Executive Summary We Downloaded Pokeomon Go to See What All the Fuss Was About and Were Intrigued When Our Experiences As a Family Matched the Game Creators Aims

ISTE DigCit PLN Pokémon Go – Back to School Advice

Executive Summary We downloaded Pokeomon Go to see what all the fuss was about and were intrigued when our experiences as a family matched the game creators aims. Technology delivering on what it set out to do isn’t something that happens every day in education.

Equally, when was the last time that a product launched that so much was written about the game? The amount that’s been written about Pokemon Go in the last 6 weeks has been astounding. We are sure there are a lot of EdTech companies who would love to have this kind of exposure when their product or service was launched.

We decided to explore the game by curating and listening to what educators were saying about Pokemon Go. When reviewing these articles in relation to Digital Citizenship we organized the data under the following headings: The Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship, The way ideas get adopted and The Technology Adoption Cycle, we consider the cost of Free EdTech before exploring the views of K12 educators and college staff before exploring some of the articles with safety advice, advice for parents, the health benefits and the social impact of the game.

For any educators who are already exploring the game we have some Subject Related Ideas. This is something that our friends at the ISTE Games and Simulations PLN added to with some fantastic content regarding how educators can take advantage of all the Pokemon Go buzz

Background: We take a look at the background of the company that created Pokemon Go, and hopefully provide the basis of a social studies lesson by asking have things changed all that much between the 1850’s, Niantic CEO’s childhood days and today.

We also hope that there is a digital literacy lesson here and highlight the need for critical thinking when reading new articles.

The Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship: Through our amazing PLN Eugenia Tamez provided some ideas around how she is using Pokemon Go to explore the nine elements of Digital Citizenship. This then led to DigCit Kids Ambassador, Curran Dee, coming up with a Pokemon themed poster.

Pokestops... And a Lot of Pokeballs: There has been a good deal written about people going off the beaten track in their attempts to “Catch em all” leading some news providers and commentators to speculate about the dangers of the game. We attempt to unravel the facts from fiction by detailing the criteria for Pokestops, the creators views on safety and education, examples where pokestops have been removed and that businesses can now request to be a Pokestop. We also consider whether schools should be Pokestops

Technology Adoption Cycle: Given the number of sales calls educators get, the number of exhibitors at education events and all the requests EdTech companies put in to ask for

testimonials etc, then comparing with Pokemon Go rolling out overnight. We felt this was something worth exploring!

We offer some explanations for Pokemon Go impressive adoption and demonstrates how this overnight success has been years in the planning. These are ideas that DigCit Leaders could perhaps use with colleagues in their advocacy work encouraging colleagues to become connected educators.

Free EdTech: Pokemon Go may not have had such a rapid level of uptake if it wasn’t free. This is a commercial game which is making $1.6 million a day in the US through in-app purchases and may be promoting businesses in the near future. We highlight some stories regarding the games’ commercial interests to help educators weigh up the implications of the free game.

Educators Views: We highlight the merits of the ideas from the “The Technology Cycle” section by looking at some of the articles that educators have written about Pokemon Go which detail why some educators are either fans, ambivalent about, or are detractors of the game in education.

We hope that this section adds value to the Technology Adoption Cycle section and the importance of identifying the proponents and early users and giving them the space to discuss new ideas.

College Views: For all that has been written about Pokemon Go in education most schools have been off since the game came out and the one education institution that has had experience of students playing the game is Universities, where the experience has been overwhelmingly positive. We look at universities early experiences of the game.

DigCit PLN Pokemon Go Safety Advice: We look at some of the safety advice that universities, police departments, educators and parents have produced to help people stay safe when playing Pokemon Go. We also look at some of the health benefits of playing the game and highlight stories that detail the social impact of Pokemon Go.

Pokemon Go Homework Challenge & Subject Related Ideas: For those who are at schools who are already embracing the game we share some ideas that educators have come up with about how Pokemon Go could be used in different subjects. For educators who are not able to explore the learning potential during the school day, check out the Homework Challenge

ISTE Games and Simulations Network: The Games PLN looks at a whole range of topics like game based learning, augmented reality, gaming and transferrable skills, other AR games, Metagame book club and #Pokeblitz.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary Page 1 Forward Page 5 Introduction Page 6 Sector Comments Page 8

Background Page 15 Niantic: History & Social Studies Lesson

Pokemon Go & the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship Page 20 Going on a Poke Hunt? Don’t forget to pack some Digcit Poster Information Overload

Pokestops... And a Lot of Pokeballs Page 23 Problems with Pokestops Pokestops and Schools Niantic Passion & Organisational Culture

Technology Adoption Cycle Page 26 Schools Adopting Technology Proponents & Detractors Product Market Fit Early Adopters & Optimal Distinctiveness Network Effects Social Proof Pokemon Go: Ban... Or Explore?

Free EdTech Page 36 Pokemon Go Commercial Interests

Educators Views Page 42

College Views Page 47 Campus Community Pokemon Go at Inverhills College UK FE Colleges

DigCit PLN Pokemon Go Safety Advice Page 58 Parental Advice Privacy & Security Concerns Health Benefits Social impact

Pokemon Go Homework Challenge Page 92

Subject Related Ideas Page 93

ISTE Games and Simulations Network Trying to Catch ‘em All

Introduction Page 111

Beyond Pokemon and into the Classroom Page 115

Pokemon Go and its fit in Game Based Learning Page 116

School Strategy & Classroom Management Page 118

Augmented Reality Sector Feedback Page 120

A Word on AR in Edu... Page 122

Understanding Pokémon Go through AR Research Page 123

Pokémon Go, Augmented Reality and Transferable Skills Page 125

On the hunt for other Augmented Reality Games Page 127

Ingress: The Predecessor to Pokémon Go Page 129

ISTE Mobile Network Photo Quest Page 130

Pokémon Go and other AR games PD Session Page 131

Pokémon Go and Metagame Page 133

Pokémon Go and Information and Technology Literacy Page 134

Pokeblitz Page 135

Acknowledgements Page 138

Appendix 1 - Negative Stories Page 143

Appendix 2 – Pokémon Go EdChats Page 145

Appendix 3 - Index of all articles in the DigCit PLN Collection Page 148

Appendix 4 – Cybraryman’s Pokémon Go Page Page 154

Foreward I have been a fan of Declara since the site went live in April 2015 and thought it would be a great platform to curate some of the fantastic links that were shared during education conferences like ISTE.

Since ISTE 2015 I have explored this platform for a number of projects and it has been a key resource in my efforts to re-skill from EdTech sales to community management and learning about the global phenomenon that is Pokemon Go.

During this time, I have also collaborated with Dr. Marialice Curran on several projects. So, I was delighted when Marialice asked me to collaborate on this Pokemon Go report.

A comment from closing keynote at ISTE13 was “Get out of the Echo Chamber.” In 2015 it was don’t leave the enthusiasm of ISTE on the journey back to normal life. In 2016 it was looking at the shape of communities and how reaching out to Howard Rheingold on social media led to him mentoring an educator on the topic.

I learned a lot from “getting out of the echo chamber” and have learned lots from Rheingold through reading about an early online community called “The Well,” just one of the stories that are included in my Community Management Resources Collections on Declara… including fantastic advice from #Cmgrhangout regulars like David De Wald (@Historian)

I’ve been an advocate for all stakeholders in education collaborating more and feel that a company whose founder is not only a fan of “Extreme, Radical Collaboration” but who has benefited from the wisdom of having 100 grandparents after recovering from a drunk driver hitting her when she was out for a run at an old folks home.

This document and collaboration is particularly timely as the California Education Department has just announced that they have selected Declara as their partner for their #GoOpen initiative.

I hope that this document and collaboration highlights that we are indeed #BetterTogetherCA.

William Jenkins (@EdTech_Stories)

Introduction Given that most schools will have been on their summer break when Pokemon Go came out, it was surprising how many articles were produced about what Pokemon Go will or won’t do in education.

As leaders in Digital Citizenship we have spent the first few weeks curating, and listening to, as many of the perspectives as we could. This report includes a wide range of perspectives on the main issues from within Education as well as other sectors.

The content of the articles we have explored are from schools and organizations who are and/or will be exploring the possibilities… as well as from those who would prefer to see the game banned in education. We have complied this document in the hope of providing a balanced view.

As well as to highlight the diverse range of voices, another aims is to enable the early adopters to explore the positive potential of the game while, at the same time, being aware of the concerns that the detractors have.

Given the number of articles written about Pokemon Go this is not designed to be a definitive collection on the topic. Rather, we hope that it will prove to be the basis of a collection of articles that the DigCit PLN will contribute to both in terms of adding new articles like this collection which was crowd sourced, as well as discussing the articles and insights in this report.

When structuring each section of this document we wondered how to order the articles and, as all voices and perspectives matter, each article appears chronologically.

We provide a summary of each topic to draw out how the articles applies to the Digital Citizenship agenda but hope you will check out these articles and collections in their entirety:

Pokestops... And a Lot of Pokeballs Tech Adoption Cycle Free EdTech General Edu Convo Campus Community Safety & Privacy Health Benefits Social impact Topic Related Discussions

We hope this assists with your exploration of the role that Pokemon Go may play in Education.

We would welcome you to follow these collections on Declara and/or if you’d like to join our steering group where we discuss this further please complete this DigCit PLN Pokemon Go Form

A word about this Document… We have endeavored to keep the editorial comments to a minimum in this report to allow the reader to consider the discussions from some of the articles that we have curated and read. We wanted to save people time by sharing what we read in the hope that people can explore the various arguments and come to their own conclusions about Pokemon Go in education.

To help us achieve this any comments that appear with this colored background links directly to the article so you can find out more about the authors perspective about the game.

Here are a couple of comments to get you started. If you like these comments click on the text to explore the whole article:

Truth, Lies, and Pokeballs: The Sensation around Pokemon Go

I find it fascinating that everyone knows to question Nigerian princess that want to give them money, but will immediately jump on the bandwagon when it comes to stories a company infiltrating our lives and stealing all of our personal information through an augmented reality game. Trust me, they’re more concerned with getting their servers to stay up than to read the emails you send to your grandmother.

Why You Can't Stop Playing: The Psychology of Pokemon Go

It seems like no matter where you look, every other article is talking about Pokemon Go, the latest craze recently crowned the biggest mobile game in history.

From concerns about safety and the decline of non-mobile social interaction to optimism about America’s health and the future of augmented reality, everyone has an opinion about this real-world viral phenomenon .

If you like the article and want to find others like it, if you click on the green number at the top right hand corner of the page you will see other collections that each article is in.

If you really, really like the article and click on the green folder next to this number you can add it to your own Pokemon Go, education or gaming collections.

Sector Comments about this Report “This report really highlights to me the importance of educators keeping abreast of the latest games, apps and technologies that are engaging children and evaluating how games such as Pokémon Go can be used to continue that engagement in a learning environment. Charlotte Bosworth | Director Skills and Employment | Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations

I was immediately drawn to the Social Impact collection... As I read through the various articles about safety and security, I also can't help but wonder if bringing the game into the classroom (or at the very least a conversation of the game) lends itself beautifully to incorporating many of Ribble's elements of Digital Citizenship in context. Jennifer Casa-Todd | York Catholic District School Board | Ontario

"This report is not just for people in the EdTech space... It's a Masters Course on entrepreneurship for today and beyond. Matt Murrie | What If…? 360

I will definitely use this report in my Critical Digital Literacy class this semester! Dr. Julia Lynn Parra (@desertjul) | New Mexico State University

This report provides a lot of beneficial information that shines light on both the pros and cons of using Pokemon go in the educational setting. It provides good examples of how it could be used in the different content areas but it also reminds one to be on guard when trying any new form of Technology Rachelle Poth (@Rdene915)| ISTE 2016 Presenter

This Pokemon Go report is a must read for all educators. Not only did I find the answer to the question I have been pondering since day 1 ("How did Niantic select the Pokestops?"), but also the report is filled with detailed information that can help you determine how you might use the game as an educational tool. You don't even need to ask students to play the game - they can examine the name of the company (see the History and Social Studies Lesson on page 12), debate privacy rights and issues related to apps/AR, or develop a plan for getting Pokemon Go players to go inside and visit Museums rather than just collect Poke items and move on. Trying to find ways to engage students in learning is a lifelong challenge for educators. Fortunately, this report offers a wealth of ideas to help you address this challenge Torrey Trust, PhD (@torreytrust) |Assistant Professor | Learning Technology | University of Massachusetts, Amherst | ISTE Teacher Education Network President 2016-2017

Report Feedback from the Sector: ISTE DigCit PLN Community

“We are just baby steps into exploring the educational benefits of virtual and augmented realities. In these early stages of change, phenomena often emerge as in the case of Pokemon Go. My advice to educators is to reference the 2016 ISTE Standards for Students - http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016 - and explore if the Pokemon Go craze can provide an engaging learning opportunity. For example, challenge the students as Empowered Learners to co-develop a project-based learning program. The students can be Knowledge Constructors by exploring this real world product from multiple perspectives. They can be Digital Citizens and create user guides for safe, positive and ethical use. Perhaps the greatest opportunity is having them be Innovative Designers by using design processes to create AR products that might actually benefit learning based on learning science.” Jim Flanagan (@jimdflanagan)| Chief Learning Services Officer | ISTE

“The updated version of the popular game Pokemon Go using the power of Augmented Reality (AR) has become an overnight sensation for children and adults alike. I can remember when my son used to play the game using the cards with his friends, it created a world for him and his friends to collect, trade and interact with one another. These are all skills that we want our children to have both in the Real Life (RL) and this new Immersive Reality (IR). Digital Citizenship is made up of many aspects that encompass our lives; from Communication to Etiquette and Literacy to Access. When looking at any program or device that delves into the IR many of these elements or skills quickly surface.

