My childhood draws countless parallels to Curtis from the article “What Pokemon Can Teach Us About Literacy and Learning.” Like many folks around my age, I logged hours…maybe even days trying to catch ’em all. I can recall my first experience saving money was to save for a Gameboy in order to play the original Pokemon Blue. Whatever analogy you can think of…a kid in a candy store, a pig in poo, or a tornado in a trailer park…I was over the moon playing Pokemon on my Gameboy. Like Curtis from the article, I collected the cards, and grew the with franchise. My brother and I had tshirts, bookbags, blankets, action figures, books, and anything else Pokemon-themed. My friends and I sketched Pokemon and even designed our own; collected trading cards and understood their value; talked, played, discussed, and strategized with our friends. We even tuned into the TV show whenever we could, as saw the movies. New games came out: Yellow Version, then Platinum and Gold; Crytal; Ruby and Sapphire and dozens more! My cousins and I would play pretend Pokemon in the yard. We’d use our imagination to capture a fierce and fire-breathing Charizard. In our imagination, Pikachu would follow us around. At school, Pokemon was enormous within social circles. I remember the conversation on more than one occasion with more than one childhood friend: “What if Pokemon really existed?”
To me at that age, I didn’t realize how much learning was actually occurring through the Pokemon Universe. The article goes on to outline exactly what skills are constructed through engagement with Pokemon. Many of the situations cite Curtis’ involvement in drawing and trading the cards. I’d go farther to argue that immersion in the pocket game did just as much to strengthen literacy skills. As an emergent reader when I became aware of the Pokemon Universe, reading became an important skill to master. In order to play the game, I had to be able to read the text and understand what to do and where to go. Reading the directions was critical to understanding the objectives of the game. I was introduced to new vocabulary, and challenged along the way. I can draw further connections to just about all of the skills outlined in the article, and my guess would be many other people could too.
So if the 1996 emergence of Pokemon had the sweeping affect on children’s development of multiple literacies, it would make a ton of sense for the 2016 resurrection of Pokemon to bless another aspect of learning…and they did it again. The Pokemon-Go game uses augmented reality. According to the article “What Is Pokemon Go, and Why Is Everyone Playing It?,” Lily Hay Newman defines augmented reality as “digital worlds that incorporate players’ actual GPS positions within gameplay.” So basically, you’re in the real world as well as this augmented reality at the same time through some device. In the case of Pokemon Go, the medium is your cell phone. Players walk around within their environment to catch and collect Pokemon and are able to progress through steps similar to the old Gameboy game.
Augmented reality is a new wave emerging in the Ed Tech world, with many unique features certain to help reshape our current educational system. Daniel Williamson’s 2016 article “Five Things Education Technology Could Learn from Pokemon Go” outlines what researchers can analyze in order to move eduction forward into the 21st century. The augmented reality aspect ties together this fantasy world as well as students’ natural environment. Learners actually go out and explore their community as a means to play the game rather than being stuck in front of a stationary screen. The augmented reality aspect peaks the interest and excitement levels of the players. Secondly, the game is at the Goldilocks level. It isn’t too hard, or too easy. The game presents challenges that are “just right” for their current skill level, whereas more experienced players have to conquer more challenging tasks. Further, Pokemon Go features gradual exposure for the learners so they don’t feel overwhelmed. The game is always introducing something new so players need to build on their skills. The term “Growth Mindset” is a hot buzzwords in the education world, and Pokemon Go naturally encourages users to develop their own growth mindset. And finally, Pokemon Go uses the technology to create a community in real life. The Pokemon community is expanding with the emergence of Pokemon Go.
Traditional classroom teachers are limited by Augmented Reality’s success. Designing an augmented reality lesson where students need to go out into the community would be unreasonable given the constraints of a typical school day. However, I do see an enormous benefit to using augmented reality. One advantage that I see is simply getting out of the house. Our current state of affairs of the country has a lot of folks staying inside, but augmented reality games could promote some adventurous encounters. We’ve also seen in the past how communities of learners can help positively impact learning, so there is another unique benefit. On the other hand, I don’t think the general teaching population knows where to go to access rich augmented reality material. Even if I did want to try something in class, I’m not familiar with where to go to find augmented reality resources.
Pokemon Go and the emergence of Augmented Reality certainly have the potential and capability to move eduction forward, but I believe there is still a lot of mainstreaming that needs to occur before teachers can begin formally implemented augmented reality lessons as part of their coursework. I think Augmented reality experiences are meaningful when experienced naturally and due to students’ own interests. Like the Pokemon craze of 1996 and the Pokemon Go craze of 2016, those interested in the topic can learn an immense amount of about the topic, and experience rich learning opportunities along the way.
Resources:
Five Things Education Technology Could Learn from Pokémon GO.
Reality Has Always Been Augmented: Play and the Promises of Pokémon GO