Edutainment - How It Touches Our Lives?

The world is swooning by the concept of edutainment, and so are we. Edutainment has become the new buzzword these days, capturing the attention of everyone, from a 24-months old child to a 60-year-old business tycoon. And how?

It is because this unintentional and informal way of gaining knowledge is way more interesting that the conventional ways. And here learning is not just limited to gaining enough knowledge to pass the examinations, it is much larger than that. Countries these days are using means of edutainment to spread awareness about various fatal diseases and social issues like cancer and women abuse respectively. Movie makers and software developers now-a-days come up with entertaining products that help attract and maintain the audience, while blending in some deliberate message or sort of knowledge.

The consumer is more aware now- more aware of where he is going, what is he consuming, and what can be the possible outcomes of what he does. This is because he is open to learning now-- condition being it isn’t boring anyways! Products are being marketed in a way that the consumer trusts them completely, and gets important message in a much lighter manner. And hence, companies are raking in profits simply by presenting the consumers with sources that make sure we learn a lot while getting amused. Media has played a vital role in expanding this concept to every nook-and-corner of the world. Majority of computer games being developed these days ensure the same, and become instant hits with the people playing them. And the schools, where the future scientists and doctors of the Earth spend a major part of their day, have also come up with creative learning strategies that do not let children surround by boring vibes while going to schools.

That said, edutainment has a bright future ahead. And it is here to remain-growing bigger by the second!

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Edutainment: A New Buzz Word

"Edutainment" a buzzword these days, for starters, is the portmanteau formed of two simple terms Education and Entertainment. Going into details, the idea behind coining this term was to come up with more effective ways to learn things. Learning the facts in traditional ways has become so out now, and it is all about indulging in fun ways to gain knowledge. To start with, the very basic medium of edutainment are our very own fables, games and that television-set sitting in the corner of the living room. This tells that though the word is new, it is in use since time immemorial. It’s just that we have started implementing it more seriously these days. Let’s see how a fable acts as a source of edutainment, and helps kids learn in a fun way.

Story of Cinderella, which has its roots in China is one fable nearly everyone has heard of in his/her childhood. In this classic myth, a lady from the lower class, through her kindness, physical beauty, and help from others, marries a prince and lives happily ever after. The basic moral of the story is that woman's happiness depends on a man and a woman needs to be transformed to fit into that man's world. While the Asian Cinderella is characterized by her non-individual qualities, such as her daughterly piety, the American Cinderella is admired for her individual qualities, such as physical beauty and resourcefulness. Both ways, the story is designed to teach a lesson about which behaviors the culture will reward.

This was just a short and very basic example to show how edutainment has entered our lives and is helping us learn. And it is actually changing the way we as a society think-- for good. Moreover, it is even helping companies market their products.

Edutainment - A portmanteau of Education & Entertainment

Edutainment (a portmanteau of Education & Entertainment), as the name suggests quite well, is any content that educates people while keeping the amusement quotient high. Edutainment is anything that helps one gain knowledge, but, in a manner that it doesn’t become burdensome. Though this sort of education is known to us since ages, but what’s new is the term Edutainment we have started referring to now-a-days. Thinking when did we learn something in a play-way method? Well, think about all the parables and fables? And various kid-games like alphabets and building blocks? Or even that show on the large LCD mounted in one corner of your wall?

This unintentional and informal way of gaining knowledge is what we now call Edutainment. And here learning is not just limited to gaining enough knowledge to pass the examinations, it is much larger than that. Countries these days use means of edutainment to spread awareness about various fatal diseases and social issues like cancer and women abuse respectively. Movie makers and software developers now-a-days come up with entertaining products that help attract and maintain the audience, while blending in some deliberate message or sort of knowledge. That said, edutainment has a bright future ahead. And it is here to remain.

And since, this concept soon became a hit, companies are raking in profits simply by presenting the consumers with sources that make sure we learn a lot while getting amused. Media has played a vital role in expanding this concept to every nook-and-corner of the world. Majority of computer games being developed these days ensure the same, and become instant hits with the people playing them. And the schools, where the future scientists and doctors of the Earth spend a major part of their day, have also come up with creative learning strategies that do not let children surround by boring vibes while going to schools.

This is the effect of Edutainment, and it is just growing bigger by the second, for good!!

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Changing Paradigms In Gaming: Edutainment The Next Big Thing

There was a time when we played games just for having fun with friends and family. Gaming has had been a peer thing till the time technology didn’t breach in to let people knit their own virtual world in these games. Electronic gaming consoles literally abandoned those backyards and playgrounds at many places. Games, like Super Mario and Contra, danced on the lips of kids for years. And all this exhilaration over gaming received a huge kick with the arrival of immensely popular gaming consoles - PlayStation and Xbox.

Till that era, gaming was primarily a matter of individual engagement and achievements. However, the big vertical shift came in when games got that social flavor added with social platforms especially Facebook. In addition to bringing the multi-player style to the core, social media enriched conventional gaming with a flurry of other networking techniques that were hitherto not explored well.

Competition was sidelined, and on the contrary to the very essence of gaming, social games earmarked “forming associations” as an important tool to attain in-game goals. Zynga pioneered the notion of such collaborative associations with its blockbuster releases Farmville and Cityville. These games encouraged users to network to perform loads of activities and feel a sense of achievement and togetherness.

Gaming stalwarts soon sensed the trend and adapted to the change introduced by Zynga. Established gaming houses started churning out engaging social games and soon it became a highly crowded domain. A recent research conducted by the casual gaming experts Newzoo reported that as many as 39% of the total 215 million hours were spent in online casual or social media gaming, if that gives you any perspective about how colossal this industry has become.

The above discussion might give you an all-well feeling about the social gaming industry, but it’s not as easygoing as it looked. In fact, unlike the erstwhile scenario, a lot depends on the content of a game. Engagement has become a much broader term. Even a simple hit-and-run game today has so much in terms of letting people network through it. And people need more than just fun to remain glued to a game. Something extra, something can give them some value.

Talking about the value part, future games ought to have a design and content flow that impart some learning in addition to all the fun and frolic. Idea here is to empower users with something they can use when they’re not playing the game. To put it in more appropriate words, games that depict both education and entertainment, together dubbed as “Edutainment”, in a proportionate mix.

Edutainment-based games have already making inroads in the social media space. Just a little inquisition will show you a handful of games, such as “Words With Friends”, that have Edutainment as the central theme. But, having said that, these games aren’t huge in numbers, but going by the current, soon you will find companies doing away with barely useful action-packed gaming and hopping into the Edutainment space to capitalize upon the opportunities in this new form of learning.


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