The Use of ‘Edutainment’ In the Classroom Brooke Miskowski, Jamie Skala, Kristine Kroells, Rachael Owens, and Kayla Lan

1. The Use of ‘Edutainment’ In the Classroom Brooke Miskowski, Jamie Skala, Kristine Kroells, Rachael Owens, and Kayla Langfoss Conclusion: Introduction: Survey Items: After conducting our research, we found that most of our surveyed students have had multiple experiences working with ‘edutainment’ in their previous classrooms. Although many different games were expressed as having been used, the same general purposes for their use showed through our results. These included such things as making curriculum more exciting for students, allowing them to control their own learning, and compliment and facilitate the learning of the required content and curriculum. Most students surveyed believe that teachers used some video/computer games approximately 2-3 days a week. The expressed the use of these games as beneficial to diverse learners due to their ability to provide self-paced activities for student to work through. Many opinions about the positive and negative effects of ‘edutainment’ in the classroom were expressed. The positives included such things as engaging students in a fun and exciting way, helping students to grasp abstract concepts, providing real-world situations to work though as well as helping them to develop their technological skills. The negative effects that were expressed in our survey were such things as the fact that students can get easily distracted by these games, which in turn takes away from their learning experiences. It was also expressed that the use of these games can feed children’s addiction to technology and lessen the amount of student/teacher interaction time. Edutainment, which is short for educational entertainment, is the use of different forms of multimedia, such as interactive websites, television programs, or computer/video game within the classroom. Its purpose is to educate students in content knowledge, but do so in a fun and active environment. For the purpose of our survey, we will be looking at the use of video/computer games in the classroom more specifically. • To continue our research on the topic of ‘edutainment’ in the classroom, we sent out a survey to 30 pre-service teachers at Winona State University who have been admitted into the Education Program. The questions that made up our survey are as follows: • 1. As a student have you ever used video/computer games in the classroom? • What type of video/computer games do you remember playing in elementary school? • 3. What do you believe your teacher’s purpose was for using such games? Or why • would a teacher want to use them? • 4. Who benefits more from the use of edutainment? The students, the teacher or • others?  • 5. Do you think a teacher would have to put more or less time prepping their • curriculum with the integration of edutainment into daily activities? • 6. What do you believe would be the positive the effects of edutainment on • students’ learning? The negatives? • 7. How could the use of edutainment in the classroom affect students with • varying ability? • 8. How many days out of a week do you believe that teachers currently rely on • some form of edutainment? Less than one day, 2-3 days, or 4 or more? • 9. Would you consider using video/computer games in your classroom curriculum? • 10. If you were going to use ‘Edutainment’ in your future classroom, name three • video/computer games that you would consider using. • After conducting research surrounding the topic of ‘edutainment’ in the classroom, we have found that there are two compelling arguments. Those arguments are outlined as followed: • Those who believe that the use of ‘edutainment’ in the classroom is beneficial to students learning argue that: • Edutainment provides real-life applications for students to work • through, while stimulating students’ imagination and aiding in the • development of critical thinking skills. • These games can reach diverse learners and those of differing ability • by providing self-paced learning activities to work through. • They are fun, engaging and inquiry based, and help to get students • more motivated to learn. • We are living in a fast paced world, and children need to know how to • use technology, as it will have a great impact on their future. • On the other hand, those individuals who believe edutainment in the classroom has more disadvantages to students argue that: • There is no easy and systematic way to evaluate students knowledge • gain in using these programs. • The amount of irrelevant content that presents itself during the • use of these games is distracting and unavoidable to students • learning. • A lot of dedication and preparation time is required from the • teacher in order to use computer/video games effectively in the • classroom. • Many unforeseeable outcomes may present them self and distract • children from the major learning objectives (i.e. technological • problems). After asking our sample group what the purpose of such games in the classroom was, the majority stated that that the games were used as a means to make learning interactive, fun and exciting. Others commented that ‘edutainment’ was used to reinforce content addressed in the classroom, while allowing diverse learners to be able to excel at their own pace. For example, most computer games have different levels to work though, with varying levels of difficulty that can help make sure all of our students are learning, even if at a lower or higher ability. The use of technology to promote curriculum can help teach to all types of learning styles. The graph above depicts the number of days that pre-service teachers feel that most educators rely on some form of ‘edutainment’ within their curriculum during a given week. The majority believes that teachers spend approximately 2-3 days providing some instruction through the use of video/computer programs. The results from this survey are inconclusive, and therefore need to be further researched to yield a more accurate understanding of the topic of ‘edutainment’ in our classrooms of the 21st century. It is clear that there are many compelling cases for and against the use of video/computer games in the classroom, which lead us to believe there are many more unanswered questions surrounding the subject. For example: which content areas benefit more from the use of ‘edutainment,’ or how does the use of video/computer games affect students test scores? For a more conclusive analysis, one might want to test a group of elementary students, some of which were instructed using ‘edutainment,’ and another group that was taught through direct/verbal instruction. Therefore our results have only scratched the surface of this complex argument of what type of instruction truly is the most beneficial for our students. Findings: Method: • After analyzing our data from the survey we conducted, the following results were provided: References: • Some of the most commonly used examples o f ‘edutainment’ that our survey group has had experience using includes such games as: • Number/Word Munchers • Oregon Trail • Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? • Roller Coaster Tycoon • Sim City • Reader Rabbit • Magic School Bus • Math Blasters • Although when we think back to our time in elementary school, and all of the fun we had playing games such as the ones listed above, we need to ask ourselves is what were we really learning? Did the content that these games provided aid our education, or hinder it? Did our teachers use them just to pass the time, or to help make complex problems seem more attainable? The following question were addressed as part of our research that follows. Blasisdell, Mikael. “All the Right MUVEs.” 33, 14. Sept 2006. www.ebscohost.com “Epistemic Games- Building the Future of Education.” Aug 2009. <http://epistemicgames.org/eg/> Sept 10, 2009. Gee, James . "Learning by Design: Good Video Games as Learning Machines." University of Wisconsin-Madison  (2004): 1-31. 9 Sep. 2009 http://www.academiccolab.orgy Kirriemuir, J. (2003). Use of Computers and Video Games in the Classroom. Proceedings of the Level Up Digital Games Research Conference, UniversiteitUtrect, Netherlands. Retrieved September 9, 2009, from http://www.silversprite.com/ Shaffer, David, Kurt Squire, Richard Halverson, and James Gee. "Video Games and The Future of Learning." University of Wisconsin-Madison  (2004): 1-20. 9 Sep. 2009 http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/gappspaper1.pdf Simpson, E., & Clem, F. (2008). Video Games in the Middle School Classroom. Middle School Journal, 39(Number 4), 4-11. Retrieved September 9, 2009, from http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/MiddleSchoolJournal/Articles/March2008/Article1/tabid/1627/Default.aspx Squire, Kurt "Video Games in Education" Retrieved September 6, 2009 website.education.wisc.edu/kdsquire/.../09-PIQ-Squire-submitted.pdf Video Games: Cons and Pros. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2009, from http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Video_Games_Cons/ Video Games in Education." Retrieved September 7th, 2009. www.adultlearn.com/video-games-education.html <http://www.adultlearn.com/video-games-education.html> Young, Michael "An Ecological Description of video games in education" Retrieved September 6, 2009 web.uconn.edu/myoung/EISTA04Proceed.pdfWright, Will. "Dream Machines." April, 2006. www.educase.edu/blog/cblaha/ArticleonEducationalvaleofVid/165875 <http://www.educase.edu/blog/cblaha/ArticleonEducationalvaleofVid/165875>  Retrieved September 7th, 2009. In analyzing the responses from the question of whether or not implementing the use of ‘edutainment’ takes more, less or the same amount of planning time from the teacher, the results were almost evenly split. For the students who felt that it would take more time, this was due to the fact that they believed teachers need to critically analyze the content of the computer program, and learn how to use it themselves before introducing it to their students for it to be fully effective and beneficial to students. On the other hand, the students who believe the use of these programs would take less time, state that such games would make better use of classroom time by minimizing verbal instruction from the teacher, and maximizing the amount of time students spend engaged with the content. Since most games are already leveled, the surveyed students also believe that the amount of planning for differentiation in activities would yield less work on their part as well. Those who said that it would require the same amount of time took into consideration both the amount of prep time vs. the amount of time the students were engaged in a learning activity and felt that they equaled each out. In analyzing our results, we found that most students surveyed (93.3%), have had some previous experience working with some form of ‘edutainment’ in the classroom. The most common games that were played by the students surveyed included such things as Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, Reader Rabbit and games that fostered typing skills. The graph presented above represents the opinion of those surveyed on whether the teacher, the student, or some other individual benefits from the use of ‘edutainment’ in the classroom. From our results, we found that the majority of our sample group felt that the students benefit the most from this type of learning activity.