Blending Education And Entertainment
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This document discusses how new tools are blending education and entertainment. It provides examples of how various media like Sesame Street, The Physics of Superheroes book, and the TV show The Wire both educate and entertain. It also discusses how platforms like iTunes U and YouTube are designed to distribute educational content and allow educational institutions to set up their own channels, blurring the line between education and entertainment. New tools shape how content is created, distributed, and consumed in fast, cheap, and collaborative ways.
Blending Education And Entertainment
- 1. Blending Education and Entertainment Introduction Presentations: New tools: Alex Chapin, Middlebury Digital Storytelling: Karrie Peterson, Brandeis Constructively participating while maintaining boundaries, avoiding "the creepy treehouse": Chrissa Godbout, Mount Holyoke Critical Analysis of New Forms of Publication: Joy Pile, Middlebury 油 Questions/Discussions 油 油
- 2. It's misleading to suppose there's any basic difference between education & entertainment. This distinction merely relieves people of the responsibility of looking into the matter. Marshall McLuhan. Hot & Cool. 1967. "Marshall McLuhan." Wikiquote 21 October, 2009.油 < http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan >
- 3. Edutainment educational entertainment 油entertainment-education A form of entertainment designed to educate Embedding lessons in familiar forms of entertainment油 based on social learning theories (Albert Bandura) seeks to make learning fun by teaching in a way that is engaging and amusing... related: infotainment
- 4. Sesame Street "if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them" - Malcolm Gladwell, Tipping Point Edutainment
- 5. The Wire 油油油油油油油油油油油油 Similar to Sesame St., but different... Edutainment ?
- 6. Science Museums Pros: makes science accessible and fun Cons: detracts from role of museum as place for historic preservation and deeper education Edutainment
- 7. The Physics of Superheroes , James Kakalios, Gotham, 2005 Entertainment as Education
- 8. Jonathan Franzen, Life in Letters, "Mr Difficult" 油 The New Yorker , September 30, 2002. "I know the pleasures of a book arent always easy. I expect to work; I want to work. Its also in my Protestant nature, however, to expect some reward for this work ." Ben Marcus, "Why Experimental Fiction Threatens to Destroy Publishing, Jonathan Franzen, and Life as We Know It" 油 Harpers , October, 2005. "Contemporary American fiction has lost its innovative edge and its interest in language as art"
- 9. Homer's Odessey 油 Epic poem centered on Odysseus, Greek hero time span: 10+ years
- 10. Joyce's Ulysses Novel centered on Leopold Bloom, anti-hero 油 time span: 1 day Educational but does it entertain?
- 11. 24's Jack Bauer TV series centered on Jack Bauer 油 time span: 24 hours 油 Hero or anti-hero? Entertaining but does it educate?
- 12. Everything Bad is Good for You How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter Steven Johnson,油2005
- 13. Internet Renaissance Classical renaissance was about the individual, self-sufficiency, centralization, top-down Internet renaissance is decentralized, bottom-up, DIY, focus on connections/collaboration, wisdom of crowds Literacy now extends beyond text to include images, audio, video Opportunity to become participants, not just consumers
- 14. New Tools 油 Alex Chapin Middlebury College October 23, 2009 Blending Education and Entertainment
- 15. We shape our tools, thereafter, our tools shape us 油 油 Marshall McLuhan. 油 Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. 1964. 油 "Marshall McLuhan." Wikiquote 21 October, 2009.油 < http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan > 油
- 16. How new tools have been shaped... Fast, cheap and out of control Decentralized Neutral Efficient Flexible Extensible Scalable
- 17. How new tools have shaped us... Fast, cheap and out of control Scalable Decentralized Neutral Efficient Flexible Extensible Connected Collaborative Passionate Social Expressive Creative
- 18. How new tools blend education and entertainment... low cost distribution channels low cost content storage easy to use publishing platforms flexible organization collaborative filtering wisdom of crowds
- 19. Apple iTunes Store iTunes integrates into one Library Music, Movies, TV Shows, Applications, Audiobooks, Podcasts and iTunes U
- 20. iTunes U iTunes U is a channel specifically for educational institutions that is free
- 21. iTunes U iTunes U allows institutions to set up their own channels
- 22. iTunes synchronizes to multiple devices
- 23. YouTube YouTube has categories for education and entertainment , but doesn't offer the same faceted browsing UI
- 24. YouTube EDU YouTube also allows institutions to set up their own channels
- 25. Blending Metadata Apple's recommendations for how to use metadata fields Metadata fields used by iTunes based on ID3 metadata specification that was designed for music
Editor's Notes
- #2: Doc | Spreadsheet | 際際滷s This Google Doc has been set up to help write out ideas about the MBMH Seminar team topic &quot;blending of education and entertainment.&quot;油 In addition to this document a spreadsheet and slides have also been created.
