That's Edutainment Baby!

<p><strong>That’s Edutainment Baby!</strong><br> <br> <br> It’s not a neologism, a new word, though it is a portmanteau and though it’s not used much outside of the education industry – not enough that you won’t find argument around a scrabble game – trust me – I’ve had the argument - If you type it into Word you won’t get a red underlining so yeah, it’s legit even if not common on the street. It is edutainment <br> <br> Edutainment = Education + Entertainment. <br> <br> This is a concept that has existed for hundreds of years. Current technology has heightened the ability for edutainment to be used by teachers. This is great in my opinion however does the exponential forward movement of tech perhaps give us pause for thought? Are there any cons that we need to be wary of? Are there risks to mitigate? I think that’s a worthy discussion to be had which will make for a great deeper dive podcast in the near future. <br> <br> <br> </p><p><br>The Renaissance and Enlightenment movements presented this combo of education and entertainment to students with great success. Learning is fun! Or it can be. <br> <br></p><p> </p><p><br>Good old Benjamin Franklin, with his Poor Richard's Almanack promoted edutainment, by combining entertaining and educational content such as puzzles. </p><p> <br> Uncle Walt of Disney fame developed the idea of edutainment event further with the short educational film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Tucker%27s_Tooth"><em>Tommy Tucker’s Tooth</em></a>, which was commissioned and shot in 1922 for the Deneer Dental Institute. <br>  <br> <br> Side note: My wife and I were commissioned a few years back to write children’s songs for a Dental campaign. The kids got to enjoy singing about not fearing the dentist, avoiding lollies for breakfast, that sort of thing. That’s edutainment baby!<br> <br> As the USA stepped their red white and blue feet into World War II a relationship between Disney and the U.S. government was created. <br> <br> <br> That was when Disney really started to