Gaming In The Classroom: What We Can Learn From #PokemonGO Technology

Despite the negative press, Pokémon Go should be approached with an open mind when it comes to student education. (AAP Image/David Moir, CC BY)

Pokémon Go has already had over 100 million downloads since it launched in July.

Despite its popularity, it has received significant negative media attention, with reports of people falling off cliffs, crashing cars and trespassing. The game has even been attacked for turning users into anti-social zombies.

Yet there could be more positive aspects to the phenomenon if we look past its entertainment value and the moral panic some have attached to it. For instance, how could we potentially harness this app, and the technology associated with it, to support education?

Pokémon Go is not the first augmented reality (AR) app, but it is by far the most popular.
Unlike virtual reality, which replaces or simulates reality, AR takes reality and adds something to it.

Bar codes, QR codes, Viewa - which allows readers to watch videos related to magazine content by scanning the page with their phones – and sound-recognition apps such as Shazam are all examples of AR that have been embraced by society.

QR codes are an example of augmented reality that has been embraced by society. (wikimedia.com, CC BY-SA)

In education, AR has already been employed to make otherwise difficult concepts, such as the structure of DNA or the inner workings of the heart, more accessible.

We know that effective teaching is more than a teacher in front of a whiteboard disseminating information. Learning occurs through problem-solving, enquiry and by working collaboratively with teachers and peers in a student-centred approach.

Experiential learning pedagogy advocates involving all the senses in hands-on, practical education, integrating aspects of more than one discipline in the task and ensuring the learning incorporates student interest as well as developing skills such as creativity, communication and digital competence.

All these factors help students see the relevance of their education and keep them engaged and motivated. Apps like Pokémon Go could be used to advance this agenda.

Playing computer games can be seen as an opportunity to improve students' academic performance, with studies reporting an increase in maths and science scores among regular players.

Gaming in the classroom
Game-based learning is another way popular digital games can be harnessed to teach 21st-century or enterprise skills in classrooms; even decisions about in-app purchases address financial literacy.

Minecraft, for example, has and continues to be used in classrooms to teach concepts such as deforestation, sustainability, communication, problem-solving and teamwork.

Popular video game Minecraft has been used in classrooms to teach concepts such as deforestation, sustainability, communication, problem-solving and teamwork. (Marco Verch/flickr, CC BY-NC-SA)

Pokémon Go makes game-based learning even more accessible as it harnesses technology that the majority of people already have in their pockets.

Pokémon Go has a big fan base among school students and it is clearly keeping them engaged. It can be used as a stimulus for a wide variety of topics over a number of year levels. Pokémon Go is a pedometer, GPS, data collection and journalling tool, and requires maths skills to play. These features can be employed to link playing the game with student learning and the curriculum.

Some of the potential curriculum links are:

• whole-class discussions of how the movement of tectonic plates has affected GPS readings in Australia (science, geography, English)
• photographing both real insects and virtual Pokémon and then writing up Pokédex entries for the insects they have collected (science, media studies, ICT, English, art)
• designing classification flowcharts for Pokémon as a lead-up to classification of animals (science, English, maths)
• assigning students the job of Pokéstop tour guide (Pokéstops are often positioned in front of historical locations), requiring them to research and report on the history of the area (history, art, English)
• framing maths problems around the data available for each Pokémon such as height, weight and strength. For example, if I have 3,700 stardust, what combination of Pokémon can I power up that will use up all my stardust? Or Asha’s house is 600m from school. The only time she plays Pokémon Go is as she walks to and from school every day. How many days will it take her to hatch a 5.0km egg?

Despite media reports to the contrary, there are many positive outcomes for Pokémon Go users. As a direct result of their involvement with the game, they are exercising and often engaging with others, discussing where to find rare Pokémon and co-ordinate lures.

While critics show photos of groups of people each staring at their own devices, anyone who has encountered a “Poképatch” (a group of players standing around a Pokéstop) will know that a lot of communication is taking place, with even “Pokédates” becoming a thing.

Looking at the Australian curriculum, the general capability priorities such as critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability and, of course, ICT, could also be taught using Pokémon Go as students manage their school and social lives, build relationships with others, work effectively in teams and make responsible decisions.