- #4: while edutainment has some value I don't think is is want we're interested in... 油 Historical examples: -parables and fables 油 Modern examples: -guided nature tours that entertain while educating participants on animal life and habitats 油 - video game that teaches children conflict resolution skills. 油 -TV dramas that weave into plots messages about family planning, literacy 油 Grey's Anatomy TV Series--storylines about organ transplantation and cancer 油 Michael Resnick at the MIT Media Lab refers to it as using entertainment as &quot;sugar-coating&quot; for education
- #5: Sesame Street is one of the best examples of edutainment. What makes it exceptional is its playful creative quality and how it encourages viewers to participate 油 -1968 first created -built around an inner-city street to attract viewers from lower income households -utilized &quot;different elements&quot; of commercial television: &quot;a strong visual style, fast-moving action, humor, and music&quot;. 油 -encourage &quot;coviewing&quot; with the use of humor, which was written into the show so that children and their parents could appreciate it together The research team designated a &quot;curriculum focus&quot; every season, and identified and emphasized a &quot;small set of related objectives&quot; that were written into each episode 油 油
- #6: The Wire is another TV show that takes place in inner city. 油 -The Wire has frequently been described by critics as the greatest television series of all time. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] 油 油 Sesame Street was the first children's television program that included a curriculum &quot;detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes&quot;. [39] The Wire is praised as a realistic portrayal of urban life, artistic ambitions, and uncommonly deep exploration of sociopolitical themes. 油 -Both shows involve油 considerably research bringing in experts to inform details/methodology of shows 油 David Simon was a police reporter.油 Co-writer Ed Burns a detective and public school teacher, many involved had 1st hand experience with issues covered by the show Novelistic style -no flashbacks or voice over is used. -the viewer needs to follow every conversation closely in order to understand who's who and what's going on. 油
- #7: Science museums are a bit more controversy.... 油 Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of subject matter and introduced many interactive exhibits
- #8: James Kakalios wrote this book because he loves comics and because science education is so bad! Book is based on a Freshman seminar Kakalios taught called: Everything I Know About Physics I Learned By Reading Comic Books 油 Basic premise is that some of the powers of superheroes could be possible... and teasing out the conditions that would make them possible is both entertaining and educational -How fast would Superman have to run to leap a building in a single bound? 140 miles/hour and then apply a force of 6,000 lbs against the ground... -to do this his muscles need to have developed on a planet whose gravity is 15x earth's gravity... -Did Spiderman's girlfriend die from falling or from Spiderman's attempt to save her?