Our hope as educators and as parents are to find ways to help our children to learn these skills both in RL as well as IR. Our goal is to balance these two worlds together and AR programs like Pokemon Go begin to shade those lines between the two. The way that many are now looking at the world – often through the lens of a digital device can sometimes show us something new and possibly wonderful. If we are to share this new world through this lens with our children we need to make sure they understand where these boundaries are and how we treat each other both in the RL and IR. Make sure that when you have to “Catch them All” you are also teaching them all the skills too.” Dr. Mike Ribble (@digcitizen) | Director of Technology | Manhattan- Ogden School District | Author of Digital Citizenship in Schools

I remember an article or post that came out, I believe in 2014, with a picture of a group of students sitting next to a Rembrandt, all completely immersed in their phones. One of the captions, read "Teens Ignoring Rembrandt". When did we start not trusting our kids to explore and seek out information? These kids could have very well been researching and digging deeper into the beauty that is a Rembrandt. But many jumped to the conclusion that this was not the case, and they were shamed on many social media outlets.

Numerous museums around the world now use Augmented Reality during their tours, and students can even tour the Smithsonian with Google Cardboard. Tours are now becoming more interactive because of emerging technologies. We should be encouraging our kids to explore and connect. Learning should not just be taking place within the four walls of our classrooms or even museums. Tear those walls down! Amy Storer (@techamys)| Instructional Coach in Montgomery ISD in Montgomery TX | EdChange Global Organizer

Anytime pop culture captures the imagination of multiple generations, educators should sit up and take note. Pokemon Go gets kids (and often, their parents and grandparents) off the couch, outside, moving, and interacting. Because libraries are often Pokestops, that means more traffic for those libraries - something we should all celebrate - as well as new programming opportunities. I encourage you to play the game yourself and let your imagination (and your students' imaginations!) allow you to explore the ways Pokemon could provide new avenues to learning. Some educational examples to get you going are listed on this TCEA blog post. Nancy Watson (@NancyWTech)| Instructional Technology Specialist | Plano ISD

Comments from other ISTE PLN Leads “What educators need to realize, is that being open to PokemonGo isn’t just about playing the game in school. The Pokemon franchise has maintained a worldwide fan base for a couple of decades, and sooner or later, the hype of PokemonGo will eventually go back to the steadfast patronage of loyal fans. Current mainstream popularity has presented the education world with a marvelous opportunity. Good educators can recognize their students’ interests, and great educators find a way to integrate those interests into life-relevant learning experiences. In today’s global marketplace, we are demanding that schools produce creative problem solvers . Effective teachers will not ask students to be more than they are willing to demonstrate themselves. Thankfully we have a diverse PLN to curate, share and give feedback on how to take this great opportunity and make it awesome.” Cori Coburn-Shiflett (@CoburnCori), M.Ed. | Digital Learning Coach in Georgetown ISD (Texas) | 2017 BYOD ISTE Conference Chair

I knew nothing about Pokemon when I first logged in to Pokemon Go to find Squirtle (the adorable turtle). Since then, I have walked more than 100 kilometers, caught more than 1,500 Pokemon, and visited 1,353 Pokestops. The game is captivating and intriguing. It gave me a first-hand experience of how learning can be interest-driven, peer-supported, and active. The learning process for me included a lot of trial and error, exploration of blog posts and discussion forums, asking friends for advice, and sharing acquired knowledge with others. However, while now I might know the difference between a Pikachu and a Jolteon, there is still a lot to learn about the game. And, there are a lot of important questions to ask (e.g., "What is Niantic doing with my location data?").

This Pokemon Go report is a must read for all educators. Not only did I find the answer to the question I have been pondering since day 1 ("How did Niantic select the Pokestops?"), but also the report is filled with detailed information that can help you determine how you might use the game as an educational tool. You don't even need to ask students to play the game - they can examine the name of the company (see the History and Social Studies Lesson on page 12), debate privacy rights and issues related to apps/AR, or develop a plan for getting Pokemon Go players to go inside and visit Museums rather than just collect Poke items and move on. Trying to find ways to engage students in learning is a lifelong challenge for educators. Fortunately, this report offers a wealth of ideas to help you address this challenge. Torrey Trust, PhD (@torreytrust) | Assistant Professor | Learning Technology | University of Massachusetts, Amherst | ISTE Teacher Education Network President 2016-2017

Educators I'm aware of and have Pokemon Go on my phone - my personal belief is that it's important to stay informed about such innovative developments. Having seen where minecraft amongst others has gone as a product in relation to education it's clear there's a lot of potential. Stephen Gilby | Associate Principal | Central Academy

I believe that as with any new form of technology or tool you always have to start with doing some research, making sure that security and safety are in place for the students and all users. We have to make sure that digital citizenship is a priority and that students are protected and also aware of etiquette and netiquette involved. While maintaining student privacy using something like this we have to make sure we respect the privacy of others as well.

This report provides a lot of beneficial information that shines light on both the pros and cons using Pokemon go in the educational setting. It provides good examples of how it could be used in the different content areas but it also reminds one to be on guard when trying any new form of Technology, especially something of this nature which is not simply being used by one person interacting with one tool.

The use of something like this expands the "learning environment", if it's being used in education, then it also involves public location and interactions with many other people. So it is quite important to make sure that lessons on digital citizenship, safety, reminders of privacy, and all other guidelines are set in place. And it's also important to remember as with any form of new technology, to do the research and try it out, make sure that it is of an educational value and will add to the learning potential, but more importantly, make sure that you start small and take steps forward.

Give yourself time to evaluate what it is that you are doing, how it is going and the impact it is having before advancing to the next step. Taking on something like this too much too soon can also have negative effects. So taking one's time, will help to ensure that you have really been able to evaluate the use and effectiveness of a tool such as this. Rachelle Poth (@Rdene915) | Spanish Teacher | Riverview Junior Senior High School | ISTE 2016 Presenter

Academic Experts

Pokemon GO has united players of all ages and reignited interest in mobile gaming. Whilst there are many benefits, such as increased physical activity and educational opportunities, there are also risks that need to be managed. Extra consideration will be needed for the younger players in order to understand their experiences of the game, such as for example how participation in the game may lead them to interact with older players of different developmental stages. Nevertheless, there is great potential to harness the passion that many young people have for gaming to explore new ways of engaging with them. It must be acknowledged though that no single game such as Pokemon Go will appeal to all young people, and so it is important to consider the full range of possibilities afforded by Augmented Reality (AR) games of this type. We should also appreciate that young people may not necessarily wish every game they engage with for personal enjoyment to become conflated by adults for educational purposes.

Whilst Pokemon Go may not maintain its initial level of popularity it is possibly the first example of what will be a trend of AR games becoming integrated into education and everyday life. To explore the evolving role of these games we should engage young people as stakeholders – after all aside from possibly the game developers themselves younger players are likely to be the group who have the best understanding of these games. They will also be the group who will provide the next generation of game developers, which gives us the opportunity to work with them to ensure future games are developed in a socially responsible way.

Cyber psychology Cluster, Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University

Dr Sarah Hodge Dr John McAlaney Dr Jacqui Taylor

The Pokemon Go in education discussion should be to admit that location-based mobile games can be a LOT of fun for kids. Our challenge as educators is to build upon their enthusiasm to teach them to create mobile locative games as class projects to teach socials studies and science concepts. With creativity, math, English, and foreign languages can be taught. We should be bringing the IDEAS and ENGAGEMENT of Pokemon Go into the classroom, not the game itself. This is a great opportunity for teachers and administrators to learn about how they and their students can create their own augmented reality games! Dr. Scott Garrigan (@scottgarrigan) | Professor of Practice of Teaching, Learning & Technology | Lehigh University College of Education

I will definitely use this report in my Critical Digital Literacy class this semester! I have only ever played three app games by choice-Pocket Frogs, Words with Friends, and Monument Valley and now I will play Pokemon Go, not so much for entertainment but to learn with my graduate students.

I LOVE how a project like this report brings together a community of educators and provides a springboard for those interested in participating, like my students. My only suggestion is to keep building and networking around this project… count me in! Dr. Julia Lynn Parra (@desertjul) | Learning Design & Technology | College of Education | New Mexico State University

This app builds historical context, tie backs to the curriculum, builds community awareness and enables students to be as independent as possible. Courtney Pepe | Curriculum and Instruction Supervisor | A Harry Moore of NJCU

“This report really highlights to me the importance of educators keeping abreast of the latest games, apps and technologies that are engaging children and evaluating how games such as Pokémon Go can be used to continue that engagement in a learning environment.

Evaluating your performance, communicating , working with others and sharing experiences as well as digital literacy are very often the main themes that employers feel are lacking from so many young people. By highlighting the skills that are being developed through such tools must be a step in the right direction”. Charlotte Bosworth (@OCR_Charlotte) | Director Skills and Employment | Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations

Background

History and Social Studies Lesson When we open up Pokemon Go we are met with the Niantic logo. The company is named after a ship from the 1849 gold rush and which Silicon Valley was built on…Literally.

Not only does this provide us with a fantastic history lesson (Not to mention a lesson in workplace culture!) but, with all the discussion in Europe and the US about immigration, when we compare this story with the second article

'Pokemon Go' is everything that is wrong with late capitalism

It proves a reminder that people paying large amounts of money to start a new life, no matter how risky or uncertain the future is, are not new concepts.

Perhaps students could compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the people in the 1840s who made the perilous journey in wagon trains to a risky and uncertain future. Or students could explore the reason John Hanke is obsessed with maps

Exclusive: Inside the Mind of Google's Greatest Idea Man, John Hanke So, last question, and I want to get a little more personal. Why are you so obsessed with maps and location?

I grew up in a really isolated town in West Texas, so I kind of grew up daydreaming about other places.

And I think a lot of people who grow up in small towns share that feeling of 'I can't wait to go out and see the wider world.'

Then there is the fact that people are paying exuberant costs to human traffickers today and risk perilous journeys with an equally uncertain future to come Europe and the US.

Given that many small businesses are benefiting from Pokemon Go this could also be a useful way to discuss human geography and economic migrants, the brain drain and importance of critical thinking when reading news articles.

Site of the Niantic

The story of the Niantic is that of a ship made rich, abandoned, remade, burned, buried, lost, re- found, and then lost again.

The Niantic was one of many ships that brought eager gold-seekers from around the world into Yerba Buena Cove (now San Francisco) during the frenzied times of 1848-1849.

The Niantic was built in Connecticut in 1835, she was intended for sailing the trade route between the U.S. and China

The amount of money to be made ferrying gold hungry hopefuls to Yerba Buena Cove was staggering, and the Niantic made over 38,000 dollars - over a million dollars in today's money - on its single trip bringing gold seekers to California

On the first day five of the crew deserted, nine more left on the second day, and three more took off on the third. (It may have been about more than just gold, as two of the deserting sailors stabbed their Captain as part of their farewell.)

The ship, left with almost no crew, was simply floated out of the busy bay and purposely run aground

The ship was subsequently converted for use as a store, warehouse, offices, and hotel.

The Niantic is only one of around 50 ships now buried somewhere under San Francisco's financial district.

'Pokemon Go' is everything that is wrong with late capitalism

Technology-based products like Pokemon Go explain a lot about the current state of the global economy.

If you were looking to have fun with some friends 50 years ago, you might have gone to a bowling alley. Maybe you would have hung out at a diner or gone to the movies.

These were all activities that involved spending a certain amount of money in the local economy. That created opportunities for adults in your town to start and run small businesses. It also meant that a teenager who wanted to find a summer job could find one waiting tables or taking tickets at the movie theater.

When you spend money on items in the Pokemon Go world, it doesn't go into the pocket of a local Pokemon entrepreneur — it goes into the pockets of the huge California- and Japan-based global companies that created Pokemon Go.

There are, of course, some good things about this. Pokemon Go can be a much more affordable hobby than going to a bowling alley or the movies. In fact, you don't have to spend any money on it

Money is flowing away from small and medium cities and toward big technology companies concentrated in big cities.

And obviously Pokemon Go isn't the only example of this. Amazon is doing something similar in the retail industry, diverting business away from local retailers and sucking cash into its corporate headquarters in Seattle.

Companies like Google, Facebook, and Vox Media are drawing ad dollars that previously went to local newspapers and television stations.

