Week 9 Blog

When I was a kid my favourite cartoon was Batman: The Animated Series

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The reason I enjoyed this show so much was because of the stories and the detective feeling to the plot. While like any young boy I enjoyed a bit of cartoon violence, each episode drew me in because there always something for Batman to solve. I think this says a lot about what makes children interested in a piece of pop culture.

While it seems obvious; there always has to be something to draw the child in. Another show I was very much involved with as a child was Pokemon, the catch for this was all the extra information surrounding the show. You could not only learn about the different Pokemon creatures but collect the cards as well. It became a social thing where you could talk to friends about it and trade cards with them. While Batman did not have that same social aspect, as I would usually watch it with my brother and had no other friends who had a strong interest in it, it shows that for something to be memorable a kid needs some kind of hook. Arguably Pokemon did not have the same high level of plot development as Batman: The Animated Series it did have something else to keep the children entertained. As everyone knows it was extremely popular.

This could be a very good concept to keep in mind when it comes to educating children as well. By incorporating some sort of hook children will more likely to be engaged in the topic. Personally I think the type of engagement that the Pokemon phenomenon had would be ideal. While it would be almost impossible to generate that kind of hype the same way again, it would be interesting to see what could be done with a trading card system that educated school kids.

Going back to the idea of the detective style plots in Batman: The Animated Series, I think educational videos could learn a lot from this. Care must be taken though that everything will appeal to a child, as I personally remember many videos shown in class as a kid that were just so awful it was hard to take seriously. While the idea of a hook may be at the core of a way to engage children, no other aspect of quality should be neglected. 

Overall I think it is important that when teaching kids, the focus should be on getting them engaged.