Lit Verlag, Münster 2005, 258 pages, ISBN 978-3-8258-9082-7 .
Web links
- The KDE Edutainment Project. Information on edutainment
- The computer as a teacher. Horst Pohlmann, Jürgen Sleegers (2005), in the Federal Agency for Civic Education . Website (as of April 29, 2010)
- The game season has started. Sebastian Deterding, in the Federal Agency for Political Education. Website (as of June 25, 2007)