Of course, America has always had geographic industry clusters that sold products nationwide — think about the Detroit auto business or the Hollywood movie industry.

But there was an important difference: Major 20th-century industries tended to generate a lot of opportunities in communities where their product was sold.

A film might be made in Hollywood, but local people all over America had to build and operate movie theaters. Cars might be made in Detroit, but people all over the country had to run auto dealerships and car repair shops.

App makers don't have to live in any particular location. In practice, they tend to be heavily concentrated in the same big cities as most other technology jobs.

The result is that the internet economy is increasingly transforming America into two parallel economies. Cities on the receiving end of Pokemon Go–style money gushers are booming

so much that acute housing shortages are causing rents to skyrocket. The rest of the country has seen barely seen an economic recovery at all.

Pokemon Go seems unlikely to produce very many opportunities for complementary local businesses.

Since 2008, the US economy has been awash in cheap capital. In a few places, especially Silicon Valley, that has created bubble-like conditions where every crazy ideas seems to get funding.

The success of Pokemon Go points to two big areas where policymakers ought to change their approach.

While the average resident of Kansas City or Baltimore might not have the skills to create the next great mobile game, he or she probably could find work as a schoolteacher, nurse, or construction worker in San Francisco or New York — but only if he or she is allowed to live within commuting distance of technology workers.

More direct income redistribution may be called for — taxing rich people in high-growth areas to fund expanded government services, wage subsidies, or even cash payments to people in slower- growing parts of the country. How businesses are trying to cash in on Pokemon Go craze Businesses aren't just cashing in on the Pokemon Go craze -- they're embracing it with gusto.

The restaurant is adding charging stations for Pokemon players to juice up their phones to make the game's fans feel even more welcome.

For businesses of all sizes, it's clear, Pokemon Go is more than just a game.

The world is a text and when there is something that captures mass attention around the globe, educators must stop and pay attention to how it impacts their students and content area learning. The report addresses the pros and the cons of the digital game and offers an unbias perspective. Teachers need to look at the report for their own understanding of youth and digital cultures as well as think about the elements of gamification from Pokemon Go that can be adapted in classrooms to enhance learning and student motivation. Educators, the press, and players are still talking about Pokemon Go and it seems more than a fad. The article links and diverse perspectives in the report are informative and multidimensional. Whether playing the digital verson of Pokemon or borrowing from the "old school" card game PokemonGo has captured the interests of people of all ages and from all walks of life. Digital Citizenship, Gamification, Play, Creativity, and Curiosity are elements of education that are important to ISTE as well as relevant to all those who work in education. Those who read the report will know what it is, how it works, and why it's important. Michele Haiken, EdD (@TeachingFactor)| Teacher | Blogger | New York

Passion & Organizational Culture Through working with William Jenkins (@EdTech_Stories) we’ve come to understand about the importance of looking at the “Why” of a company, as well as what the company or service can do to facilitate learning.

There has been a lot written about the security settings and privacy of Pokemon Go.

We would encourage people to read about creator John Hank’s journey: His passion for maps, wanting to help people learn, creating games that will see kids (including his own) be more active and his interest in people trying to make their communities better.

When we add articles like “Putting Education in “Educational” Apps: Lessons From the Science of Learning” and “Obesity in Children and Technology” it’s difficult not to come to the conclusion that this might be an organization worth supporting.

If nothing else the second article below is a fantastic example of encouraging students to “Do what they love and love what they do” as John Hanke’s

The Man behind Pokemon Go: John Hanke, MBA 96 “Essay to Haas was written about the opportunity in the space of interactive gaming and technology,” Hanke said in 2014 Haas video. “I wanted to build applications that would deepen people’s involvement in their town or community, to encourage people to actually meet up in the real world.”

Check out the DigCit PLN’s “Pokestops… And a Lot of Pokeballs!” Collection here

Pokemon Go and the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship

Eugenia Tamez, Educational Technology Consultant, Co-Founder of Eduktech, in Mexico and is a member of the DigCit PLN. When Eugenia told us about her work around the nine elements of Digital Citizenship in relations to Pokemon Go we were intrigued!

When my son Curran got involved and created the poster on the next page, we were so excited! What fantastic collaboration and exemplar Digital Citizenship!

Eduktech is a Mexico-based association that helps educational institutions address the challenges of implementing and using new information and communication technologies in classrooms. Eduktech provides tools to help digital age students, teachers and school administrators develop the skills they need to become authentic digital leaders. Above all, Eduktech want to help the world of education bridge the two worlds in which we live today: Real Life (RL) and the online world.

One of the most important and controversial challenges that schools, parents and communities have faced in recent months is Pokemon Go. Fans are excited by its possibilities, while “enemies” wish it had never existed. However, we think that Pokemon Go is one of the best opportunities we have seen recently to introduce the concept of Digital Citizenship to our students. With Pokemon Go, we can broadly educate across all the nine elements of digital citizenship

Besides taking care of safety, let´s change our perspective and see Pokemon Go as an opportunity to teach, learn and connect with new generations. Eugenia Tamez (@etamez)| Educational technology consultant | Eduktech Co-Founder | Necali Centro Educativo

Information Overload The infographic below highlights how much content is produced every minute.

With so many voices and opinions today, it’s more important than ever for Digital Citizenship leaders to be able to make sense of new ideas and concepts and encourage critical thinking for ourselves and our students.

A quick Google search for “Pokemon Go” and 190 million results come up. An impressive achievement for a game that launched 6 weeks ago, but a challenge for time poor educators to curate, internalize and make sense of the potential opportunities (and dangers) of Pokemon Go, and other games that may follow, in Education.

Pokestops… And a Lot of Pokeballs! Before creating Pokemon Go Niantic made two other games Field Trip and Ingress Ingress: The game that reveals Google's secret war to control London (We loved reading about Operation Sitrep: A Series of Tubes).

One article in this collection, Pokemon GO, A Popular Game with Some Troubling Consequences, is critical of the location of Pokestops. This article assumes the location of the Pokestops is software driven, but in actual fact were crowdsourced by people who played Ingress.

The Candidate Portal criteria for these portals can be found in this collection:

As of September 2, 2015, we will be temporarily suspending new Portal submissions for a period of time while we work on processing the backlog and on designing new and more efficient ways to evaluate Portal submissions and edits. You will no longer see the NEW PORTAL option when long pressing on the Scanner.

A LOCATION WITH A COOL STORY, A PLACE IN HISTORY OR EDUCATIONAL VALUE

A COOL PIECE OF ART OR UNIQUE ARCHITECTURE

A HIDDEN GEM OR HYPER-LOCAL SPOT

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

PUBLIC PLACES OF WORSHIP

Please refrain from submitting these candidates, as reviewing these submissions slows down the process for everyone.

Candidates on PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY (including farms)

Candidates that may interfere with the operations of FIRE STATIONS, POLICE STATIONS AND HOSPITALS

Candidates on the grounds of PRIMARY/SECONDARY SCHOOLS

How to increase the chances your new Portal candidate is accepted

In order to help us address our growing queue of new Portal submissions, starting Dec 31, 2014 we will temporarily suspend the Seer Medal. You will maintain your current Seer Medal status

Ingress Portal Map

Problems with Pokestops? Interviews from Niantic detail the founders interest in helping people learn and that safety is a priority for the creators.

Exclusive: Inside the Mind of Google's Greatest Idea Man,

Again, it comes back to it thinking about what's interesting about the world. What's worth noting? And that led us down the path of history and historical markets

Field Trip has a deep collection of local history through a partnership with Arcadia

We want to help people learn What I love is people going out and discovering the history of their town in the process of playing this game

Parents are doing this with their kids. We've gotten emails from parents saying 'We took our kids and visited 12 historical sites in my town I've been by hundreds of times and never bothered to stop before.' It's super cool.

And maybe it's the economy, or maybe it's just a trend, but people are trying to figure out what can make their communities better

As with any new idea there are some glitches, bugs, anomalies and “funnies.” For example, locations Niantic had asked users to refrain from submitting have been used, like Police stations and unsafe areas like the North Korea Border. In other cases the Pokestop did fit the criteria, but the building has been converted for residential use.

Pokemon GO: Police urge gamers to stop trying to catch Sandshrew in Darwin police station

People Are Flocking To This Guy’s House Because It’s A Gym On Pokemon Go

Some articles in this collection highlight changes can be and are being made businesses are now being invited to be added as Pokestops.

How Pokemon Go locations work (probably) highlights that: "Gradually places that are less appropriate... will just die out and the confirmed ones will take precedent. "It's a bit like taking down unsuitable things on YouTube,"

Something that we can see via The mysterious Pokemon Go gym at the border of North Korea and South Korea has disappeared article.

Pokestops and Schools

Getting started with Pokemon Go & Students: Using Lures at your school Pokestop has some fantastic ideas around how to utilize Pokemon Go if your school is a Pokestop but, according to the portal criteria, schools should not be gyms or Pokestops.

Please refrain from submitting these candidates, as reviewing these submissions slows down the process for everyone.

Candidates on the grounds of PRIMARY/SECONDARY SCHOOLS

If Schools are not being considered as Pokestops at the moment but you’d like your school to be one so you can implement ideas from this article:

1) What can the DigCit PLN do to help with this?

2) What would we need to consider before implementing school Pokestops?

One thing that would be easy to implement would be to arrange a Pokehunt at your local College or University that have Pokestops and where the staff are embracing the game.

School staff could liaise with their HE counter-parts while students engage with older students to discuss the game… and find out about what they are studying and the courses on offer.

Pokemon gyms should be located at every school. Beyond the use of Pokemon Go in curriculum it should also be noted that the safest public places in a local community should be the school. If students are going to play this game why wouldn't we want the gyms to be located in a safe place, with caring adults around and typically strong security systems and light campuses. Rob Furman, principal at South Park Elementary, Pennsylvania

We love this Pokemon Go at Inverhills College Article

Technology Adoption Cycle

Something that should perhaps be part of the DigCit agenda is exploring how new ideas get adopted, particularly as Pokemon Go has overtaken the number of daily users that Twitter has.

What has this got to do with Digital Citizenship?

How many proponents of Twitter, Social Media or EdChats feel that their online PD provides the best value, but struggle when trying to encourage others in their school or district to get connected?

As William has explored these issues, due in part to discussions that he’s had with fellow DigCit moderator Susan Bearden (@S_Bearden) and author of Digital Citizenship: A Community Based Approach, we invited him to discuss the articles in this section and concepts like “Early Adopters,”“Network Effects,” “Feedback Loops,” “Social Proof” and “Product Market Fit”

If you are a proponent of Pokemon Go, we hope that these ideas help you exploring the game, as well as help to get traction with your other favorite DigCit resources.

Educators may also want to share these ideas with their EdTech startup connections.

Schools Adopting Technology Articles that highlight why this is an important issue for DigCit Leaders to be discussing include:

Oh god. Someone has already written “how Pokemon Go will revolutionize edu How did we get to this point? Every single tech trend turns into a gimmick to sell education mumbo jumbo kitsch tied to every cool, hip trend that pops up on the social media radar

I guess I shouldn’t been that surprised once Block-chain became educational, or Second Life was used to deliver classes, or Twitter replaced LMSs, or MySpace became the University of the future, or DVDs saved public schools, and so on and so forth.

Five Reasons Why Pokemon Go Will Change Education, and One Reason Why It Won't Disruptive technology is coming for education, and if previous disruptive technologies such as MOOCs, adaptive software, Instagram, Uber, Snapchat, Twitter, badges, Candy Crush, the Kardashians, microcredentials, Comet Hale-Bopp, and so on haven’t managed to disrupt education, then surely Pokemon Go will because something has to eventually.

Should teachers care about Pokemon Go? “Minecraft has trended down since Pokemon Go”

The question here is who makes Second Life, Twitter, MySpace Etc “the savior of Public Education?” Was this a label the companies gave their creations? Was it policy makers? Who is it that is trending Minecraft down?

We doubt that either Minecraft or Pokemon Go is calling or emailing educators to get them to try their games. This is why we feel exploring the way ideas roll out is important.

Something that we feel educators and EdTech companies might benefit from when looking to get traction for a new idea is to get an understanding of the principles that Google, Microsoft and Apple use.

In his book “Lifes a Pitch” Philip Delves Broughton discusses how Apple’s sales methods

Sales Matters in EdTech - Evangalists

Proponents & Detractors There are a lot of differing views about what Pokemon Go might be able to achieve in education. There are a lot of positive comments about the potential in education and in other sectors… but there are also some schools and organizations who are looking to ban the game.

Pokemon Go App launch criticised by the NSPCC ACT public schools off limits to Pokemon Go players during school hours Student Association Statement On The Recent Ban of Pokemon GO

What is a play here is not any one product but the way that ideas roll out that appears to be the root of the problem regarding why some people see potential with Pokemon Go and others may be thinking “Here we go again! The next big thing.” This could be addressed by having an appreciation of how ideas get adapted and adopted.