As this game is not played from behind closed doors, it even encourages conversations about personal safety. Discussions about the intersection between reality and the virtual world and digital etiquette are easy to imagine.

Blippar allows users to scan their environment, providing webpages and information when it recognises objects. (Ian Hughes/flickr, CC BY)

There are already apps such as Blippar that allow people to use phones to scan their environment. The app recognises objects (such as your shoe, a phone, the Eiffel Tower) and instantly finds webpages that can provide more information (such as where you can buy it, how it works or its history).

Add that to existing technology such as Google Glass and you can imagine a world where students visit the zoo on a school excursion and have been asked to research an animal of their choice for a class presentation.

As Mia approaches the elephant enclosure, information about what she sees appears before her eyes. She looks at some carrots and data about how much food an elephant eats in a day appears. She turns her gaze to the elephant’s tusks, and a video about poaching plays. As she pulls her focus out to see the whole elephant, an interactive hologram of the animal floats before her eyes, allowing the student to explore features such as the elephant’s DNA or digestive system.

Content becomes immediate and relevant to students as they take charge of their own learning.

Apps, games and technologies such as Pokémon Go should be approached with an open mind as they offer many potential avenues to employ an engaging, student-centered approach to education.

About Today's Contributors:

Amber McLeod, Lecturer in Education, Monash University and Kelly Carabott, Assistant Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Monash University., Monash University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

How #PokemonGo Turned Couch Potatoes Into Fitness Fanatics Without Them Even Realising It

Gotta catch ‘em all. Stoyan Yotov / Shutterstock.com

By John A Parkinson, Bangor University
Pokemon Go is taking the world by storm. Within days of its US release, its number of daily active users caught up with longstanding apps Twitter, Snapchat and Google Maps, and it became the biggest mobile game in US history. Since then, the game has been launched worldwide, creating a user base which spends more time playing Pokemon Go than the average Facebook user spends on site.

Who Are Spider-Man’s Greatest Opponents?

In the realm of superhero comics, it’s probably fair to say that no hero has a more recognizable lineup of opposing villains than Batman. The Joker, Riddler, and Penguin are all household names for anyone even the vaguest interest in popular fiction, and they’ve all been immortalized in animated and live action films alike. And those are just the heavy hitters! Batman has many more antagonists who, frankly, are more interesting and more well known than anyone the Avengers have faced in a film thus far.

But if there’s a silver medal for superhero with the best villains, it probably goes to Marvel’s lovable, web-slinging Spider-Man. There’s always been a colorful cast of baddies associated with this teenage superhero, to the point that it’s difficult to argue which is his main opponent. But that’s just what fans are beginning to do, as we gear up for the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and the beginning of a new superhero series.

What Science Fiction Tells Us About Our Trouble With AI

Mclek/Shutterstock

By Will Slocombe, University of Liverpool

Given that the reality of AI may be fast approaching, it’s of the utmost importance that we work out what might a future with artificial intelligence might look like. Last year, an open letter with signatories including Stephen Hawking and Nick Bostrom called for AI to be of demonstrable benefit to humanity, or risk something that exceeds our ability to control it.

'World of Warcraft: Traveler', A New Book Series For Children Based On The Global Bestselling Game Franchise, To Be Launched Soon

Scholastic & Blizzard Entertainment Announce World of Warcraft(R): Traveler, a New Children's Book Series Based on the Bestselling Video Game Franchise. Image Credit: Blizzard Entertainment (PRNewsFoto/Scholastic)

Scholastic, the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, and internationally acclaimed game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment have announced today a collaboration on a new book series for kids ages 8-12 based on Blizzard's popular World of Warcraft game franchise. World of Warcraft: Traveler will launch simultaneously in the U.S., the U.K.,Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, with the first hardcover book scheduled for release in November 2016, followed by the second title in November 2017. 

Set in the breathtaking land of Azeroth, this epic action-adventure series features a young cast of Warcraft characters discovering the mysteries and majesty of the world around them. 

Written by celebrated comic book author and animation writer Greg Weisman, the first book will include full-page sketches created by Blizzard artist Samwise Didier, and a full-color cover illustration by Blizzard artist Stephane Belin.

