Edutainment
Posted by Admin on September 1, 2010
Edutainment is interactive education and entertainment services or software, usually supplied commercially via a cable network or on CD-ROM. While it’s easy to assume that the word is a recent creation, the fact of the matter is that edutainment was used as early as 1948 by The Walt Disney Company to describe the True Life Adventures series.
Edutainment was later used by Robert Heyman in 1973 while producing documentaries for the National Geographic Society, and two years later in 1975, it was used by Dr. Chris Daniels when referring to the theme of his Millennium Project.
In 1983, the term edutainment was used to describe a package of software games for the Oric 1 and Spectrum Microcomputers in the UK and since 1995, it has been used to describe any presentation of informative or educational material with fun and entertainment as the driving force behind the presentation.
Historically Speaking 
Evan VanDerwerker said
Hey, Elyse.
Edu-tainment is an interesting idea. I was doing some reading on the subject, and was most intrigued by the sources of edu-tainment that are not as obviously educational. I read a big article on how the movie 300 played a large role in the swing of big television towards ancient Greece culture. Certainly, the historical aspect of these types of movies need some work, but the idea that they can teach us something about history, or increase student interest, is nothing if not important.
I recently wrote a post dealing with a few underlying concepts of Edu-tainment. While it is not exactly a direct response or commentary on this post, if may be of some interest to you (http://eyeoneducation.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/edu-tainment-should-school-be-televised/).
Keep up the good work,
Evan VanDerwerker
http://eyeoneducation.wordpress.com/
Elyse Bruce said
Thanks for your comments, Evan.
Idiomation readers, take the time to check out Evan’s blog — not just the entry he linked to, but other entries he’s made as well. He certainly gives readers food for thought.