Written by Distance learning highlighted the value of “Edutainment.”
Last year, we as educators produced and live-streamed lessons with an audience to engage, versus a room of students to teach. There were plenty of challenges to overcome while teaching from home including a variety of learning environments, internet access/stability, different timezones, health/mental health concerns, and the list continues. Teachers adapted and transformed their practices to suit the new delivery methods available, through trial by fire, we figured it out and made the most of the circumstances. One of the major shifts was the need to constantly engage students in their learning to maintain their attention, analyze their performance using data, and quickly evaluate all outcomes – eLearning.
The pandemic has created a new baseline for learning technology as every sector has adapted to a digital environment, streamlining communication, business protocols and practices. We have most of the world using videoconferencing software to connect with people, conduct business, and to learn live, anywhere, and at any time.
Edutainment is a form of entertainment designed to educate and amuse. Edutainment seeks to instruct its audience by embedding lessons in a familiar form of entertainment: television programs, computer and video games, and multimedia software. I believe this will impact how we teach moving forward and it’s one of the reasons I took the AQ course at Queen’s University, Teaching and Learning Through eLearning. eLearning is on the rise and has become mainstream, “In 2017, 77% of companies incorporated some form of virtual training. By 2020, that number jumped to 98%.” [1]
Instructor-led training is on the decline, and greater emphasis will be placed on course design. Virtual instructor-led and self-directed eLearning is on the rise in commerce, so it will be interesting to see if and how this might impact the education industry.
https://insights.regenesys.net/the-fifth-industrial-revolution-5ir/
Is eLearning for everyone?
I believe that all learners can be successful in eLearning, the three major challenges are access, engagement and training.
Differentiation is important in how we teach students as a means of ensuring that every learner has equal opportunity to succeed. According to Dr Bruce D. Berry of Baylor College of Medicine, “Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures “ [1]
As a learner, I prefer eLearning environments to be built with user interaction as a central aspect of the course and system interface. The teacher, as the facilitator, and a digital project-based learning course anchored in a visually dynamic layout works best for my personal learning style.
I grew up with internet and a computer from a young age. My dad worked in I.T. and we always had a computer to use. I even took IBM computer apart for my grade six science project, where I labeled all the parts and explained how they worked for the science fair. 🤓😄
I remember using one of two iMacs G3s in the library or visiting the computer room once a week in primary school. My family had one computer for all of us to share in the home office. and now our students attend school with a personal computer, tablet, and cellphone.
The learner profile has changed and students now are given a cellphone to hold as entertainment at birth. Toddlers smile when a phone is pointed towards them and motion to see the picture as a result of trained behaviour before they can form words. Our students adapt to changing technology quickly and they often welcome new versions of every device they own – Digital Natives .
So, how do we learn to use technology differently?
To incorporate research-based instructional strategies into online courses, one needs to identify their teaching style and course foundations.
“Digital natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer graphics before text, rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to serious work.” [2]
One of the challenges I find in supporting adult education is that there is a diverse range in proficiency, as half are digital natives and the balance are digital immigrants.
To learn you must engage in the material, and to create a virtual learning space for educators requires the content to be intuitive to every level of user. I think it’s about creating layers(levels) and scaffolding content, while engaging peer support in an effort to create greater consumer touch-points. Automated responses to forms (MSPowerAutomate is great for this), badge systems, forums, and completion feedback (checkmarks) all help to allow for instant gratification as a means of connecting to students, while tracking performance using real-time data.
So… Is Education Future Ready?
“The Fifth Industrial Revolution will be a time of excitement and anxiety. We will be able to do and experience things that past generations could only dream of. But we will also have to leave behind, cherished skills, practices and mindsets.”[3]
Are we ready to leave behind cherished skills, practices and mindsets?
Does school become a VR game that you jump in and out of all day based on your sleep schedule, time constraints, travel plans, and in-person passion commitments?
We have seen what the 5th Industrial Revolution promises to bring and the Jetsons are looking more and more real. Pizza vending machines are a real thing now:
Based on the predictions, education will be personalized, innovative, purposeful, inclusive, creative, and collaborative.
I’d like to think we are doing all of the above today. What will be the role of Edutainment in the future of education?
How might we leverage Edutainment and eLearning to offer personalized, innovative, purposeful, inclusive, creative, and collaborative learning environments?
Resources:
[1] Training Industry Magazine – July/August 2020, https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/trainingindustry/tiq_20200708/index.php#/p/4
[2] Marc Prensky, (2001),”Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1“, On the Horizon, Vol. 9 Iss 5 pp. 1 – 6
[3] Regenesys Business School, and Author Regenesys Business School. “The Fifth Industrial Revolution (5ir) and How It Will Change the Business Landscape.” RegInsights, 16 Aug. 2021, https://insights.regenesys.net/the-fifth-industrial-revolution-5ir/.
@lbettencourt I like the chart above. If we are to be successful in transitioning from the 4th to 5th revolution then it speaks to how much design attention must be focused on the “human” aspects of learning when designing the digital learning experiences and platforms that will drive it. It is in the nuance that it will either be successful or just another platform.
This is fascinating @lbettencourt – and so important to consider. Another thing I’m coming up against in class is the effects of digital media (in or outside of class) and how engaged in the work students can be at a given time. Focus and attention are key in all aspects of our lives and in particular learning and I wonder how we consider the link between these when we design our courses. We are in the process of developing/consolidating our Blended Learning model and even the use of videos that students feel are “too long” is an interesting aspect to consider. The humanistic approach is key as we research and read more about how this generation of students and the previous generation regard work and humanity as intertwined (which is great! – there is a Brene Brown podcast on this I’m trying to re-find!). Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for this awesome post – a great overview of the digital transformation and where we come and where we are heading. What this post brought to my mind was that the digital transformation is very, very human. By that I mean, we are using digital technologies and pedagogies but people will interpret, engage and learn differently from these different platforms / forms of delivery.
One thing that all of our schools have in common, and indeed is common to the student experience in secondary and post-secondary is the use of an LMS. Here is a great article that challenges us to think about the role of the LMS amidst a constellation of other digital tools and what the human engagement in learning might look like:
https://www.educause.edu/ecar/research-publications/foundations-for-a-next-generation-digital-learning-environment-faculty-students-and-the-lms/satisfaction-with-lms-functionality
Thanks @lbettencourt!
@lbettencourt, there are a tonne of interesting questions and considerations here. Certainly the potential for “personalized, innovative, purposeful, inclusive, creative, and collaborative” learning is here, and the ways in which we can connect with learners and cater information and its communication to their needs and interests continues to increase. I wonder, though, how we might balance this growth with discernment, digital literacy, etc, how we might maintain perspective without sacrificing credibility, when our digital world allows such easy access to (mis)information. As a language and humanities teacher, I find it difficult to keep up with these things sometimes, especially when some learners seem to be focusing more and more on subjectivity over objectivity, rather than trying to understand the complexity of allowing them to coexist. When we let the reins go and learners venture into the digital world independently, are there tools, algorithms, interfaces, etc that help to facilitate discernment in the same way a teacher does? I’m fascinated by this virtual world…