Why the wide spectrum of views? Geoffrey Moore provides some insight into this with his Technology Adoption Cycle and how the early users (“Tech Enthusiasts” and “Visionaries”) have different “Customer Profiles” compared to users who would like to see solid case studies before they might get excited about the potential of Pokemon Go (Or any new idea).

It’s important to consider all the angles with new ideas (Something we hope this report achieves, as well as the DigCit PLN’s Pokemon Go forum), it’s equally important to give the reformers some space to discuss and explore their ideas regarding new technology.

Product market Fit

“Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market” Marc Andreessen

7 Valuable Marketing Lessons Pokemon Go Has Taught Us You have to start with a good product—for example, even with these marketing advantages, if Pokemon Go was a train wreck of a game, it wouldn’t have caught on.

As a family our first experience of Pokemon Go was so positive that the first thing I did when I got home was to curate articles about the game, starting with the creators aims, which were:

Exercise A lot of fitness apps come with a lot of "baggage" that end up making you feel like "a failed Olympic athlete" when you're just trying to get fit, Hanke says. "Pokemon Go" is designed to get you up and moving by promising you Pokemon as rewards, rather than placing pressure on you.

"To see the world with new eyes" The game is intended to "give you a little nudge" towards cool and interesting things in your neighborhood by turning real-life landmarks and historical sites into Pokestops and Gyms where players power up and battle. By encouraging exploration, "Pokemon Go" can "make your life better in some small way," Hanke says.

Breaking the ice All over the world, players are organizing "Pokemon Go" outings, cruising around their area and trawling for Pokemon. At higher levels, players need to team up with fellow players to conquer those Gyms. This is by design: Hanke describes "Pokemon Go" as an "icebreaker" that "gives people a reason to spend time together."

These were three of the things that stood out to us on the first weekend of playing the game so it was safe to say that “Product Market Fit” had been achieved!

When this happens then the “Network Effects,” “Feedback Loops,” “Social Proof” and word of mouth referrals create the kind of overnight success that the Pokemon Go phenomenon is.

Great products are at the heart of today’s leading companies. No longer is the product independent of sales & marketing… A great product is one that is easy to use, self-explanatory and delights customers Geoffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm

Early Adopters & Optimal Distinctiveness Remember the early days of Facebook or Gmail? Remember how Facebook was only available to Ivy League Universities? Remember when you had to ask a friend if they had a spare invite before you could check out Gmail?

It’s a lot easier to get a Facebook and Gmail account today. Having a closed community like this is a way of putting “Optimal Distinctiveness” to work while getting some vital feedback from early users and, at the same time, creating demand from others.

Many start-ups ramp up sales before the product is ready. Some spend too much time on technology. Others build without getting customer feedback.

Some suppliers ramp up sales before their product is ready…and waste a lot of money! This can kill the company GeoffreyNov 12: Google Moore, Launches Crossing Invite Only AR Game the Chasm

How many more established EdTech companies do you think would love to have the kind of exposure that Pokemon Go has had in the last 6 weeks? Why have they not?

Ingress Started out with Fieldtrip where I’m sure they learned a lot. Then with Ingress this was an “Invite only game” for a year before being extended.

Google Launches “Invite Only” Augmented Reality Game Ingress Beta – You no Longer Need an Invite to Join the Enlightened or the Resistance

As we’ve already seen, the ingress portals provided the infrastructure for the Pokestops. In May Pokemon Go begins field tests and creators were getting feedback from Pokemon fans.

Pokemon GO field testing expands to the United States How Pokemon Go took over the world If go back to that fateful April Fools day, and look at every single gaming website, every single gaming magazine, and basically every place where nerds and Pokefans hang out, you will find people blogging, tweeting, posting and discussing. You will see small update articles and you’ll even see main event stories which were featured on the front banners of these websites exclaiming “NIANTIC HAS ANNOUNCED A BETA TEST IN JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”. So, we have the first ingredient to the insane marketing example that is Pokemon Go. Nerds.

It’s obvious that Niantic tested in classic Google fashion to ensure that they had iterated their way to, and achieved, “Product Market Fit”

Although I have not engaged Pokemon directly, I have seen the frenzy of activity specific to this ‘phenomenon’.

My concerns are direct and specific to Pokemon’s, parallel, documented, advances, in measured, deep learning ,research supported, strategic, individual student success outcomes, that result in advances in measured, deep learning, research supported, strategic, individual student, performance improvement outcomes.

Unless this frenzy has been research proven to strategically advance the above, it has all the elements to be an un-necessary, unneeded distraction, to what really needs to be done to advance student success outcomes.

We should have learned, by now, that blindly following a trend that has no documented research, specific to 21st century, deep, adaptive learning outcomes, has been unproductive and costly (for example: one size fits all learning, delivered over simple technology: whiteboards, elearning; tablets – none of which have advanced student success outcomes)

Blindly integrating another ‘hot’ item into the educational mix, that has not been specifically and measurably documented to be educationally innovative and market proven to advance individual student, deep, adaptive 21st century learning outcomes, is another sprint down the wrong path, with serious student success opportunity costs.

All the credible research suggests, research based, classroom proven, professionally facilitated, educationally innovative software, that seamlessly integrates relevant pedagogy, in a blended and flipped learning environment.

No where do I see any measured validation that this application is strategically aligned to advancing defined, relevant, student success outcomes, any documentation of integrated, research validated pedagogy, nor any mention of documented, 21st century, strategic student success outcomes.

As usual with these kinds of things, they are a real distraction and divert our attention from the things that are research and classroom proven to make a difference in advancing student success outcomes.

Until this has been directly aligned with a strategic, 21st century learning, educational organizational objective and beta test proven to measurably advance, sustained, 21st century deep, adaptive, individual student learning objectives, I am highly skeptical that this is the right strategic focus of scarce educational resources. Tom McDonald (@McDonaldSales)| Managing Director | McDonald Sales and Marketing, LLC

Network Effects The network effect is a phenomenon whereby a product or service becomes more valuable when more people use it. The internet is a good example. Initially, there were few users of the internet, and it was of relatively little value to anyone outside of the military and a few research scientists.

We can see the Network Effect in play in a number of ways with Pokemon Go

Ingress Players: As we’ve seen already, Ingress players created the Pokestops. If there were only a few towns that had Pokestops or if there were only 1-2 Pokestops in each town the game would lack the infrastructure needed.

Pokemon Go Fans This New York Times reviewer told us exactly how we’d react to the game in 1999 At the time, if you were following Ash Ketchum and his pal Pikachu on their adventures to catch all of the world’s cuddliest pocket monsters, you were most likely under the age of 20. Now, nearly two decades later, most of the original generation of Pokemon fans are all grown up

The result is that Pokemon Go appeals strongly to people of all ages, especially millennials who were fans of Pokemon when they were younger

Students: A lot of university campuses appear to have a large number of Pokestops.

Social Proof

"No leader can hope to persuade, regularly and single handedly, all the members of the group. A forceful leader can reasonably expect, however, to persuade some sizable portion of group members. Then the raw information that a substantial number of group members has been convinced can, by itself, convince the rest. Thus the most influential leaders are those who know how to arrange group conditions to allow the principle of social proof to work maximally in their favour" Robert Cialdini’s definition of Social Proof

7 Valuable Marketing Lessons Pokemon Go Has Taught Us Social proof is everything in the modern era. We won’t buy a product unless someone else has reviewed it first. We won’t notice a business unless we hear someone else talking about it.

With Pokemon Go, social proof is visible—when you see people having fun with the same mobile game almost everywhere you turn, it’s almost impossible not to want to get involved.

Equally, of the businesses that are Pokestops social proof has been put to work too, as Ingress players are unlikely to submit a café or restaurant that isn’t one of their favorites, so are all the businesses that are packed because of lures because they do great food? Because of the lures? Or both? Would a pokestop that does rotten for and poor customer service be as busy?

Or, when looking for champions at schools, libraries, museums and businesses who suggest “Our org should explore the possibilities of this game,” there may be senior and middle management staff who grew up with the game who assist Niantic with their advocacy work.

Art Museum Sculpture Park and Pokemon GO Dixon is one of the seven students interning at the Art Museum this summer, and they are all playing the game. In fact some led by Interactive Media Studies Intern Brian Carrell have been helping the Art Museum create a handy google map that shows you where the Pokestops and Gyms in Oxford are located with well over 100 so far on the map, it’s time to share.

Check out the DigCit PLN’s “Technology Adoption Cycle” Collection here

Ban… Or Explore In Pokemon Go and Medical Mindfulness the article observes that:

Our attention should serve as a starting point for discussing how we manage inputs and media while working with patients.

When assessing any new technology we love the advice of Kipp Co-Founder Mike Feinberg and his mantra of “Great Teaching… and more of it.” He asks if the tech does one of two things:

Free up educators time so they can spend longer in the classroom teaching? Facilitate learning outside of the classroom.

Not only does the early evidence and research prove promising, but some might argue that exploration of Pokemon Go would help “Future Proof” the education.

Now that this technology has been introduced to the mass market, consumers will want and expect more.

The next university to offer immersive AR courses with access to educators and subject matter experts across the globe will leap ahead of competitors in attracting the best students.

The advice in #PokemonGo, Being Observant, and Innovation is:

The notion of being observant is crucial to innovation… you never know the impact they can have.

Blogs and Twitter were not made for education, but people made the connection, and now these are two things that I see as “crucial” to my own learning.

In our experience and research we would add to this, it is also important to 1) identify the early adopters and then 2) give them time and space to discuss and experiment with their ideas.

If you are interested in exploring Pokemon Go in education please complete this DigCit PLN Pokemon Go Contact Form and we’ll add you to our forum and other updates.

In When the Guy in the Back Row Turns Out to Be the Man of the Moment John Hanke went back to Haas to help him decide whether to stay with Google or “spin out” and create a startup.

What can educators learn from this example? Through the Digital Citizenship Summits, EdChange Global and Edu Match we have seen what small groups of passionate people can achieve …And this can be as much (if not more) than large bureaucratic organizations!

A Word from the Sector: EdTech & Industry

"If we want our students to experience deep learning and understanding, it's important that we provide education in a way that is meaningful and contextual to their lives," said Dennis Kambeitz, Education Liaison with EZ- Robot, "Phenomenon like Pokemon Go give educators the opportunity to reach students at their inspiration point." Dennis Kambeitz | CEO | STEM Learning Lab

I must admit that the Pokemon Go craze has totally passed me by. Other than hearing about a person who walked off a cliff while playing, I really do not know much about it at all. What I do know and fervently believe is that if the technology behind Pokemon Go presents a viable path towards integrating popular digital tools into an educator's toolkit then I am all for it. We must teach our youth that global networking platforms are tools and not toys. Viewed very much as knowledge banks, we use these networks to make deposits and withdrawals on a daily basis. The very same platforms that our students play on every day are actually vast libraries of knowledge and global rolodexes holding the keys to open many doors of opportunity. If we fail to teach our youth about the higher calling of these social platforms, we are doing them a great disservice. Alan Katzman (@SocialAssurity)| Founder | Social Assurity LLC

Pokemon Go has created excitement and intrigue among people of all ages, but especially our youth. Perhaps as educators we should take a closer look at the design of the game. Is it the idea of gamification, is the social interaction, is it a blend of technology and nature. What has our children so enamored? Next we should see if the phenomenon that is Pokemon Go, that got us all up and moving over the summer can be replicated in our schools and classrooms. If you look back to when Pokemon Go first launched, you won't find any directions or instructions, but what you did see was children willing to figure it out. It is this type of curiosity, grit, determination and perseverance that we need to instill in our students today. It starts with experiencing it for yourself and if you have kids, then do it with them, see the joy and excitement that comes from walking around in nature and catching these little characters that many of them remember from their childhood. After all, the first step in teaching is learning and only then can you truly understand the magic of Pokemon Go. I have done it with my children and it has captivated us all. Enjoy! Don Miller (@DonMillerRI) | Vice President of Education Innovation | GoEnnounce

Free EdTech In 14 Reasons Why Pokemon GO Is The Future Of Learning the author asks:

why pay for an educational app when you can find one for free

However, in the Pokemon Go and Education there is observation:

It needs to be remembered that this is a commercial opportunity for Niantic

With all the free EdTech out there, much of which has Venture Capital funding, this is a question that perhaps needs to be asked… not only of Niantic but with regard to other tools too. This collection of articles includes articles about the commercial aspect of Pokemon Go.

This is a free game with commercial interests, which is now accepting businesses as Pokestops, has in-app purchases, makes $1.6 million dollars a day in the US… but is also a game that young people can play without having to pay and commentators highlight that it’s unlikely Nintendo will cross any lines that might annoy the parents of its younger demographic.

It might be argued that if it was not for the support of Google that educators may not be discussing Pokemon Go at all.

The Tragedy of Pokemon Go highlights how other augmented reality games needed to be sponsored to help keep the lights on and the coders coding.

