Videos (produced by Alexander Belyakov)
Online multi-stakeholder consultation webinars for Climate-Smart Livestock Strategy Development in Central Asia and Azerbaijan.
Peace and Biodiversity Dialogue Initiative (welcome video). United Nations Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Peace and Biodiversity Dialogue Initiative (workshops video). United Nations Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Sustainability Seminar in Germany. University of Greifswald. Rügen. Vilm.
Urban Agriculture (Module 10 &11). Educational video for the course CFNY404: Food Policy and Programs for Food Security. Ryerson University.
Edutainment presentation at the Faculty Conference “Teaching Without Borders” at Ryerson University. Please download it here: the poster and the video. More about this event here.
Life after the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.
Why Edutainment?
By Alexander Belyakov
Whom we are teaching? If your answer is: “Students”, it is only one part of the whole story. Our students are often from another demographic cohort. Researchers call them Millennials, or Generation Y. If someone is born between the early 1980s to the early 2000s, this is an exact category. The opportunities this generation has are multiplied by technology and innovation approaches.
The Huffington Post Canada (2012) polled Generation Y and discovered what matters more for it as well as which generation divide is especially visible. One particular question has attracted my attention: “What makes Generation Y different form their parents?” (I would add: “And teachers, if they fell in the same group as parents”). The answer is: 79% – technology. Do we also see the same level of differentiation in educational approaches?
Neil Postman, in his book “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” mentioned in 1985 that “we face the rapid dissolution of the assumptions of an education organized around the slow-moving printed word, and the equally rapid emergence of a new education based on the speed-of-light electronic image” (p.145). Nevertheless, some faculty members still rely on a traditional textbook and a lecture approach. At the same time, our students are being ‘‘narcoticized by technological diversions’’ (p. 111). There are many lessons that could have been taught for faculty, how to be more edutaining using the latest innovations. How to engage students with technologies in our classrooms?
Just one example. We already know about clickers. However, it takes some efforts to set them up. Are some alternatives available, especially for technology our students use anyway (laptops, tablets and cell phones)? I tested some tools and can confirm good results with Socrative: http://www.socrative.com/. Another option is Polldaddy: http://polldaddy.com. It is possible to run a free class survey asking students to use their mobile devices. More alternatives are available on the following Princeton University blog: http://blogs.princeton.edu/etc/2012/04/10/alternatives-to-physical-clickers-in-the-classroom/
Technology use offers some variety in education challenging the traditional approaches. At the same time, we should ask ourselves about a differentiation between an excellent educator and a great edutainer as well as how students perceive both of them.
Faculty evaluation seems to involve more and more new factors that review students’ satisfaction in a very broad content. Some researchers have already discovered this trend and warn about possible consequences. “With managerial factors pushing us toward satisfaction rather than education, with lecture theatres full of multi-media devices, with massive open online courses (MOOCs) threatening to make as us all media stars, and with celebrity-obsessed recipients, it would be all too easy for us to be seduced into a superficial world of sparkle and glamour.” (Billsberry, 2014, p. 155).
It is obvious that faculty cannot resist technology changes and the newest trends that have arisen from their use. Therefore, here is a need for discussion about edutaiment, student satisfaction and achievement. Billsberry asked some excellent questions I would share with you: “Do student satisfaction scores have any effect on what is happening in the classroom? Do students understand the power they hold over their instructors? Do management educators recognize and respond to these dual pressures of satisfaction and achievement? If so, how are they responding? Are management educators becoming management edutainers?” (Billsberry, 2014, p. 155). If we find answers for them, education will be never the same again. Generation Y looks for more fun in education, and we should be able to response to the new expectations on a professional level.
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