Edutainment at exhibitions

The concept of edutainment

Walt Disney first used the word “edutainment” in 1954 when describing a series of nature documentaries. Later, zoologist Robert Heyman referred to National Geographic shows with the term.

The term was originally applied to video and audio content broadcast during moments of educational activity. For example, students in a class being shown a documentary is edutainment. Or children listening to a song in a foreign language class is also edutainment.

The term edutainment is a combination of two words: “education” (the process of transferring any knowledge, skills and abilities and their further assimilation) and “entertainment” (something that attracts to some kind of pastime, gives pleasure and completely engages a person in a certain activity).

Combining these two concepts, we get that the technology of edutainment is based on the concept of learning through exciting action and combines modern technical and didactic means of learning. The educational process turns into an entertaining one, and the student does not notice that he/she learns something new in this process.

Edutainment approach to creating an exhibition

Our experience

The exhibition “Nikolai Kuznetsov. Heroes don’t die” was organized in the format of a detective investigation. From the moment of entry, guests tried on the role of investigators in the case of the Soviet Union’s chief spy Nikolai Kuznetsov. The main task of the exposition is to familiarize visitors with a versatile personality, whose history is shrouded in mystery.

Familiarization was gradual: by picking up a flashlight, one could find seemingly hidden information or work with documents at an antique cloth table with a built-in touch panel. Also at the exposition “magic mirrors” are used, in which N. I. Kuznetsov appears in different agent’s guises.

The space interacted with the movement of visitors with the help of mirrors and immersed in an atmosphere of mystery. It seemed that you were being watched. Guests took with them from the exhibition an understanding of who Nikolai Kuznetsov was, what he did and why.

The next exhibition, where the edutainment approach was the main concept, was the“Alexander Nevsky. The Fate of Russia”. A large-scale project based on historical storytelling in an animated comic book format with interactive and multimedia additions.

The comic book format itself is already entertainment. But in this case, the entire exposition immersed the guests in the atmosphere of the XIII century from the moment they entered. Holograms, immersive 5D-theater, VR-zones, realistic models of ancient cities contributed to this. Everything was accompanied by sound effects, and visitors had the opportunity to become participants of the events.

In addition, the guests were offered to take part in a quest around the exhibition, where the guide acted as a mediator and each participant in the game process got acquainted with the content of the exposition.

In the projects described above, the edutainment approach is the basis of the concept. However, more often, edutainment is found in one or another element of expositions: the project “Ekaterinburg: from the factory to the capital of the Urals” uses the method of sounding the city. In each hall there is a mono-headset, using which the guests can listen to the sound of the city in different periods. This addition engages the guest with the history of the city and introduces them to its periods.

At the finish of the exhibition there is an information kiosk, where you can leave your congratulations to the city in honor of the 300th anniversary or just say hello, as well as take a quiz on the topic “How much of a Yekaterinburger am I?”.

Global experience

Let’s turn to foreign experience and consider exhibition spaces created created by Atelier Brückner and Gallagher design.

The project “Picturing Space” at the Louvre Children’s Museum in Abu Dhabi takes young visitors from Earth to Mars and back again. The exhibit is transformed into a spaceship where each floor is different in design and color. All items can be interacted with.

Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience – The MAX – the museum is an edutainment approach. Mississippi is a place of legend, where creativity and art are intertwined with local life. It is a huge part of culture and everyday life. Based on this thought, the museum was created.

The MAX showcases the heritage of Mississippi’s arts and entertainment scene. Guests are invited to explore this world through audio narratives by artists who were born and raised in the lands of Mississippi.

One more unique example of an edutainment space: National Museum of African American Music. The museum tells the story of African American musicians whose work has become a national legacy in the art of music. Visitors pass the exposition path through the images, trying them on themselves: they listen, sing, dance and immerse themselves in the world of creativity.

Summary

The secret of the edutainment approach is that the exhibition visitor is an active participant of the learning process: only by interacting with the informative and entertaining object we get the very edutainment, i.e. knowledge, individual experience and emotions.