Area/Code co-founder and current NYU Game Center director Frank Lantz told me, “such a victory was only possible thanks to years of corporate patronage from "This report is not just for people in the EdTech Google, along with the licensing of the most popular space... It's a Masters Course on videogame IP of all time. entrepreneurship for today and beyond. The vast majority of pervasive and alternate reality games turned out to be sponsored affairs. Buzz marketing While many of the specific examples focus on projects created for their ability to generate “earned EdTech startups, suppliers, and schools, the media” rather than for their entertainment or social value. examples and resources it contains have value

across entrepreneurial sectors. For the EdTech This is not dissimilar to comparing EdTech entrepreneur, supplier, and/or school, this companies who have the benefit of being document provides the groundwork for your in an EdTech incubator with access to future growth and innovation" educators for input and VC’s for funding, Matt Murrie (@MattMurrie) | Founder and with companies who lack this kind of support. Chief Curiosity Curator | What If…? 360

Pokemon Go Commercial Interests

Jin Ha Lee on Pokemon Go: How to stay safe and play to win most businesses are taking one of two paths. One is to try to make it more difficult for players, like “Oh, you have to purchase something if you want to come in and catch Pokemon,” or, “No, don’t stand in front of my business.” So you can take that route, or I think you can take the other route

You can put the lure actively around your businesses; you can try to attract those people

If I owned any of those businesses, I would actually hold a different night for different teams

So you can get some kind of bonus if you’re Team Valor on certain days. You can actually promote those kind of meetings

A lot of Ingress players, what we call it is “farming,” which is to get together in a group and you go to these portals and you put the frackers on, which is the lure in Pokemon, and you get gears and all different stuff together as a group

And when they do that, they also like to get together to eat and drink and spend time at your businesses, and this is a big group of people. I think there are ways to take advantage of that in a good way

You support the fun gameplay, you provide a venue where they can connect with each other and do good business.

Free EdTech Article Extracts & Insights

How Google's Niantic Labs took over the world When was the last time you were in the drug store and didn't pick up a soda or some gum?

"We've taken the same approach to brainstorming ways to monetize as we've taken the approach to building the game, in that, we really want to start in a lot of ways from scratch," explains Badger.

"One of the nice characteristics of a geo game like Ingress is that people are moving through the real world, and, obviously, driving potential customers to real world businesses and service locations is something that businesses value. We're pretty optimistic that there's some model there where it can work to be a win for advertisers, Niantic Labs, and players, because, it's something that, it should add to the gameplay and not detract from the fun of the game. So, it should feel organic.

Niantic has already made all of the Duane Reade pharmacies in New York locations in the game, and, its monitoring and experimenting with different ways to integrate that into the game.

"I think that, we hope to end up with a model where, potentially there could be a cost-per-visit type model where large brands and small brands, as well, could sponsor different elements of the game, with the end of interacting with players and really tapping into that enthusiasm of players." Almost nobody pays for virtual goods in apps, but those who do shell out a lot 5.2% of mobile users make in-app purchases. But this small subset on average shells out $9.60 a month per app.

Across the globe, Asia has the highest share of paying users, who also spend the most on in-app purchases. Among these users, the average purchase size is $10.65 compared to $8.80 globally. How 'Pokemon GO' Can Lure More Customers To Your Local Business it’s not hard to imagine that many businesses might take a tone-deaf approach and turn the influx of Pokemon Trainers into a negative experience

Perhaps you have a coffee shop or local restaurant that doubles as a PokeStop. Create a Pokemon- inspired drink or dish and offer customers who show you the game on their phone a discount!

Fortunately, you can do more than just embrace the game and feature it in your marketing or signage. Pokemon GO has a purchasable in-game item called a “Lure Module” which attracts Pokemon to a particular PokeStop for 30 minutes

Those Pokemon it attracts? They’re visible to and attainable by everyone in the nearby vicinity.

Use it during a typically slow period of your day to get more foot traffic, and then use your creativity to turn them into a paying customer.

Pokemon Go is making $1.6 million each day in US from iOS users paying for silly virtual goods n the US alone, players on iOS are spending about $1.6 million each day on in-app transactions within Pokemon Go, according to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower.

Pokemon Go will soon get ads in the form of sponsored locations retailers and companies will be granted the paid opportunity to be featured prominently on the game’s virtual map, in the hope to drive customers inside their facilities.

Brands that paid to create sponsored content in Ingress are pharmacy Duane Reade, café chain Jamba Juice, and car-rental service Zipcar. Why Local Business Needs to Pay Attention to Pokemon Go

Niantic CEO John Hanke said that "sponsored locations" would provide a new revenue stream, in addition to in-app purchases of power-ups and virtual items. this means retailers and businesses will be allowed a paid opportunity to be prominently featured in the Pokemon Go virtual map. This will hopefully drive traffic to their places of business

A few U.S. retailers have already been featured in the app and they have seen real customers come in to their stores as a result of the Pokemon Go app

Check out the DigCit PLN’s “Free EdTech” Collection here

Thank you to William (@EdTech_Stories) for these fascinating insights in the Tech Adoption Cycle and Free EdTech sections of this report. Please check out more of William’s research about these ideas in his EdTech Report

Developing Relationships and Delivering Value

I could not agree more that creating relationships should come before selling products. This is the same mindset that we, as teachers, have in the classroom. Relationships should always come before the curriculum. My district, Montgomery ISD, is going social this year, and we are using this hashtag-#CAR. It stands for Content After Relationships. This also applies to suppliers and marketing departments!

I'm a huge fan of edtech companies that reach out to teachers for support and guidance. It shows that our voices are heard, and that what we have to say matters when it comes to edtech companies and their vision. Companies like Buncee, Declara, Blendspace, Remind, and Flocabulary are companies that come to my mind when I think about strong teacher/company relationships. And these are the companies that I will always be loyal, too! Amy Storer | Instructional Coach in Montgomery ISD in Montgomery TX | EdChange Global Organizer

As an academic researcher, educator, and parent, I have watched with great interest as the phenomenon of Pokemon Go has rapidly entered the everyday lives of adults and children alike. Through interactions and conversations with my own children, I have witnessed the various forms of learning and applications of a variety of skills that are taking place without any sort of educational intervention, and I have already had several opportunities to present to educators about some of the curricular connections that exist.

Numeracy is perhaps the most obvious curricular connection. For instance, without my guidance, my nine-year old son (who feels that math is not his “thing”) was able to determine the most efficient use of the infinity egg incubator (that it should be only used on 2K eggs) in order to clear the greatest number of eggs from the Pokemon Go egg tray. As well, he was able to recognize strategies for maximizing evolution combat power (CP) of Pokemon Go characters using Pokemon Go evolution calculators available on the web. There are certainly a great number of mathematical concepts (ratios, estimation, frequency, multiples, probability, range, mean, factors, distance, measurement, mapping) that could be discussed through the typical activities presented in Pokemon Go.

Other subject-area connections exist as well. In relation to health and fitness, Pokemon Go has allowed for rich opportunities for open discussion with my children on topics such as movement, health tracking, gaming addiction, personal safety, attention, and other issues that are important for all of us in a technology-infused world. As well, in terms of information literacy, widely circulated Pokemon Go “hacks” (which are not always accurate, and sometimes ill- intentioned) have provided rich opportunities for discussion of the authenticity and verification of source materials and the implications of utilizing false information. And from a social justice perspective, the story of Nick Johnson, the first Pokemoner who successfully “caught them all,” provides a unique opportunity to discuss wealth, economic disparities, and the digital divide which means that some individuals (with greater privilege) have advantages over other players, in both the gaming world and in life.

I would, however, offer this note of caution: I have been careful in the past not to rush to “educationalize” every game, social network, and virtual space that emerges. I wholeheartedly believe that educators should be aware of, and ideally experiment with, new apps and tools, as I believe that this provides a wonderful opportunity for making connections with students as well as equipping teachers with the knowledge and understanding to guide students to engage with technology safely and effectively. In this vein, the Back to School Advice Report provides an excellent collection of resources that speak to the social and educational effects of the game, a thorough overview of the possibilities for using Pokemon Go in the classroom, and a thoughtful

summary of necessary precautions and issues to consider, and as such, the report is a very useful read for educators returning to their classrooms this fall. However, as educators, we should be mindful of the importance of youth having the necessary spaces to play in without the persistent intervention of adults hoping to co-opt spaces for specific curricular outcomes, and this should be a major consideration as we think about introducing an app like Pokemon Go into the classroom.

Famed Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan once noted, “A light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence;” that is, the tools and technologies that surround us play an important role in shaping our world. As such, it is vital for educators to keep abreast of emerging technologies like Pokemon Go in order to understand the world in which we and our students live. On this basis, reports like this one are critically important for all educators as we meet the changing demands, challenges, and possibilities of our connected world. Alec Couros (@courosa)| Professor | ICT Coordinator | Faculty of Education | University of Regina

Educators Views This is a collection of articles includes a range of perspectives - from proponents to detractors - about the potential that Pokemon Go may have in the classroom

As with any new idea in education and, as advocates of the Digital Citizenship agenda all the views below matter and will have some merit and would like to remind people that the articles in each section are in chronological order.

Given the range of voices and, after framing the discussion in terms of the Technology Adoption Cycle, with the exception of saying “Pokemon Go sure appears to be an ‘Educational’ app to us” based on the criteria set out in Putting Education in “Educational” Apps: Lessons From the Science of Learning. We’ll leave it up to the reader to weigh up the arguments in this collection of articles.

This report is quite comprehensive and does a good job at presenting both sides. Whether Pokemon Go is a flash in the pan or a lasting trend, schools need to be aware of what it is because their students are using it. In the constant effort of educators to stay relevant and engaging with their students, Pokemon Go can be a vehicle to make some connections with kids. Modern teachers needs to be able to move into their students' world, even if they are not comfortable there; embrace the change and ask "Why not?” Bob Abrams (@misterabrams)| Assistant Principal | Joliet Township High School

Education General Conversation Extracts and Insights

The Ed Tech Maniacs: Pokemon GO, Summertime Fun, and Your Classroom these same kids will enter your classroom and all of that mystery and excitement and adventure will come to a crashing halt.

Are you offering them the world...or are you taking theirs away from them?

Pokemon GO: What Education Should Be People are connecting and making friends in the strangest ways.

There are no racial or economic barriers between us. We are united, at least for a few minutes. And in today’s world, that’s a huge benefit and need.

In my perfect world, learning at school would look like Pokemon GO. It would be active, it would allow people of all ages to come together to solve problems, it would be engaging, it would be fun, and people would feel good about what they learn and accomplish. How do we do that? Well, I’m not completely sure Don't overlook teaching potential of Pokemon Go As a mom and a teacher, I can tell you if we could harness and utilize the power of Pokemon, we would be able to reach a lot of children we might characterize as reluctant learners.

Pokemon Go, or The Next Next Big Thing in Education Surely, the success of Pokemon Go will renew conversations rife with ed tech buzzwords: gamification, digital nativism, mobile learning, 21st century skills, et al..

What should we as instructional designers and educators take away from the Pokemon Go phenomenon? How should it influence our design and development? Not much, probably, except to inject a healthy dose of skepticism for lazy narratives about "what's going to change education!" Meet the teacher who's using Pokemon Go to make his classes awesome - Techly While it’s unlikely that Pokemon Go will be used as a regular classroom tool, Smith sees potential for it to be a useful supplement.

“I might set them homework over the weekend, saying ‘I want you to explore your town,'” he says. “If they’re already using Pokemon Go, they can submit their screenshots.”

Will PokemonGO 'Save' Education - and ELT? I’ve always had a healthy suspicion about blog posts that seem to jump on the latest bandwagon…or the next ‘big’ thing (esp. when that thing is technology-driven).

What we are seeing with the mad rush to get Pokemon GO posts into the blogosphere (I hope) by EDUcators is not thinly-veiled attempts at shameless self-promotion but rather, in George’s words, they are a few initial ‘iterations’ of how we can make Pokemon GO ‘fit’ the vision we have for EDUcation.

When Tech Met Ed... Is this how we get millennials into and experiencing the parks? I read an article today that made a statement that took my attention. "Pok'emon Go managed to accomplish something that museums, historic sites and others have struggled with for years: Getting a generation of nerds into the world to discover it, and its stories, anew." School uses Pokemon Go to boost learning “It’s getting kids outside and getting them active, and that’s never been more important. We have kids who are grossly unfit on average and are in danger of suffering from chronic disease and mental health issues as a result,”

“I think it’s problematic. Smart phones in schools are an issue. The average Australian kid already spends 23 hours a week on their phone,”

“But if schools are ok with kids being on their phones, it’s probably best they’re playing Pokemon Go because it involves them being outside and being active,” Educators see gold in Pokemon Go Teachers could use the game to get students to explore and research important historic Poké Stops near their home or school. though the USA had long suffered from a stubborn academic achievement gap between poor minority children and white middle-class kids, he knew of no “Pokemon gap.” if we were to turn Pokemon into a school subject, “certain children, many of them poor, would all of a sudden have trouble learning Pokemon.”

Principals need to be Pokemon ready Schools need to decide if they will back the Pokemon Go phenomenon or not — but they can’t ignore it, an expert in education technology has warned.

