Lori Greene - Edutainment in Action: Creating Impactful Learning Experiences

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Lori Greene Edutainment Portfolio Page // Next Lesson Unit 1

Course Overview

Introduction

As a former television producer and current digital content creator, journalist, and content marketer turned educator for universities and industries, I have found that when instruction falls flat, learners have a more difficult time mastering a subject. When I worked in education at Netflix, we sought to make training as entertaining as possible while keeping within the constructs of learning.

While there are many ways to strengthen the learning experience into a journey that’s enriching and enjoyable, edutainment has the power to be transformational through gaining attention, eliciting emotions, and using multimedia and technology to tell illustrative stories.

Educators don't have to become stand up comics or change their personalities to utilize edutainment principles as edutainment is the process of entertaining people at the same time that you’re teaching them through the way information is delivered, This mini-course will outline how educators can help concepts stick for learners through edutainment using multimedia, storytelling, and immersive tools that can help capture attention and perhaps provoke emotions that can aid in facilitating knowledge acquisition.

Who is This For?

Any educator or instructor can take this course, but it will be mostly geared towards:

High school teachers
Higher education professors and adjuncts
Professional development instructors
Educators who have a minimum of three years experience
Educators who teach subjects where edutainment is appropriate on the high school, higher education, or professional development level

Needs Assessment

Social media, YouTube, and gaming are some of the distractions drawing attention away from traditional school specifically and education in general. To compound that problem, the way learners get information has changed with the advent of TikTok and digital videos illustrating new ways of engaging the minds of learners. In a learner-centric world where college enrollment is down more than 12% and Americans are increasingly questioning the need for a formal university degree, educators that meet the expectations of learners will succeed in both gaining attention and aiding mastery.

That’s where edutainment, the process of entertaining people at the same time that you’re teaching them through the way information is delivered, comes in. By working to strengthen the learning experience into a journey that’s enriching and enjoyable, educators can enable the focus that is needed for learners to excel. When learners do something pleasurable, their brains release dopamine, a reward center that helps with motivation, memory, and attention. So, the opportunity here is to bridge education with entertainment using an edutainment paradigm.

Course Learning Outcomes

The overarching objective of this course is that educators will be able to use edutainment in their lesson plans, when appropriate, to motive, engage, and aid learners in mastery. By the end of this course, educators will be able to:

Appreciate the need to keep learners engaged in order to increase their motivation and attention
Understand how emotions enhance memory
Design entertaining lesson plans that lead to learning using storytelling principles
Evaluate lesson plans for their edutainment value
Apply multimedia techniques to engage learners in the subject matter being taught