Coupling Education with Entertainment - in conversation with James Rosseau
Technology and media for entertainment and educational reasons have gotten broad attention in literature and academia. This phenomenon has given birth to terms like edutainment. A big part of edutainment is a focus on personalized learning.
To better understand personalized learning — imagine a classroom sans the one-size-fits-all approach. The what, when, where and how of learning is designed to meet each student’s passion , talents, needs, and interests. Different people have different kinds of intelligence. A child who’s intelligence is primarily spatial, may find it difficult to learn arithmetic when a teacher is doing problems on a blackboard. However, if the same subject is taught in a different, and fun way, then he/she may grasp the concept immediately. That is the idea behind personalized learning and edutainment.
CEO of The Corelink Solution, James Rosseau has built an organization that empowers people to reach their potential through purpose-driven career development and leadership content, training, coaching, and facilitation. Many of their programs are guided by edutainment — combining education and entertainment.
Edutainment — the combination of education and entertainment has been creating a lot of buzz. It has been extremely appealing to Generation Z. Tell us more about this business model and why it’s effective.
“Edutainment starts with the consumer and the way in which they consume information. Edutainment is media that is designed to educate through entertainment. Most often, it includes content that is intended to teach but has an incidental entertainment value. Think of channels like Instagram and Tik-Tok — a lot of voluntary learning by younger demographic groups happens via these types of platforms. When information is relayed in sound bites, it is more easily digestible. That is why long lectures are no longer the way to go, 5–7 minutes is the ideal time limit in which information is successfully transferred, and resonates. That’s why our program uses edutainment to teach.
“A great example of edutainment is faith-based rap music. Such media intrigues the youth because it’s something they can relate to, and once they have accepted that they like it, the messages being passed on are readily accepted as well. It begins with enjoying the rhythmic value, and ends with assimilating the key messages being conveyed.”
“Radio stations are big as well for edutainment. We leverage our online station for the same, in addition to meaningful advertising in our radio programs which is how we generate funds, whilst simultaneously relaying some kind of message.
“Edutainment offers a huge variety of benefits. It encourages personalized learning, forces a better understanding of theoretical subjects, enhances creativity and visualization, and transforms conventional classrooms into smart classrooms — which is exactly what The Corelink Solution aims to do.”
Thanks for sharing, James.
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James Rosseau is the founder and CEO of The Corelink Solution, a non-profit organization that is committed to revitalizing communities through programs that empower people to reach their potential. With over 20 years of leadership experience in a variety of industries, including insurance, healthcare, and finance, James brings a strong business background.