“It’s a concern that a lot of school principals wouldn’t even have contemplated that it’s a thing, and it will catch a few of them out,”

Pokemon GO, Augmented Reality, and Education Hooking up with a site like Coursera would allow course content to be developed around a single topic which would be augmented to show meaningful real-world things and how they work. The teachers who are planning to outsmart the Pokemon Go craze The worldwide phenomenon could also provide an unexpected insight specifically for children in rural and remote areas.

What I think it will bring for a small country school is that connectedness to the global world

Good teachers have always looked for opportunities in the world of the kids and indeed our own world - but also look for opportunities to draw kids into the learning experience

"I go back through even the modern era - what to do about mobile phones - and probably my school and most schools have been through the 'lets just ban them and not bring them to school'," he said. "That just proved to be a) impractical, but also b) a waste of a learning opportunity."

"Crazes come and go, they're all learning opportunities, it's just a question of how cleverly teachers can catch them." 5 Ways to Trick Students Into Learning with Pokemón Go Again and again, the best advice I’ve gotten from teachers is to follow the students’ passions Pokemon GO: Can an AR Game Change the Reality of Education? many educators are still undecided about whether this game is a breath of fresh air or unsuitable for learning. If we all stop and think for a moment though, there really are some great learning opportunities to consider here.

AR games will only become more pervasive as technology continues to evolve to satisfy the demand for a more immersive entertainment experience. As good stewards of digital citizenship and common-sense safety, we must prepare our youth to be safe and thoughtful as they blend technology with real word experiences.

#PokemonGoEdu is born, and we need more inspired educators to add it as a possible resource for engaging our youth. Real growth in learning will never be about the trend or the tool, but rather about the ability for educators to connect ideas, innovation and the interest of our learners.

Policymakers: Play Pokemon Go, or Shut Up About It You cannot prattle at a child outside of that child’s universe and expect them to learn in a meaningful, retaining way. That’s lecturing, not teaching the level of prosocial engagement I’m watching between friends and peer groups, strangers and disparate demographics alike is astonishing. I’m hearing teacher after teacher, parent after parent talk about how much more time families are spending together walking outside, how much fun they’re having exploring, how many discoveries they are making in their communities.

I can think of a dozen ways to use PG in a classroom right this moment, and if you think I will not use every possible vehicle at my disposal to help any individual child learn, you are out of your mind. That’s my job.

Consequently, I repeat: If you haven’t played Pokemon Go, shut up about it. The rest of us are busy trying to ensure that we’re engaging in best practices with the single most important technological advent of 2016 leading up to another school year.

Evaluating the Power of Pokemon Go: Q&A with James Gee Public spaces, which historically in the 19th and early 20th centuries were places where everyone could come together and promenade and be in public—all classes of people—that doesn't really exist anymore in America. We are highly segregated by class

There isn't an American public anymore that crosses classes and shares stuff as citizens. Social media and the internet mitigate that a little bit, but our neighborhoods are quite disparate. A common public culture is gone. Pokemon Go: A window into how we might reimagine learning #BecomingBrilliant Two weeks ago, a casual pedestrian would have feared a band of young folks roaming the hood at 9:00 p.m. They might have even reported them to the police.

Pokemon GO morphed those kids from a potential gang, into a group of joyful contestants who are collaborating and strategically communicating to find the animated intruders.

Imagine taking field trips where instead of viewing cute creatures, a Pokemon spinoff offers up historical figures that give a set of clues in a geocache game

This would be but one step removed from living in the movie "National Treasure."

Might Ben Franklin appear in Philadelphia at his printing press?

Could we experience Lincoln's civil war address while standing on the real battlefield?

Could we study the architectural designs of buildings or bridges while playing and gazing at the real structure in the background? Should teachers care about Pokemon Go? Anyone who separates games and learning really knows little about either these days because the two things are inseparable in children’s media culture today

College Views Pokemon Go was launched in July when most schools were on their summer break. For all the articles that have been written about whether Pokemon Go has a place in education and/or what it can or can’t achieve for teaching and learning… at the time of writing many of these ideas were largely untested.

The one area of education that students have been around is on College and University campuses.

Our Campus Community Collection includes articles about the impact and reaction of having Pokemon Go on campus, which are overwhelmingly positive.

The one exception being The University of Nebraska who took the decision to ban the game and which the Student Association released a Statement on the Recent Ban on Pokemon Go, which provides an interesting DigCit discussion:

“Firstly, we feel that this sets a dangerous precedent in which UNMC and Nebraska Medicine can police what students, employees, patients, and the public do on their own phones, on their own time, on public property. We find it very concerning that such an action has been deemed an acceptable approach to solving a problem”

Like the Health Benefits and Social impact Collections, these articles include some fantastic ideas for community building with students and other groups.

I love the thought of using Pokémon to help incoming and prospective students with learning more about their campus. How fun would this be on day one of school! I watched numerous kids walk into to our school building today, the first day of school, with Pokémon t-shirts and other items. How engaging would it be to take them on a tour of the building with their phones out searching for spots along the way! It's all about how we reach our students! For some students, this could be the first step in forming a strong relationship with them. Amy Storer, Instructional Coach in Montgomery ISD in Montgomery TX and EdChange Global Organizer

Campus Community Extracts & Insights

3 Ways Higher Ed Is Playing Along with the Pokemon GO Craze Texas State University challenged Texas A&M University to a Pokemon GO Twitter battle.

Innovative higher administrators turned the Pokemon frenzy into a chance to show off their campuses to prospective students Pokemon Go brings all our dreams to [augmented] reality Students interested in learning more about GIS can take the elective course CIT 351 – Geographic Information Systems taught by Professor Dan Farkas. Catching 'Em All at NYPL with Pokemon GO If you visit any of NYPL's branches while playing the game, be sure to post your fun shots and tag @nypl on Twitter and Instagram! 10 ways to Use Pokemon Go on Campus Map your campus’ Pokestops and gyms

Middle Tennessee State University’s Alumni Association posted this about alumni coming back to campus and engaging with students and new freshmen. It’s all about engagement and since everyone is already excited about the game

Live stream a Pokemon hunt. great opportunity to make students aware of campus escort or evening safe team / safe ride programs on your campus.

If your office is located in a prime hunting ground or if you would like to encourage students to drop in, set up a PokeCharge area with extension cords, extra outlets, charging cables and even snacks and drinks if you have them. It’s a great way for student activities offices, (really any campus office) to get in on the excitement as well as encourage student interaction

We are always looking at ways to get students to come into our offices and connect with staff, here’s a super simple way to do just that!

Host a meetup. Scouting for Pokemon is more fun with friends! These can be especially fun in the evenings or off hours and when sponsored by a student group or student government

If your campus has lots of freshmen on campus this summer getting acclimated this would be a great no cost way to get them out of their residence halls and interacting with each other

College Campuses Are Being Overrun by Pokemon Go Colleges are eager to embrace the trend. They are also taking steps to make sure their campus communities remain safe, using social media to urge players to be aware of their surroundings.

The University of Central Florida’s police department went so far as to advertise via Twitter that its shuttle services were available to students who were playing Pokemon Go on campus late at night.

"Students are really walking around campus a lot more," she says, "and I feel like they’re ironically becoming more aware of things that are on campus because they have to walk to these different Poké Stops." 'Pokemon Go' introduces new students to Wright State's campus The game has become a helpful way for incoming and prospective students to learn more about campus

“I’m not one to actually get out and meet people. Seeing people that are actually doing the same thing is a big excitement thing for me,” said Trevor Sloan, a freshman computer science major. What is Pokemon Go? Everything You Need to Know This game takes you places you wouldn’t normally go and has you talking to people with whom you wouldn’t normally converse.

I’d love to see a Pokemon Walking Club spring up at each campus, so that we can all get some exercise while working together to find more Pokemon. Campus Pokemon Go players hope to 'catch 'em all' Owen is 13. He and his father, John Knox, have been walking the campus for two hours, playing Pokemon Go.

“If you want a true measure of a child’s capacity to learn,” said John Knox, a teacher, “just ask him about something he loves.” Gotta catch 'em all: Pokemon Go takes over Illinois State - Illinois State University News With 62 Pokestops and seven gyms within a half-mile of the Quad, you’ll be sure to catch ’em all at Illinois State. People of all ages are participating and creating a new community at Illinois State.

Which iconic science centers are also Pokemon GO hot spots? A high school research student captured a pair of pocket monsters (one is pictured at right) while wandering the halls of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science— specifically, in the presence of the machine that sent the first message via the internet.

UT Austin Grad Leads Development of Pokemon Go The players share tips and advice while debating their allegiances to game’s different teams. Pokemon Go, they say, can be a fun break from studying, a way to liven up a long walk across campus, a healthy way to explore landmarks and even an avenue to make new friend. Pokemon Go redefines night-life for Albuquerque college students There are Pokemon players a plenty at the University of New Mexico campus. Campus officials are embracing the craze, encouraging people to stay safe and stay active.

“Pretty much every walk of life is here, it doesn’t matter,” Walker told KRQE News 13.

Walker said the craze is building community, so why not embrace it?

Pokemon Go @Inver Inver Hills has seven PokéStops on campus and two just off campus plus two PokéGyms. See below for tips that will help you catch them all.

WSU Tri-Cities starts Pokemon-themed campus tours Need to make campus visits ahead of choosing a college but don’t want to lose time trying to catch Pokemon?

The tours will offer views of facilities and its vista of the Columbia River but also the opportunity to stop into the school’s two designated Pokemon gyms and 15 Pokéstops.

“We thought this would be a fun way to incorporate an additional digital element in the tour, while allowing prospective students and their families to view our beautiful university campus,” said Seanna Coleman, the university’s lead student ambassador. Academic organises Pokemon GO walk at USC the Serious Games academics at the University of the Sunshine Coast, who will stage USC’s first Pokemon GO walk at its Sippy Downs campus on Friday 22 July from 3.30-5.30pm. The event is open to staff, students and the community, with details at the public Facebook group ‘Pokemon GO at USC’

Jacksonville State University | In Pop Culture: Pokemon Go Takes Over Campus With four nearby gyms to compete in, including our very own Bibb Graves, over 20 Pokestops, and endless ground to cover, students who enjoy this mobile app game have already found plenty of ways to power up before hitting the books Pokemon Draws Community to UM-Flint Campus We have Pokemon outside the Admissions office in the University Pavilion; catch them while you can! The first 10 people who stop in after catching a Pokemon on Thursday, July 21 between Noon-4 p.m., will receive a PikachBLUE along with a UM-Flint swag bag. The next 20 will receive a UM-Flint lanyard.

New students use Pokemon to explore the campus "When students are using Pokemon Go we noticed that they are going out and exploring the campus, finding where things are located, and sharing experiences with their new found friends. There are positive attributes to the game that can be embraced."

Whether playing solo or in groups, students have the option to join one of three color-coded teams, known locally as Alfred State BLUE, Pioneer GOLD, and Team Alf-RED

Pokemon? On Campus? Yes! We have a ton of Pokéstops on campus — I lost count at about a dozen, but there are many more. There are two gyms on campus that are very active – one between our beautiful lakes, and one by our unique bell tower.

Pokemon GO @ Santa Fe College, Gainesville Florida Hunt for Pokemon on our beautiful and pedestrian-friendly Northwest campus.

Hashtag your catches on campus with #PokemonSF so we can share your adventures.

UTRGV | Pokemon Go Tips Pokemon GO has taken our campus by storm! With so many UTRGV students playing and enjoying this game, we wanted to give our university community a quick guide to staying safe and having fun

A Hope Pokemon Journey Includes a Gym with a Story “Icarus” is the statue that stands at the southern edge of the college’s beloved Pine Grove. Crafted by Kurt Laurenz Metzler, it was dedicated in 1989 in memory of Dr. Clarence De Graaf, who was a member of the Hope English faculty for 44 years, from 1928 to 1972. Dr. De Graaf died in 1986

The appellation “A Br494 Memorial,” however, doesn’t appear on the plaque. It was added informally a quarter century later, and exists only in the digital world. It honors another member of the Hope community, the late Jonathan Brockmeier

Brockmeier had been an active Ingress player, and so his friends in the Ingress community made a point of having the already-extant portal, which is within sight of Durfee Hall where he worked, renamed in his honor using his in-game name, Br494. When Niantic adapted many of the game’s portals for use in Pokemon Go, the name traveled along. Crowds flock to Pokemon hunt around Central Florida As more people download the game, it has attracted meetups at locations like University of Central Florida, Cranes Roost Park in Altamonte Springs and around Lake Eola. Pokemon 'lure party' draws 6 people to Christ Realizing the unique opportunity to reach out to the community, seminary students and faculty hosted an on-campus “lure party,” July 19

Southwesterners utilized the people’s voluntary attendance by engaging the lost with the Gospel, and as a result, six Pokemon players professed faith in Christ. Pokemon 101: New UI Course Uses Pop Culture Games to Get Students Active, Involved A new physical activity class, Pop Culture Games, will teach students about leading active lifestyles, building teamwork and exploring their communities through games like the megahit smartphone app Pokemon Go and the live-action game Humans vs. Zombies.

