Educational entertainment

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For the Boogie Down Productions album, see Edutainment (album).

Educational entertainment (also referred to by the portmanteau neologism[1] edutainment[2]) is content designed to educate and to entertain. It includes content that is primarily educational but has incidental entertainment value, and content that is mostly entertaining but contains educational value. It has been used by governments in various countries to disseminate information via television, including soap operas or telenovelas to have an impact on viewers' opinions and behaviors.[3]


It can be argued that educational entertainment has existed for millennia in the form of parables and fables that promoted social change. In Christianity, for example, Jesus Christ used parables extensively to convey his moral messages. As Matthew 13:34[4] and Mark 4:34[5] report: "He did not say anything [to the crowd] without using a parable." The canonical gospels contain 33 parables, excluding allegories or proverbial expressions.[6] Christ invoked imagery from the environment and daily life of the people of the time, including the food and drink they consumed (e.g. leaven, wine), the birds and animals they saw or domesticated (sheep), the vegetation (wheat, fig trees, lillies), the clothes people wore (wedding dress, patching old garments), the jobs they worked in (fishing, shepherding), even the currency (the denarius [1]). Some scholars, such as C.F. Burney,[7] claim that Christ leveraged poetry to make his teachings enjoyable and memorable.[8] The Old Testament certainly has a poetic nucleus, and likewise poetic devices like parallelism can be detected in the Gospels. But because all the earliest canonical gospels are Greek translations, this caim is yet to ascertained. Whatever the case, Christ's parables are among the best-known, and many of their expressions entered everyday usage the world over.[9][10]


Since the 1970s, various groups in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Latin America have used edutainment to address such health and social issues as substance abuse, immunization, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and cancer. Initiatives in major universities, such as, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, NGOs such as PCI-Media Impact, and government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have produced edutainment content.


The term edutainment was used as early as 1948 by The Walt Disney Company to describe the True Life Adventures series.[citation needed]. The noun edutainment is a neologistic portmanteau used by Robert Heyman in 1973 while producing documentaries for the National Geographic Society.[11] It was also used by Dr. Chris Daniels in 1975 to encapsulate the theme of his Millennium Project. This project later became known as The Elysian World Project.[12] The offshoot word "Edutainer" has been used by Craig Sim Webb since before the turn of the millennium to describe an individual who offers edutainment presentations and performances.[13]

By media[edit]

Audio and video[edit]


Film and television[edit]


Mexican TV producer Miguel Sabido pioneered in the 1970s a form of edutainment via telenovelas, "soap operas for social change." The "Sabido method" has been adopted in many other countries subsequently, including India, Peru, Kenya, and China.[14] In Mexico, the government in the 1970s successfully used a telenovela to promote family planning to curb the country's high birthrate.[15]


Main article: Educational game



According to Van Eck (2006), there are three reasons why games are considered learning tools: 1. Ongoing research that has included the last 20 years of educational findings have proven that digital games can be educational; 2. The new generation of today wants “multiple streams of information” (p. 1), which includes quick and frequent interaction that allows inductive reasoning; and 3. The mere popularity of games has created a billion-dollar industry. The idea of playing a game assumes the person is engaging in that activity by choice. The activity should have some value of “fun”. This does not mean that the person is engaging in the activity only for leisure pursuits; it can also include the desire to learn a skill, connect with other gamers (social community), and spend time in a chosen activity. The activity needs to remain one of choice for the gamer.[17]

Kim (2008) supports the use of off-the-shelf games with meta-cognitive strategies to provide an increase in students’ cognitive performance.[18][19]



Other successful radio programs that have fused entertainment and education include:

  • "The Lawsons/Blue Hills" - a radio program that was designed to help Australian farmers adjust to new farming methods.
  • "Tinka Tinka Sukh" - a Hindi-language radio program that results in environmental and health improvements in India.
  • Soul City - A successful South African radio serial drama that carried AIDS prevention messages.
  • The Donut Shop - A successful internet radio show talk about educational games that they think could be used in today's schools.


Main article: Educational toy





Some toys are of considerable appeal and benefit to both children and adults, such as LEGO or Rubik's Cube, as their design and implementation can range from the simple to the sophisticated.

By setting outside of the classroom[edit]


The concept of educational entertainment is being used for building learning programs for organizations. High technology is used to make the programs entertaining and educational. As an example, PowerPoint presentations may become more entertaining with the addition of flashy animations or graphics. An article in a satirical newspaper, The Onion, poked fun at the concept of embellishing boring presentations with attention-catching effects.[20] A fictional marketing executive in the article noted the previous lack of excitement in the presentation, saying "When we first finished the PowerPoint, the content was all there, but it still lacked that certain something."[20]

Museums and Public Access Areas[edit]

Edutainment is also a growing paradigm within the science center and children's museum community in the United States as well as many other locations such as the zoo or a botanical garden. This approach emphasizes fun and enjoyment, sometimes at the expense of educational content, yet can give those learning a clearer idea of what they are learning. Educational locations such as these are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to reach the surrounding public and get them interested in areas such as the fine arts, science, literature, history, etc. Field trip visits to these educational places provide interactional stimulus to those involved to learn about what is in these places. Unfortunately, people are used to flashy, polished entertainment venues like movie theaters and theme parks and demand similar experiences at science centers or museums. Thus, a museum or a zoo can be seen as just another business competing for entertainment dollars from the public, rather than as an institution that serves the public welfare through education or historical preservation.[21]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ "Definition of "Edutainment"". Retrieved 14 February 2015. 
  2. ^ "edutainment". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved October 16, 2012. 
  3. ^ Hanna Rosin, "Life Lessons: How Soap Operas Can Change the World." The New Yorker, Jun 5, 2006, pp. 40-45.
  4. ^ "Matthew 13 New International Version". 
  5. ^ "Mark 4 New International Version". 
  6. ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: Parables". Retrieved 2008-02-16. 
  7. ^ "Teaching Methods of Jesus -". Retrieved 2014-05-25. 
  8. ^ "Jesus the Poet: Christ’s Words as Hebrew Poetry by Stephen Andrew Missick". Retrieved 2014-05-25. 
  9. ^ William Barclay, 1999 The Parables of Jesus ISBN 0-664-25828-X page 9
  10. ^ "Phrases and Expressions that originated in the Bible -". Retrieved 2014-05-25. 
  12. ^ "". Retrieved November 6, 2014. 
  13. ^ "Inspirational speakers - Professional Inspirational Speaker, Performer, Songwriter & Author". Retrieved November 6, 2014. 
  16. ^ Paraskeva, F.; Mysirlaki, S.; Papgianni, A. (2010). "Multiplayer online games as educational tools: Facing new challenges in learning". Computers and Education 54: 498–505. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.001. 
  17. ^ Van Eck, R. (2006). Digital game-based learning: It’s not just the digital natives who are restless… Educase Review, 41,2, 1-16
  19. ^ Computers and Education, 52, 800-810
  20. ^ a b "Wow Factor Added To Corporate Presentation | The Onion - America's Finest News Source". Retrieved November 6, 2014. 