Edutainment, or how to learn while having fun

Make learning fun. This is the objective of these online teachers. On TikTok, many teachers have decided to share content on their main subjects by adapting their style to appeal to young users. In order to capture their attention, these teachers/influencers played with language to explain historical facts in particular.

When teachers use the expressions of younger generations

It is by using the vocabulary and expressions of younger generations that these creators hope to make their content educational and entertaining. This is what we call “edutainment”, the contraction between “education” and “entertainment” – or “divertissement” in French. The hashtag has also reached more than 579.6 million views on the Chinese social network, proof of its success.

All over the world, the accounts of these teachers are a hit like that of @laurencella92. Followed by more than 153,900 subscribers on the Chinese social network, this creator who appears in a classroom, without specifying the educational establishment in which she works, published a series of videos entitled “Gen Z history”. 18 videos through which she retraces historical events such as the story of Cleopatra, the independence of Ireland and the Cold War. Punctuated by expressions used by young users, these videos reach millions of views. Appreciated by the youngest, [“J’ai mieux compris que lorsque mon boomer de professeur d’Histoire en parlait“, a commenté une utilisatrice.] they are also a source of inspiration for other teachers: “I teach the First World War to fifth graders and I want to show them this!!!”, commented ashley.c.taylor under a video dealing with the Great War.

TikTok accounts that are a hit

In France, the @ accountpaltoquette, followed by nearly 180,000 subscribers, tells with humor and frankness, not without a touch of vulgarity at times, the stories of contemporary and historical characters. With provocative titles “The Dirty Duchess”, “She has 200 guys!”, the creator also uses a language that is familiar and common to young users to hook them and thus gain valuable views on her videos, and it works. “But you have a way of telling that, incredible 😂😂”, commented user Morgane Vittore under a video.

Jokes, flowery language, adding extracts from clips, sounds and photos, everything is good to entertain the gallery while sharing historical information. Here again, the videos get hundreds of thousands of views and some even reach a million. “I could listen to these anecdotes for hours, it’s great“wrote user Chtumpik.

The world of education is one of the most popular worlds on TikTok. The hashtag #ApprendreSurTikTok is one of the most popular on the platform, just like #tiktokacademie with 22 billion views. Creators and teachers like YannToutCourt, one of the most followed in France, contribute to fueling this phenomenon by producing content on historical facts. And the latter also plays on this edutainment trend. One of his videos has the caption: “Here we learn in relaxation 😌 What is your favorite historical coincidence? #HASlearnAboutTiktok #TikTokAcademie”. More than 770,000 people follow him on TikTok.