The goal is to give students a fun, creative class that teaches them skills to take with them far beyond an afternoon searching for Charmander or throwing Nerf balls at “zombies” on the Administration Building Lawn — skills like leadership, ethics, safety and respect, said Philip Scruggs, chair of the Department of Movement Sciences. Pokemon Go @ EKU | Communications & Marketing | Eastern Kentucky University Did you know EKU has 20+ PokéStops?

Share your Pokemon with us using the hashtag #PokemonEKU

Check out the DigCit PLN’s “Campus Community” Collection here

"The surge of interest in Pokemon Go has prompted South Essex College to think strategically around enrolment and literacy aims. We've seen the impact that the game has had on our learners and have offered up Pokemon Lure events at our Campuses during enrolment sessions. Enrolment is a critical time of year for the College and offering the ability for learners to play their favourite mobile game whilst they enrol makes the event that little bit more fun. Learners appear more relaxed and staff are speaking to learners that play the game, offering a great ice breaker in what can be a quite nerving experience for a new learner.

We're also using the draw of Pokemon Go to help push our literacy aims. UK Further Education providers are looking at ways for learners to engage with GCSE English requirements so in order to encourage reading and the development of literacy skills we're offering access to Pokemon manga across all our Campuses. It may not be Shakespeare or Dickens but for some learners developing literacy skills is a real challenge and for many this will offer a fun and far more accessible way for them to begin that development.

Pokemon Go has really shown the UK FE/HE sector that social augmented reality gaming does have a place with their organisations and I hope that it's a trend that continues to develop as we progress in our use of technology." Rhys Hughes (@SecRhys)| Head of Learning Services | South Essex College

Pokemon Go is going to be used at our college in 16/17 as an exemplar of a tool that successfully blends the engaging and immersive aspects of virtual/ digital with the development of employable real life skills such as communication, literacy, interaction. teamwork, collaboration, moderation, and intellectual curiosity and exploration.

The BCoT Digital Leader team and I will be investigating ways to use it's Augmented Reality to create immersive and interactive virtual tours of the campus, enhancing lectures with formative quizzes embedded into lecture theater and college/ local landmarks, as well as using Google Cardboard to extend, consolidate and develop the interest sparked from trips to Museums with gamified rewarding experiences that stretch far beyond the confines of the physical and time constraints of traditional lectures.

The App's success is indicative of our continuing need to respect the learn from and be receptive to the way Pop culture inspires, engages and connects with young people for a reason. We have a chance to use these new tools and the accompanying opportunities and use this technology together. Scott Hayden (@bcotmedia)| Media Lecturer | Basingstoke College

Campus Community: Campus Images & Tweets

DigCit PLN Pokemon Go Safety Advice

The Pokemon Go craze: Sure, it’s taken over, but is it a friend or foe? This is the problem with technology adoption — we don’t have time to slowly dip our toe in the water. Tenants have had no say, no input, and now they’re part of it

With a lot of other digital resources we have had more time to explore and make sense of the medium: the potential and the dangers. With kids leading the way with this and the scale of the game. this may not be as much of an option as it has been in the past.

With children playing a game that has articles written about it with headlines like All the ways Pokemon Go might kill you and FALSE: 15-Year-Old Killed Trespassing While Playing Pokemon Go. As Digital Leaders who encourage the safe, ethical and savvy use of digital resources we thought we’d compile some safety advice, which is a crowd sourced effort as it is composite guidelines from all the articles we have read to date… and some safety issues are not new

UW-Madison police ask Pokemon Go players to watch where they're walking "We're used to stuff like this to a certain extent on campus - our population is glued to their phones all the time," Lovicott said. "Now here's another reason for folks to do that."

There is advice on safety that recur a number of times, there is also a fair amount written about the privacy and Niantic. Equally there is some advice that only appear once in the articles that ask some REALLY interesting questions and highlight that averting some security/safety risks are within our control.

For example, Jin Ha Lee highlights the potential danger of having avatars that look like ourselves, a natural choice. But one that leaves us open to potential danger.

Or, if your school is a Pokestop, who owns the AR collateral that’s associated with the building or whether or not AR needs to be compliant with disability laws.

Compiling this safety advice has been an interesting experience, one that we hope to build on both in terms of looking at other perspectives and issues, collecting any other educators/schools safety policies and discussing good practice to ensure that students are being responsible citizens and digital leaders.

DigCit PLN Pokemon Go: Safety Advice

'Pokemon Go' is good for us | The Trumpet Pokemon Go has safety measures in place to avoid these kinds of accidents. The app causes your phone to vibrate when a Pokemon is near so the player doesn’t need to keep a constant watch, and a Pokemon can be caught a short distance so that the player doesn’t have to walk into the street. Jin Ha Lee on Pokemon Go: How to stay safe and play to win

When you sign up for Pokemon Go, you can select what the character is going to look like.

Oftentimes when people are given this kind of option, they will immediately try to make the character look like themselves. That’s kind of the natural instinct

But one thing to also remember is that when you do that, you are actually making it really easy for people to identify you

So you could be the only Asian female player within a particular group, or you could be the only black male player, and that shows if you select a particular skin tone or something like that.

Just like anything in life, you need to use your common sense about staying safe. Don’t go to some random places at 2 a.m. just because you see the lures, although it might be tempting.

if you go solo, then you tell other people where you’re going to be and what you’re going to do, so that they know how to reach you.

People should be careful when they put a lure on a particular Poke Stop, every day at the same time at night. It probably shows that this person lives there.

If you’re battling a certain gym every day at the same time, waiting for the bus, then people can figure out where you’re going to be at that time, where you’re going, possibly

Pokemon Go: Health Benefits and Safety Tips Do not to go places you normally wouldn’t go.

There have been some instances where people have trespassed by hopping the fence of a neighbor’s backyard or they have gone to a closed or run down dangerous location,”

Always use common sense when you’re looking to find some Pokemon. What is Pokemon Go? Everything You Need to Know | Globe University Don’t go off to creepy places in the dead of night, even if there is a Squirtle in your neighborhood at 1:30 in the morning The University of Alabama Watch for curbs, bushes, benches, etc. that can cause you to trip

Don’t accidentally step into traffic because you’re looking at your phone Strangers of the World: Stop Hitting on Me While I Play Pokemon Go Respect peoples boundaries. While many people will be delighted to talk about Pokemon, others may prefer to play alone.

Strangers of the World: Stop Hitting on Me While I Play Pokemon Go highlights how uncomfortable this player was with people approaching her.

I didn’t feel like talking to any strangers, so I kept walking, scanning the sidewalk for critters as I went. Soon after, a guy followed me down the street, then tapped my shoulder and gestured for me to remove my headphones. His opening line: “Are you playing Pokemon?” I nodded in silence. He smiled expectantly at me, clearly believing that a conversation should ensue between us. I put my headphones back on, and I walked away.

I’m okay with it if that guy thinks I am a jerk. There are probably other people who are interested in having a conversation with him on the street about Pokemon. I am not one of those people.

So, fellow trainers, here’s my parting advice for you: if you see another person playing this game, don’t make it weird. Don’t follow them and stand too close trying to look at their screen. Don’t tap their shoulder and ask them to take out their headphones and try to talk to them. “Headphones” is, like, the universal symbol for “don’t talk to me,” okay?

How to Make Pokemon Go Actually Useful

My top pet peeve in New York City is the phone-consumed commuter, walking very slowly in front of me, often when I’m late for work.

This game lends itself to annoying behavior like this, and I’ll admit that I literally bumped into at least one person while playing.

But it’s possible to be courteous while adding to your Pokédex. Stay on the edges of heavily foot-trafficked areas, and wait to stand still before flicking your Pokéballs.

How to play 'Pokemon Go' without being a jerk

We've put together some basic rules for how to play Pokemon Go without being a jerk. They are as follows:

This one's a biggie: Avoid playing Pokemon Go at the sites of unfathomable crimes against humanity, or at memorials for such horrors.

Also, don't play Pokemon Go in graveyards. Apparently this is a problem at Arlington National Cemetery.

Don't play Pokemon Go on staircases or other places where people might walk into or over you. This one should be obvious.

Don't go wandering onto private property or linger outside places that might upset neighbors.

Keep an eye out if you're headed for an unfamiliar neighborhood, or a place where you might run into trouble

Just because you see someone else playing Pokemon Go, that does not mean they want to talk to you. Sometimes people would like to catch their Pokemon on their own. Respect their boundaries.

UTRGV | Pokemon Go Tips Look around while playing to avoid accidents

Do not have the app open during class, lectures, or labs. It is ok to play during class breaks and after class.

Do not play after sunset or before sunrise

If you play while riding on the shuttle bus, please don't stand up

If you plan to play for extended periods of time, stay hydrated

Do not play while driving

Do not trespass on private property.

Watch where you are walking at all times

Stop when you are catching a Pokemon

Be very aware of your surroundings

Playing with friends is safest rather than playing alone

Do not play Pokemon Go in a secluded area or places you would not usually go

Do not ride your bike, skateboard, or hoverboard while playing Pokemon Go

Be aware of people, cars, bikes, construction sites, lawn mowers, trees, ditches, ponds, ledges, hills and holes University of Michigan Division of Public Safety and Security Don't let Pokemon kill your phone: Pokemon Go can quickly deplete your battery and data plan. This is not only annoying, but it also can leave you in an emergency situation without access to emergency services

Pokemon Go at #okstate

Carry a portable charger

Bring bug spray

Stay hydrated

Don't play the game while driving

Wear comfortable shoes

Obey traffic signs and use crosswalks

Don't trespass

Stay vigilant as you play

Play in well-lit areas.

If you suspect you are being followed, call 911 Antwerp police caution of dangers of revoluntary game Pokemon Go “Always pay great attention, also being alert to other game users and stick to the highway code.”

There are criminals using the game as a means to hunt down victims and steal from them.” Pokemon GO Creators Urge Players To “Be Aware Of Their Surroundings” We encourage all people playing Pokemon Go to be aware of their surroundings and to play with friends when going to new or unfamiliar places.

SFPD Issues Pokemon Go Safety Tips, Like 'Do Not Run Into Trees'

Law enforcement agencies throughout the world have already reported accidents, injuries, and string of robberies where suspects have set up fake ‘Poke-spots’.

Know your surroundings and pay attention to where you are going/who is around you.

Slow car paralleling a person on foot, might be a sign it’s a get-away car

If you get the sense you are being followed or set-up for a robbery, head to a lighted area with people around

Watch where you are going, please don’t look down at your phone while crossing streets, getting off buses, or even while walking. Obey traffic laws, please

Do not run into trees, meters, and things that are attached to the sidewalk; they hurt

Do not drive or ride your bike / skateboard / hipster techie device while interacting with the app

Know where your kids are going when playing with the app, set limits on where they can go, so they don’t keep going trying to get that Pokemon

Tell your kids about stranger-danger because the app may bring strangers together in real life at ‘pokestops’.

Do not go onto private property, dark alleys, or areas that you usually would not go if you weren’t playing the game.

And there you have it, folks. You might note that most of these tips are in fact just basic common sense for continuing to be an alive person in a city, but it sure is fun to reframe them as safety tips for Pokemon Go!

Have fun out there, and remember: You’re still in the real world.

Pokemon GO Players should always be alert of their surroundings. I think augmented reality that All gyms and Pokéstops are accessible outside, and there is encourages (safe) exploration of no need to enter campus buildings. public spaces is wonderful. Everyone should be respectful of private There are several active construction sites on campus; these areas are fenced off and are not open to the public. residencies and privately owned spaces, as well as take precaution in It is best to play the game with a partner, especially for low-light or low foot trafficked those playing in the evenings. areas, but with those caveats

Do not operate a vehicle while playing the game. Pokemón Go is a great way to explore a place and force people to Install the application through official mobile providers to interact with each other. Stephanie avoid malicious downloads. Echeveste, Place Marketing

Enjoy free prizes, ice cream, popcorn, and beverages, along Manager, Vornado Realty Trust with provided lures to attract Pokemon Auburn police: Driver crashes into tree while playing 'Pokemon Go' Do not trespass onto private property to catch a Pokemon

Be aware of your surroundings

Use caution when sharing locations - strangers can see your location information

Travel in groups in public, well-lit areas All around the world, authorities are worrying about Pokemon Go The deputy chief of Cairo's Al-Azhar, the most important scholarly institution of Sunni Islam, has declared Pokemon Go to be as illicit as alcohol.

Check out the DigCit PLN’s “Safety Advice” Collection here

DigCit PLN Pokemon Go: Parental Advice As we have been curating these Pokemon Go articles we noticed that the initial reaction was extremely positive but the more negative stories started to appear an article called Pokemon GO, kids and school: a new challenge for parents and teachers provides some Digital Literacy lessons by explaining the media cycle. In the first 24 hours all the stories about about Pokemon GO were positive; about how amazing the game is. But journalists can’t keep writing that same story as it’s boring and nobody will read it there will be a thousand more negative stories to emerge because Pokemon GO is a hot topic and media organisations are desperate for content parents will click on

So why ignore them? Because most of them come under the category of “life happens.” Yes your child may trip while going for a walk.