"World of Warcraft is a captivating fantasy universe that lends itself to many imaginative and innovative storytelling possibilities. When Blizzard initially approached us about creating an original series for kids, we were not only intrigued but immediately mesmerized," said Debra Dorfman, Vice President and Publisher, Global Licensing, and Media Consumer Products, Scholastic. "This has truly been a fantastic collaboration and we look forward to sharing this thrilling adventure with boys and girls everywhere."

"We're excited to be collaborating with Scholastic on a series that will bring Azeroth to life for a whole new audience," said Chris Metzen, Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development at Blizzard Entertainment. "And Greg Weisman is an accomplished writer who's really gotten to the heart and soul of Warcraft with the characters he's developed here—we're thrilled with the work he's done on World of Warcraft: Traveler."

The video

About World of Warcraft: Traveler 

It's been years since twelve-year-old Aramar Thorne, a clever boy who is never without his precious sketch book, has seen his father. So when Captain Greydon Thorne comes ashore and asks his son to join him at sea, it feels as if someone has redrawn Aram's entire world. Before he knows it, Aram is aboard the Wavestrider with Lakeshire fading to a distant dot on the horizon. But the thrill of adventure quickly fades, as Greydon relentlessly schools Aram on how to handle his cutlass and how to relate with the strange and diverse creatures of Azeroth. In addition, Aram struggles to get along with the Wavestrider's crew—especially second mate Makasa, a tough teenaged girl who has been reluctantly placed in charge of him. Just as Aram starts to get his head above water, a band of vicious pirates attack the Wavestrider, turning his world upside down once again. As Aram tries to find his way home with his father's compass in hand, he'll travel across Azeroth's beautiful and hostile terrain, encountering creatures both terrible and wondrous. He'll seek to understand Azeroth's denizens as he draws them in his sketchbook, forming unlikely friendships along the way. But the journey is hindered by Greydon's compass, which never points north. If the compass isn't leading Aram and Makasa home--to safety--to what destiny is it leading them?

Image Credit: Blizzard Entertainment

About Greg Weisman
Greg Weisman has been a storyteller all his life. He's best known as the creator of Disney's Gargoyles and as a writer-producer on multiple animated series, including Young Justice, Star Wars Rebels, and W.I.T.C.H., and Marvel's The Spectacular Spider-Man. He's written multiple comic book series and two young adult novels, Rain of the Ghosts and Spirits of Ash and Foam. Greg lives in Los Angeles, California.

SOURCE: Scholastic

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Wins 14 NAVGTR Awards

The National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers, a 501(c)(3) non-profit media organization, has announced winners for its 15th annual awards program honoring video game art, technology, and production. 

The biggest winner is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with 14 wins, falling just short of The Last of Us' record 15 wins from two years ago.  Rise of the Tomb Raider and Tales from the Borderlands were the second biggest winners with 4 wins each. 

Three games won three awards each: Star Wars Battlefront, Splatoon, and Life is Strange.  Four games won two awards each:  Super Mario Maker, Rocket League, Crypt of the Necrodancer, and Bloodborne. 

By developer, CD Projekt Red led with 14 awards.  Nintendo won six.  Telltale, Gearbox, and Crystal Dynamics won four awards each.  Other top developers were Electronic Arts, Dontnod Entertainment, Psyonix, From Software, and Brace Yourself Games. 

By publisher, CD Projekt led with 14 awards.  Square Enix and Nintendo won seven each.  Other top publishers were 2K, Telltale, Electronic Arts, Warner Bros, Sony Computer Entertainment, Psyonix, and Brace Yourself Games.

Fifty-six creative, technical, and genre award categories recognize achievement in animation, art direction, character design, controls, game design, game engineering, musical score, sound effects, writing, and more as seen at navgtr.org

This year's Honorary Award recipients are Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man, and Mark DeLoura, for developing programs for children to explore coding.

NAVGTR strongly supports the IGDA Developer Credit special interest group (SIG) at igda.org/devcredit to improve crediting practices.

NAVGTR AWARDS logo. (PRNewsFoto/NAVGTR CORP.)

