‘Edutainment’ In The Classroom: The Way Technology Is Changing Education
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In simple words, education is education + entertainment. Although with this simple equation ‘What is edutainment?’ There is no complete answer to that question. Simply put, education is a form of entertainment that makes learning fun.
Walt Disney first used the word ‘edutainment’ to describe his “True-Life Adventures” series.
With the advancement of technology, the availability of materials and a whole new set of programming, edutainment is now much easier to use. As a result, there is a growing interest in improving the teaching and learning system through the use of education-related technologies. Let’s take a look at some examples of edutainment.
Boulevard (blvrd.com)
At the same time, you can experience virtual visits to art classes and some of the best art museums in the world through this platform called Boulevard. The platform stated its goal was to: “Create rich art education content, providing a user-controlled experience and immersion through any virtual, augmented and mixed reality.”
Boulevard is listed in the list of “Best Teaching and Learning Apps” published by the US-based organization Tech Advocate Group.
ABC Mouse (abcmouse.com)
ABC Mouse is an internationally acclaimed online education website for 2 to 6 year olds. ABCmouse.com has opened up a whole new way for teachers to teach the basics with 850 chapters and 9000 exercises arranged in 10 different levels.
Even some of the teachers who use ABC mouse scores the highest in various tests. The site’s award list includes Learning Magazine’s Teacher’s Choice Award.
Prodigy (prodigygame.com)
More than 20 million students, teachers and parents use this site’s free math games and exercises for different classes of students. The site has over 1200 important math skills lessons.
It also monitors students’ learning through real-time reporting. As a result, teachers can understand what skills students are acquiring and where they may need more help.
Crash course (youtube.com/user/crashcourse)
With over 8.5 million subscribers and nearly 1 billion views, Crash Course is one of the most viewed educational channels on YouTube.
Crash courses are short and interesting in many respects. These range from physics, philosophy, economics, government to politics, astronomy, physiology, world history, biology, literature, ecology, chemistry, psychology, history, mythology, computer science and much more.
Lego (education.lego.com)
Although Lego, a famous building block toy manufacturer, originated in 1949, it is now helping children learn how to build a mobile robot with a package like ‘Mindstorm’ for teachers. As a result, Lego is now being used in the classroom. ‘Lego Mindstorm’ is designed to make kids proficient in coding, robotics and real life problems.
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Whether it’s new technological innovations in art or something traditionally popular like Lego, the market for educators is expanding rapidly with the proliferation of all new creative products aimed at children and adolescents.
Let’s look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of education in terms of education.
Advantages and disadvantages of using education in the classroom
One of the major problems in the use of educational equipment and materials in educational activities is that the students become very accustomed to the various entertainment materials. As a result, there is a risk that they will become completely dependent on these education models for learning anything.
Other issues related to education are:
• The use of the device may even push some students away from the study.
• Technically, not all students have the same facilities inside and outside the classroom.
• Excessive technology dependence can damage their relationships by reducing the amount of human interaction between students.
• Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the average person.
However, the success stories in the classroom and the list of all the excellent facilities are heavier than the criticism of this new technology in the field of education. Increasing the use of digital facilities for educational purposes will help in mastering and becoming proficient in all the materials necessary for survival in personal and professional fields in the technology dependent world.
In addition to helping to acquire the skills related to “media literacy” needed for success in the digital age, edutainment can also facilitate students’ learning in a number of ways, such as:
• Because technology can reach anywhere, students can learn from anywhere, across specific classroom boundaries.
• Adding joy to learning makes it easier for children to learn any subject in the true sense of the word.
• Carefully selected online portals allow students to access information freely.
• One of the best ways to acquire technical skills, including STEM, is through education.
• Through this students will be able to easily acquire modern technical skills like coding.
• Hand-to-hand learning gives students joy and inspires their imagination.
