What is Edutainment? How is it Beneficial for Kids?

Edutainment is the peculiar way of presenting learning in an entertaining style. Teaching kids are more challenging than giving education to a college grade student. Their way of interpreting things and understanding should be moulded right from the initial classes. And it is highly important to build a taste or interest for learning among kids.

More than just normal classroom sessions which they find boring, it would be a good idea to bring in strategies like edutainment. It is nothing but blending entertainment with education which not only makes learning pleasurable for them but also helps them to grow up as better individuals.

This strategy takes many forms according to what is being taught and the varying interests of kids groups. Primarily, edutainment involves combinations of audio and video to classroom or outside the classroom sessions. The other important elements of this approach include games as part of learning or toys, radio, and podcasts, film and television or taking a visit to museums.

Edutainment strategy is beneficial for all types of learning and when it comes to kids, leisure has more role than academics. Kids would love it when learning is fun. Here are a few among the many benefits of edutainment for kids.

• Engaged learning: This approach helps teachers to make kids engaged throughout the learning process. Rather than keeping them occupied for long hour classes, just a short period edutainment can be productive for them. They will have access to more information in minimal time when they make learning a fun. The homework sessions would be really exciting for kids if watching videos or playing a fun game is made a part of it. Such video sessions can be equivalent or more to additional reading sessions. Apart from basic learning, kids can also build particular skills in their early days. However, kids are more prone to mistakes and so parents and teachers should give timely assistance to guide and help them to choose the right set of videos, games and apps.

• Learning freedom: This whole child approach is given a priority in many top kindergartens and preschools as kids would always prefer to learn the way they want rather than occupying them in forced academic settings or structured learning. Learning through play gives them the freedom to enjoy the learning session. According to many researches, self-directed play gives the best learning time for preschool children. Moreover, open-ended play lets them to study and grow up cognitively, physically, emotionally and socially.

• Real world exploration: Kids are biologically programmed to create their own innovations. Their play time is more of exploring and understanding their world around and that is why learning through play satisfies their basic interests. Make the learning sessions more qualitative by giving time for imaginary play through which they know more about oneself and other things happening around. Rather than restricting them within the four walls of a classroom, transform learning time for real world exploration with field trips.

• Experiential education: This is a kind of experiential learning in which kids would actively play around while studying new ideas or concepts. Instead of classroom sessions, kids would love to have hands-on learning in kid’s museums or visiting theatres or parks to study with the nature. Adventure education and outdoor education are key forms of edutainment learning that makes their study time more exciting.

• Improves positivity: There are a lot of positive characters featured in videos and online games which kids can easily connect with. These video characters that promote hard work, determination, humanity and team work all are usually made part of learning sessions. This would gradually bring in positivity in kids and most of them consider special characters as role models which really inspire the way they grow up. Teachers and parents can groom them correctly so that they can emulate these positive characters in their own lives.

• Intellectual stimulation: Rather than boring classroom teaching and rote memorization, kids give more favourable response to game and video contents. This educational strategy can be too good to improve their intellectual stimulations with gamification aimed at boosting their thinking capability, problem solving and competitive mind set. Awesome storytelling sessions can be enjoyable and at the same time improve their knowledge base and learning. In fact, edutainment gives kids the best of both learning and entertainment worlds and they can go through an amazing experience.

• Educational games: There is a good choice of games that stimulates diverse types of learning among kids. Games involving motion control is a great motivation for them to engage in physical and educational activities. While certain games foster skills development among kids, some other games are designed to encourage constructive thinking and generate curiosity. There are kid’s special apps that take them through the world of puzzles, rhymes and stories. The ways kids learn about different subjects are greatly influenced by the games they play. The elements such as images, sounds and animations can easily target kid’s senses and gains their dedicated interest for learning.

• Enhanced attention: Getting a kid’s attention can be a tough job and it matters a lot when it comes to teaching. This shorter form of teaching strategy is a good solution to get their attention and kids would be able to take up more information. In fact, this learn with fun strategy encourages them to spend more time with studies and they will have the craving for more. Kids would love to give their attention more in matters that amuse them, and that is why edutainment is turning out to be very effective to grab their attention. The educational content showcased in the form of motion pictures would register the content in kid’s mind than lectures.

• Portable learning: The role of online videos makes learning possible despite where the kids are. So the learning is not limited to classroom sessions and parents can make an effort to utilize the possibilities of edutainment in their free time at home or outside. Kids can view these videos when they are in the shopping cart or when they are travelling by a car. There are lot of web series videos at present aimed at engaging kids on the go while improving their knowledge base. As novel apps and games are compatible to play with multiple devices, kids can enjoy their favourites anywhere.

• Improved social skills: This child-sensitive strategy seeks more social interaction which in turn plays a good role in enhancing their social skills which is vital for their survival and growth in the society. This best classroom engagement strategy brings in higher confidence in kids to face the challenges in society and they learn to collaborate and achieve goals. In one way or the other, this approach gives social development messages and makes them more exposed to the world of creativity. This kind of open learning helps kids to grow up with many extracurricular skills and set their goals for many achievements.

• Technology at finger tips: The rise of mobile market has a good effect on the popularity of edutainment as the kids are greatly influenced by education apps. There are amazing apps that introduced an online world of entertainment to them and also opened a world of learning in parallel. This gives them a unique learning experience which even changes the aspect of learning in them. The wise selection of advanced apps can even transform the child’s gadget to a learning powerhouse. For example, Elmo Loves 123s app helps kids to learn counting from 1 to 20 in a funny way. Similarly, a preschooler can learn letters, numbers, colours and shapes in an interesting way with Fish School HD app. Visuals and narratives easily get attention of kids and that is why apps such as Disney Story Central is popular among parents who are finding hard to find daily bed time stories.

Kids always have a craving to play more as they love the world of fun and amusement. This innovative educational strategy is designed to get the best out of their interest for fun for productive learning. Present day education is full of experiments to make the learning process more effective and productive. Even when the idea of edutainment is not that new and is being experimented by many for past decades, this strategy is getting a widespread popularity and acceptance now.

Most of the learning video contents online are now blended with entertainment content to make them appealing to kids. Smart schools are bringing in this concept with smart school software and education apps that are designed to stimulate smart learning. The idea of edutainment is always motivating kids to learn new things without losing the fun element.