Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Modeling a Solar Powered "Edutainment Center" in my Study/Sunroom

The term edutainment is recent word combining the ideas of entertainment and education.  It has been suggested that the first forms of edutainment were parables and fables.  The actual word edutainment was first used by the Walt Disney Company as early as 1948.  The word itself can be attached to various modern day learning modules.  Education-Entertainment is a blend of basic communication theories and fundamental entertainment pedagogy.  In media, the term can be applied to early games such as The Seven Cities of Gold released in 1984 for the Atari 400/800 with version a version released for the Apple II.  An episode appeared on TV in the sitcom Happy Days that resulted in a dramatic increase in the demand for library cards.  Radio is another source of edutainment in the media.  The academic world has used this in the form of presentations, class skits, etc. to keep the attention of tired students. For me, infomercials are a form of edutainment.  At any rate, for my purposes, a way to present solar shed projects and products is by building what I dub an "Edutainment Center."  For me, the product below is a great device to include in a solar system containing an "edutainment center."