Our genre can be broadly categorized as edutainment, education with an entertaining twist. The genre includes a variety of mediums, such as texts with referenced images, comics, and video blogs. Since it is a conglomeration, it takes from academic genres (textbooks, journals, interviews, etc.) and presents them in a conversational manner. The following are examples of the genre: TED Talks, xkcd: What If, Computation Fairytales, the Cartoon Guide series, and the Manga Guide series.
Let’s take a look at two in the lists: Computational Fairytales and the Cartoon Guide series. The former introduces basic programming concepts through a collection of narratives. It first lays out the story for each chapter, and then presents the problem (loops, Big O notation, algorithms, etc.) with images to clarify the comparison. For example, it introduces Djikstra’s algorithm, a shortest path algorithm, by having the protagonist help a village find the most efficient emergency route. The village is divided into sections, representing the nodes in a graph, and connected by bridges, representing edges between nodes. Throughout, the reader is placed in the main character’s perspective: the reader learns the concepts as the protagonist learns or presents them.
The Cartoon Guide series takes another approach to the genre by presenting information in comic format. The books themselves do not have a concrete storyline, rather the characters act as a guide, occasionally making humorous commentary and references to make the text more entertaining.
Edutainment is a great learning tool, as it appeals to a wide audience from children, who are still learning basic necessities (language, calculations, etc.) to adults who are simply interested in new ways of learning. Certain items in the category may be intended for a particular demographic, but overall, they are for broad consumption.
The genre is a response to typical education techniques. It tries to engage its users to maintain their attention. It is not internal to an organization or field; it is created by those with backgrounds in the targeted subject or by a group of people focusing on different aspects of the composition (scientists, writers, artists, etc.). Additionally, it can prompt other genres, such as critiques, student essays/responses (like this one), and scientific studies (on its process and effect); and even inspire other genres, or subgenres, such as educational video games.
To form our schema, we can review examples of works in our genre and sort out their commonalities. Edutainment is broad, but perhaps the layout can include small sections with brief explanations of the topic and then relatable comparisons accompanied by images. We may also find it helpful to speak to the people who create in the genre. Another idea is to inspect the parent works that make up our genre first.