The general voting body of reviewers, journalists, analysts, and writers includes contributors for such varied outlets as Austin American-Statesman, Break, Chicago Sun-Times, CNN, Futurenet, Gamespot, GamesRadar, Gaming Illustrated, Geek, IGN, Los Angeles Times, Machinima, MMO PRG, Moody's, NBC, New Gamer Nation,New York Times, Nintendo World Report, The Ottawa Citizen, PC Gamer, Polygon, Salon, San Jose Mercury-News, Terminal Gamer, USA Today, The Vancouver Sun, Wired News, and hundreds more.

SOURCE: National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers

TIGA Presents 'Changing The Game': A Collaboration With ITN Productions

CEO of the Independent Game Developers' Association (TIGA), Richard Wilson in an interview with UK national newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky regarding their partnership with ITN Productions and upcoming news programme called "Changing the Games". The aim of the programme is to share knowledge and heighten awareness among policy makers, politicians and the wider public about the significant role that the gaming sector plays in the strength of the UK economy. (PRNewsFoto/ITN Productions and TIGA)

In a unique communications partnership, The Independent Game Developers' Association (TIGA) and ITN Productions are producing a news and current affairs-style programme which will explore the future of the gaming industry. It will tell the story of a thriving industry that given the right support and encouragement at home, could see the UK reach its full potential on the global stage. ITN Productions will also be TIGA's official media partner for the prestigious 2016 TIGA Games Industry Awards.

Could The Hunger Games Turn Your Teen Into A Revolutionary?

By Tom van Laer, City University London

The Hunger Games novels and films have fascinated me for more than seven years.

And I’m not alone.

The popular books by Suzanne Collins are the most visible example of a genre of stories today’s teens are reading voraciously: young adult dystopian fiction.

Dystopian fiction is set in a world where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives. Typically, these worlds are environmentally degraded or governed by totalitarian regimes.

My favorite example is George Orwell’s 1984, a hugely ambitious novel that deals with themes of both personal threat and universal oppression. Orwell’s vision is expressed in phrases like Big Brother, doublethink and Thought Police that are now part of everyday speech.

Even though they may have read 1984 as kids, some of today’s parents worry their teens' obsession with dark fiction means they’ll grow up and overthrow the government – like Katniss Everdeen in Hunger Games or Tris Prior in Divergent.

How real is this concern?

Wood Shop Trap Hits Your Geek Player Technology Score

You didn't submit your classes in time... 

You tried to get into the Advanced Quantum Entanglement class (you did name your cat Spooky Action after all) but amazingly, it was filled. Great. Now what are you going to take. You look down list of available classes and it's pretty ominous. Go ahead and turn the page past the physical education classes. There will be no getting tied up to the school mascot this year, Thank you very much. 

Wait a minute! Underwater RC submersibles. Oh crap! It just filled up..most likely one of your friends stole the last spot. 

IP Address Geek Game Perk

Silly human adults. They busy themselves with work, groceries, and Modern Family. 

Every now and then they look up to check on you in your eternal hibernation in the the cluttered space you call a room but, sometimes, they need your help and that's when the tide turns in favor of every self-respecting geek.

Yes, Mom...you may pay the bills but I set up the remote control, the DVD player, the Wii (really, you can't even register the remote??)

The History of the Flight Simulator

Flight simulators (commonly known as airplane games) are software programs that allow the user to experience flying an airplane without all the dangers involved. This article will discuss the history of the flight simulator. 

Freddy Schillinger Geek Player Profile

Freddy’s world is awash in numbers, both real, imaginary, and very very long. Most kids get a snowcone and they’re mainly concerned with whether to go blue (completely natural flavors) or rainbow. Freddy is deep in thought as to the crystalline make up of the individual ice crystals in near reductive symmetry and the overall cone shape as a reference model to a visible universe expanding in both time and space. Years of calculating pi to the 32nd place and practicing the quadratic equation to various show tunes such as BINGO have made him a master of all things numeric and equally earned him a top spot in the Fantasy Geeks game on Facebook. Let’s find out how Freddy “Exponent” Schillinger came up.

What The Cloud Technology Will Mean For The Video Gaming Industry

The Cloud is a new system for video gaming designed to allow for saves and games to be more easily transferred from console to console without use of memory cards and other items. 

This innovation allows gamers to play games by streaming them from a "Cloud" system that stores the individual games. While the games will also be available for download for faster and more stable play, the Cloud itself is always an option with these games.

