We recently lost a proposal to deliver an educational platform to a large client. One of the reasons was sound, we are a small, innovative strategy firm and though our ideas were impactful, we simply weren’t scalable on the level that the company needed. The second reason was a little more subjective; our style seemed to value entertainment as a core element of our content delivery. They had trouble getting their heads around that idea, that educational outcomes could be delivered in a fun and engaging manner. Huh? That’s the only way education should be delivered, not just at the corporate level but at ALL levels.
IN 1948 Walt Disney coined the phrase, “edutainment” and used it to describe their new True Life Adventures, nature series. Disney believed people could learn from something that was also entertaining.
Most people are familiar with the idea, if not the word, when you think; Schoolhouse Rock, Sesame St or Bill Nye, The Science Guy. It has been proven as one of the most effective ways to shift behaviors and can act as a primary catalyst for change and not just in children. The World Bank helped sponsor the PlanetRead Program – Literacy for a Billion. In India they added Hindi subtitles to Bollywood music videos to promote language skills. Fun and educational. The impact:
- Adult levels of illiteracy were cut in 1/2.
- The number of children that became good readers doubled.
At Creative Ventures and The Next Level Academy, we have built our educational philosophy around turning information into knowledge. We achieve this goal through introducing the core ideas and creating interactive, FUN exercises that allow the idea to be learned through practiced behaviors. These “practiced behaviors” are our original learning games. We believe if you can take information and apply it, it can become knowledge. We want our interactive elements to be both learning driven, but also FUN. Why not? Fun is a good thing and should not be sucked out of learning through rote techniques.
Fun is not a bad thing and when married with cutting edge skill development creates, what we believe, is the highest and best formula for learning!
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