- #9: This piece in the New Yorker by Jonathan Franzen suggests then writing need not necessarily be &quot;difficult&quot; to be good. 油 see: Mr Difficult: Wiliam Gaddis and the Problem of Hard-to-Read books Ben Marcus takes a opposing view see: Why experimental fiction threatens to destroy publishing, Jonathan Franzen, and life as we know it: A correction Jess Row sides with Franzen and attempts to de-polarize the arguement, see: Marcus vs. Franzen: The latest literary wrangling in Harper's leaves everyone confused. I really want to side with Franzen on this point, simply that good writing need not be difficult to follow and can be entertaining and educational at the same time...油 油 Modernism (and post-modernism) in their attempts to break with the past, critique the present have a bias against the accessible and the popular 油 Franzen distinguishes 2 models for how writers and fiction relate to readers. Status model: -The value of a work of art is independent of how many people can appreciate it Contract model: -work of art as writer and reader, a balancing act between writer and their audience/community
- #10: Odysseus Greek hero -embarks on long journey -overcomes many obstacles -wins back wife Odysseus characterized as having mtis &quot;cunning intelligence&quot; particularly in use of disguise and deceptive speech 油 - Odysseus flaw is hubris &quot;arrogance and pride&quot; 油 Many works of art inspired by the tale including: -the tales of Sinbad the Sailor 油 -Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey 油 -The Coen Brothers' film O Brother, Where Art Thou? 油 -
- #11: Joyce's Ulysses great example of &quot;difficult&quot; modernist literature -Homer's Odysseus is a great war hero油 油 The Odyssey covers 10 years -Joyce's Ulysses, Leopold Bloom, is a regular bloke 油 Ulyssess the novel covers 1 day Joyce said that he &quot;put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant&quot; 油 entertainment comes from comparisons with the past Ulysses for Dummies
- #12: 24's Jack Bauer is similar to Homer's Odysseus in that he is a heroic figure, prone to be arrogance and defying of authority, hierarchies -Jack Bauer's stories are like Joyce's Ulyssess in that they occur in one day.... 油 check out comparison, see: The Longest Day: Fox TV's '24' 油 educates in that it &quot;exercises&quot; your brain keeping track of all the different social networks which are as complex as you would find in a Jane Austen or George Eliot novel.油 油 Johnson, p. 113
- #13: This book makes the case that popular culture has become increasingly sophisticated over the years. TV: in the 60's most TV shows had simple plots, often a single plot per episode.油 Now TV shows such as ER, Lost, Sopranos feature multiple plot lines with many characters moving in and out of central roles 油 1981- Hill St. Blues introduced &quot;multi-threading&quot; in plotlines Flashing arrows- multithreaded plots difficult to follow, often do not explain what is going on, contain references that audience cannot understand or need to wait for explanation social networks: -good tv shows often have complex social networks 油 Gaming: Modern games involve more than just quick reflexes, require in depth knowledge of game environments/rules and complex problem solving skills
- #14: Douglas Rushkoff makes the case that the internet is enabling a new &quot; renaissance .&quot; This &quot;internet&quot; renaissance has resulted in new literacies and new forms of expression. The point to be made is much innovation is coming from popular culture...
- #16: -McLuhan thought of tools/technologies and media as extensions of ourselves -tools and media are used almost interchangably since the medium is the message. -medium can refer to media be it printed word, radio, TV through which messages travel OR the tools/technologies used to &quot;send&quot; those messages -main point is the the medium &quot;shapes&quot; the way we express ourselves and the way we perceive the world 油
- #17: New tools I'll focus on are -internet -web services -publishing platforms Neutral: images, text, audio, video is all just packets of data on the internet Decentralized: Internet consists not of a single network but of many interconnected networks. Flexible: internet protocols are designed to route data efficiently by being flexible, choosing routes based on load, performance 油 -New tools are fast. -content can be created, edited and published far more efficiently than ever before -the cost of producing and consuming content is going down (Moore's Law and cost of computing) -nobody is in control, is increasingly difficult for individuals, institutions, corporations, government to control these new tools and the content produced with them. -tools don't care about the physical characteristics of content, all is reduced or transcoded into binary data
- #18: New tools I'll focus on are -internet -web services -publishing platforms 油 -Neutrality of networks makes us more passionate, gives us a place to say whatever we want -Decentralized nature of tools enables true collaboration because participants can work together as equals... -Flexibility enables greater expressiveness -Extensibility enables greater creativity -efficiency and scalability enables us to be more social connected
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