Now that's edutainment...

Education + Entertainment = Edutainment, my new favorite word.

Okay, it is daunting to think about all of the technology looming out there waiting for me to pick up my game and get on board.  There.  I said it...daunting.  I would be an incredible fibber if I said, "I got it."  My biggest concern?  Hmmm...perhaps that even if I try to incorporate new technology, my learning curve will be much slower than my students'.  They really will "get it" and I will be behind them trying to catch up.  I have no problem learning from my students, as long as I do eventually learn.  What if I don't?  What if my immigrant status and thick accent hold me back?

I have now created a webpage and a webquest, and even though  I think they are acceptable, they are not as cool as I would want.  I feel like I have the basic idea, but I want them look better, more professional maybe.  I guess I am expecting too much from myself (and maybe from Google :).  This process, though, of attempting to use a technology that is new to me, is my ticket out of the old.  I know that.  For me, the way to alleviate my fears is to face them head on.  I learn best by feeling free to try without fearing failure.  If I have enough information to get started, I can at least figure out what questions I need to have answered.  That is the way I learn. 

I wish I knew how to instruct my kids to create video games to learn The Odyssey.  Odysseus would have to fight his way off each island in his quest to return home.  He would have special powers, special weapons, and a team of warriors to assist him.  That would be "winning" as my students (and Charlie Sheen :( would say).  That's edutainment, and I am loving that idea.  Even though I am not quite ready to design that nerdy but super neat video game, I am edutainment, or at least the 90's version of it.  I have always been a weird teacher.  We don't just read The Odyssey, no, we create "Odyssey, the Musical."  Right in the middle of a dramatic re-creation of the Cyclops scene, a kid pulls out his ipod (Oh, yeah, I'm cool like that), plays a song, and lip syncs the words.  That is edutainment.  I guarantee that kid remembers the story. 

Edutainment...a way for kids to take old stuff and make it new.  Our musical might not be as techy as a video game, but are the kids learning?  What are they learning?  They are learning to take some ancient story and make it their own.  They are connecting this fairy-tale to music that they know and love.  (Odysseus and Lady Gaga...what a pair!) In order to do this, they truly have to understand the story.  They are learning that they can understand something that seemed foreign to them, and they can master it.  They are learning to never underestimate their abilities.  Isn't that the point?  Edutainment...entertaining education that captures kids and gives them a way to bring something to themselves in a way they understand.  I wish I could make video games, but until I can, I will turn on the marquee and let the music play...