Edutainment

A regular contributor to the blog, Steve, (check his post in the training zone) commented on my post yesterday about another term that he had heard which is edutainment which could then bring about another term for a person who provides edutainment, the edutainer. I think I might have created that term. Wikipedia actually has an article on this. There is a large number of articles on edutainment. What interests me about this is that to a certain extent I have always thought that the good trainers, the really good ones, were naturally good entertainers. That doesn’t mean they can tell a great joke or juggle three whiteboard pens while talking but that for learning to stick there has to be a certain amount of entertainment to the whole process. The only exception to this would be when you are talking to a group of highly motivated, keen learners who have a burning interest in your topic. Not always the case. I can remember some  seminars that I have been to that I wasn’t all that interested in but the trainer was so entertaining that I listened and I learnt even though I had never intended to. There is a danger here though. If you become too much of an entertainer you may not  get your point across and the fun aspect may take over from the importance of the topic. Linking this all back to my post yesterday, edupreneurs will have to be edutainers as well because if you can’t entertain then you are not going to be able to sell your products, ideas, innovations and services. Do you agree? Is entertainment a part of training? I am not  sure that many university professors would agree?