Dead Space 3: The Best Title In The Series

Let me give you a quick glance at the gameplay before we get on with the review, imagine that you are low on ammunition and your health indicator is dangerously red. There are more number of enemies than you expected and they have forced you to track your way in to a corner. What would you do, would you go all out with guns blazing, hoping that somehow you will hit all enemies with perfect lethal shots and emerge victorious? No, instead you and your partner improvise. Yes, you are not alone and that’s one of the strengths of this game. You and your partner work in collaboration and use your kinesis abilities to impale the enemies with their own limbs. You romp their corpses and then salvage to reload for the next battle.

Its moments like these that help the dead space 3 emerge as the clear winner amongst the most exciting games for PC in the year 2014.

5 Of The Hottest Female Gamers

Some treat the concept of hottest female gamers with a certain amount of derision. Even so, it’s hard to deny the appeal of beautiful people who just happen to love video games. And this isn’t just about models pretending to play Call of Duty or World of Warcraft. This is about hardcore female gamers who just happen to be very easy on the eyes.

5 Amazing Rube Goldberg Machines

People find strange and amazing ways to spend their time. Concocting Rube Goldberg machines is one brilliant example of just how humans choose to express brilliance and wackiness simultaneously. A Rube Goldberg machine is a device that goes to extraordinary and often comic lengths to create a complex machine that performs the most mundane tasks. The challenge is often in the flawless execution of the machine due to the fact that its complexity can cause it to fail nine out of ten times. Indulge your need for the extemporaneous by checking out just a few of these feats of ridiculous engineering.

Gaming: Where Trolling Began

The phenomenon of online ‘trolling’ is a fairly new one, with its roots dating back to the early 2000s. The origin of Internet trolling can be found in the first instant messaging services, such as MSN Messenger, where – unfortunately – school playground bullies could now take their daily activities online and into the evenings and weekends as well.

But the real foundation of trolling can be found in technological advances such as faster Internet connections and Xbox Live, both of which facilitated online gaming and made it more accessible to a greater number of people. What started as a fun way to meet new friends online quickly became a bit of a nightmare.

StarCraft II Heart Of The Swarm - Lackluster Storyline But Multiplayer Still Great

Some StarCraft fans out there are still a little annoyed that Blizzard opted to turn StarCraft II into a trilogy. However you might feel about it, the nice thing about that move by Blizzard is that we’re getting some pretty interesting games. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm delivers an impressive, zerg-themed campaign. It’s certainly far more than just running the same thing as what we got from StarCraft: Wings of Liberty in 2010.

'Elite: Dangerous' To Be Launched In 2014 Thanks To Kickstarter Funding

A release date has finally been set for ‘Elite: Dangerous’, thanks to more than 22,000 hardcore gamers funding the project via Kickstarter. The game will now be released on PC in March 2014. The original game, Elite, was first released in 1984 for the BBC computer by Acornsoft and anyone who was playing games at the time (myself included) will go all nostalgic and weak-kneed at the mere mention of this classic game. Of course back then it had none of the imagery or characters of modern games and contained no landscapes or movie-like cut-scenes. It was a game that took up less than 23K of memory, (probably less than the word document I am currently typing) and yet in that 22k, using lines and dots it managed to pack eight galaxies with hundreds of planets, star systems and days upon days of flying, trading and fighting, (not to mention a good few frustrating hours learning to dock the ship at a space station - before you were able to upgrade and buy a docking computer). ‘The Frontier’ follow-up contained billions of planets and the complete Milky Way and most of us remember playing it for months on end, desperately trying to upgrade our characters to ‘Elite’ status.

Tomb Raider Review " An Awesome Reboot Version"

It seems like the gaming world is going through a season dominated by “reboot” instalments of various popular franchises. The latest game to be “rebooted” is no other than Tomb Raider which introduced the world to Lara Croft, a female hard as nail protagonist. Critics of the game might argue that Lara is nothing but a gender equivalent of Indiana Jones or the male protagonist from uncharted series, but the truth is, over the years she has developed a distinctive personality of her own. The latest instalment in the series follows the very first exploits of the young heroine, chronicling her transformation from a ship wreck victim to the fearless and death defying iconic figure, we’ve all come to know.