But so is sitting in their bedroom constantly leading a sedentary lifestyle with little natural light.

Much of the parental advice that we have read highlights the need to train our students and young people to be digitally savvy and safe. Pokemon Go could be a great way for educators to engage partners on the issue of Digital Citizenship

PokemonGo was internationally launched with the arrival of summer vacation for half of the world, meaning the decision to let kids download and use the app was up to parents. News around the world were massively focused on how great augmented reality was, then on how dangerous the game was since users did not pay attention to anything else; then news talked about how families could play together, so it was all good again; and then social media were flooded with messages suggesting our kids would be slaves to the game. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it positive? Is it dangerous? Am I the kind of parent who will ban the use of the game or the kind of parent who does not really care about how the kids play with it? What should we believe?

Children go back to school now and this report is a phenomenal summary of everything important teachers need to know about the game, its virtues and flaws and a set of commonsense recommendations for a balanced, safe use. If only us parents realized how relevant it is that we share that same knowledge. If teachers and parents share a DigCit goal, it will be so much easier for children to grow in a physical environment that encourages a safe and smart digital life.

As parents, we may not be experts on VR or AR and maybe we don’t know what Pokemon is (though it’s as old a name as many of us), and we may not care about apps or games or cellphones or digital stuff. But this is the world our children live in, so we should definitely care about them living it well. Children have a first teacher in their parents, so reading this report is basic to create a personal opinion about the game and about a coherent approach to how our families adopt and adapt to technology. The conversation is about safety and health and moderation, but it also about responsibility, collaboration and connection; the report covers it all in detail, puts all perspectives in the box and lets you make your own conclusions. Extremely useful! María Zabala (@iWomanish) | Communications Advisor | Specialist in Families and Technology | DigCit Parent Advocate

Pokemon Go A Parents Guide

we examine what parents can do to combat Pokemon danger

The general lack of awareness players have for the world around them has led to accidents

The immersive nature of the game may make some players more trusting of strangers if they are fellow gamers, but children still need to apply the same safety rules that they would use for online gaming.

A game that makes children exercise and talk to each other and one that adds a fresh perspective to familiar surroundings shouldn’t be demonised

But you need to ensure that your child is aware of the dangers before playing and remain safe while using it

Give it a try yourself

Let them know that they don’t have to walk around while staring at the map on the screen

Let them know that you don’t have to visit a Pokemon’s exact location to capture it – you can stop at a nearby area where it’s safe

As with online gaming aliases, remind your child to choose a username that won’t identify either them or where they live this feature basically gives people the power to lure a group of kids to a certain spot for 30 minutes, so you’ll need to use your judgement and set rules with your child about how to handle this situation if it occurs.

Remind them to save some phone battery for the journey home

Is Pokemon GO Safe for Kids? A Guide for Parents What we thought we’d do this week is take a look at what almost no parents are going to read – the fine print

First of all, the age limit is 13. There is an age gate, and new users are asked to enter their birth date. If your child entered an age under 13, he would have been prompted to get your parental consent

You can’t sue

Agreeing to the TOS means that in the event of a dispute, you’ve waived your right to sue Niantic and the other companies involved

Treat other players and bystanders with respect and courtesy, and conduct yourself in an appropriate manner while playing Pokemon GO

We will review reported or flagged player accounts and content and will determine whether or not they violate the Terms of Use and/or these guidelines

Accounts are penalized for violations of the Terms of Use and/or the Trainer guidelines—we may issue a warning, suspend you from the game, or (for serious or repeated violations) terminate your account.

the game looks relatively safe to us

Pokemon GO, kids and school: a new challenge for parents and teachers

Like many new technological things, it can seem like some things will be short lived fads that actually develop into something bigger changing how we live life completely, and I suspect Pokemon GO might just be one of these things.

I remember when mobile phones were relatively new for kids that schools introduced a policy of getting teens to hand them in each morning and then picking them up at the end of the day he process of storing and distributing thousands of mobile phones each day just doesn’t seem workable anymore. as kids return to school, and the location of many Pokemon GO characters is found within schools, I’m intrigued to see how the young people, teachers and school administrators handle this one

So how should adults react to this new App which has quickly raced to number 1 on the download charts since being released in limited number of countries?

Here are a few things that I think we should all keep in mind about this particular form of gaming

Celebrate that Pokemon GO is getting the kids outdoors

Know that your kids will bump into others while out searching for Pokemon

Computer gaming at home has been around for 40 years and it mostly occurs unseen and behind closed doors

What’s unique about Pokemon GO is that your kids will encounter other people while using the game

Make them aware of this so they can quit playing and return home before they run their battery flat and lose real connectivity with you

Ignore 99 percent of the media stories about Pokemon GO

To understand why, you need to know a little about the media cycle

In the first 24 hours all the stories about about Pokemon GO were positive; about how amazing the game is. But journalists can’t keep writing that same story as it’s boring and nobody will read it there will be a thousand more negative stories to emerge because Pokemon GO is a hot topic and media organisations are desperate for content parents will click on

So why ignore them? Because most of them come under the category of “life happens.” Yes your child may trip while going for a walk.

But so is sitting in their bedroom constantly leading a sedentary lifestyle with little natural light. make sure when your child returns you connect to learn about their experience

This game gives us a whole new way to connect with our kids and demonstrate our love and interest

Maybe even go for a walk with them and let them show you how it all works

My area of concentration and expertise is on educating children on how to be safe and appropriate online, essentially being an excellent digital citizen. I also focus on the closely related subject of parenting issues and challenges of raising children in this hyper-digital age. This area involves both parents and educators as the job of educating kids becomes a community effort.

As related to my area of focus, the arrival of Pokemon Go had a tremendous impact. I received numerous questions related to safety, limits and appropriate behavior when engaged, or maybe engrossed, in Pokemon Go. Certainly I addressed the specifics of this game as it relates to safety and children. However, the underlying foundation of educating children on digital citizenship remains consistent across the many many applications that exist and that is for parents and educators to do the following:

1. Understand the app that is being used. What are the issues? How does it work? Are there safety/privacy settings. Parents/educators must educate themselves on where children are spending their time and what they are doing onine.

2. Build credibility with the children. If parents/educators understand the app and can speak the language, they can gain credibility with their audience, children. Talk to kids about being a trainer, about the location of Pokestops, the use of Lures, Squirtle. Charizard, etc. If the adult does not have credibility, the education process cannot take place.

3. Engage the child. The key to success in educating children on any topic is to engage them and peak their interest. Obviously this will keep them interested in the subject matter. But most importantly, it will take an abstract concept (digital citizenship) and make it more concrete for the student. It allows for connections to be made in their brains from the abstract concept to how it relates to them. Application of concepts become much easier for them.

How does this relate to Pokemon Go? I see this as a tremendous educational opportunities for many students, but not all. Based on #3 above, Pokemon Go engages the child and provides educators and parents with some exciting ways to make less interesting learning far more exciting. In Marialice's blog, she cites some wonderful activities that use Pokemon Go as the content, but engage the student to write, be creative, story tell, etc. Edtech can also be greatly engaged. For example, have the student developed a Prezi and present to the class on a topic of choice, i.e. the history of a Pokestop, the 5 most interesting Pokestops, etc. Liz Repking (@cybsafety) | Principal | Cyber Safety Consulting

DigCit PLN Pokemon Go: Privacy & Security Considerations

PrivacyGrade gave Niantic, Pokemon Go’s parent company, an A for Ingress, its earlier AR app.

The $105 Billion Enterprise Market for Pokemon Go Digital exhaust — the data tracks we leave behind whenever we are online — is a rich source of insight. Poképrivacy: Privacy and Legal Issues in Pokemon GO - On the Edges of Science and Law The app tracks your GPS location and has control over your camera. While these are essential to using the app, just consider the possible implications if some third party acquired this data. Unless Niantic’s security is ironclad, there is always the possibility that hackers could get this information and have access to your phone. And with an app as huge as Pokemon GO, hackers will definitely be on the lookout. Pokemon Go: Security Risks @TheU “Whether you’re running it on iPhone or Android, the application requests quite a lot of permissions to your phone,” said Corey Roach, enterprise security manager for the U’s Information Security Office

This includes access to your phone’s camera, contacts, GPS, storage and network activity. The app also tracks, stores and in some cases, shares your location – a feature necessary to play the game, but one that causes privacy concerns.

Pokemon Go isn’t the only app to do this. Many of the mobile apps you use on a daily basis also require extensive access to your phone.

“This is not unique or new,” said Roach. If you’re playing a game you’ve downloaded for free, he said, “That company is making money on your information. That’s how they make their money, so they are, of course, collecting as much as they can.”

You may be surprised at just how many permissions you need to grant an app just to use it, such as in the case of the popular fitness app, MyFitnessPal, which requires a surprising amount of access to things like your contacts, precise location, phone status, photos and videos, storage, camera, device ID and more.

Roach recommended users log in and check their Google app permission settings. users simply aren’t going to stop playing games – but it’s important to know the security and privacy risks before you play. “There’s not really a way to play these games safely,” said Roach. “In order to play, you’re paying with your privacy. That’s the agreement you’re making.”

Is PokemonGo Illegal? - Associate's Mind

Should Nintendo & developer Niantic have given more consideration to where the Pokemon (AR objects) are placed? Do they have the right to place them wherever they want? In a lake? In a public park? In your backyard?

Does placing an AR object on a person’s property, without their permission, affect their interest in exclusive possession of property?

Does owning property in “the real world” extend property rights to any geo-locative, intellectual property elements that may be placed on it?

Is placing an AR object on a person’s private property, without their permission, a creation of an attractive nuisance?

Trespass is about exclusive possession. It’s an affirmative act interfering with possessory rights.

Does your exclusive rights to property extend to cyberspace? What will happen if/when Augmented Reality is new. So new that the law hasn’t even begun to students use campus AR as part broach the topic. of a student protest? It lends itself to lots of big, novel questions from a legal perspective. At the moment, they are unanswered, theoretical questions.

Does Pokemon Go Have To Comply With The Americans With Disabilities Act? Pokemon Go is limiting for people with physical disabilities, and the physical requirements needed to play the game

For instance, Alyx, who uses a wheelchair, said she could not access a Pokemon on the top of a rocky hill.

Does Pokemon Go Have To Comply With The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)?

'Pokemon Go' digital popularity is also warping real life

WHO'S TO BLAME WHEN PLAYING REALLY GETS OUT OF HAND?

Todd Richmond, a director at the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California, says a big debate is brewing over who controls digital assets associated with real world property.

"This is the problem with technology adoption — we don't have time to slowly dip our toe in the water," he says. "Tenants have had no say, no input, and now they're part of it."

HOW BIG CAN AUGMENTED REALITY GET?

"The reaction (to Pokemon Go) is a quick of vote of 'Yeah, they got this right,'" Carone says. "My guess is that a lot of developers have gone back to figure out how to take this approach."

DOES THIS AFFECT MY PRIVACY?

Senator Al Franken demands Pokemon Go release privacy information The insanely popular Pokemon Go is collecting users’ data and sharing it with anonymous third parties, Senator Al Franken of Minnesota said in a letter to the company’s CEO on Tuesday.

The lawmaker wrote a letter to Niantic Inc’s John Hanke on Tuesday with a list of demands for further information regarding the app’s privacy settings.

“I am concerned about the extent to which Niantic may be unnecessarily collecting, using, and sharing a wide range of users’ personal information without their appropriate consent,” he wrote. unethical Pokétrainers who would definitely be members of Team Rocket are tricking Pokemon Go into letting them visit anywhere without leaving the house.

They are also—and this is important—definitely risking a perma-ban from PokéDeveloper Niantic if they get caught.

But that doesn’t mean you can expect Niantic to turn a blind eye to this. Pokemon Go’s terms of use warn players not to use “any unauthorized third-party software (e.g. bots, mods, hacks, and scripts) to modify or automate operation,” or “attempt to circumvent any restriction in any Service,” including restrictions on geography. If you do, Niantic has the power to “suspend or terminate your access to some or all” of the game.

If Niantic’s banhammer does come down on anyone messing about with Pokemon Go, it is likely to again be swift and merciless.

The guidance on safety/privacy is VERY useful for audiences of all ages – is there scope to draw this out so it would be of interest to all. Sue Beckingham | Senior Lecturer | Sheffield Hallam University. Currently researching Social Media in Higher Education

Health Benefits There have been a number health benefits discussed about Pokemon Go which, given that we are discussing an industry that has been blamed for play a role in obesity in children:

Obesity in Children and Technology

According to a review in Obesity in 2012, a lot of screen time may increase obesity risk.

An increase in exposure to technology goes hand in hand with a decrease in physical activity

As The Pokemon Go craze: Sure, it’s taken over, but is it a friend or foe? Highlights:

If we want to pass judgment on whether it’s good or bad, we need to do it in the context of what it replaces. If these people were previously staring at a screen indoors and by themselves, then this is a little more human. If they were all outside having a picnic and talking, then it’s a little less. My guess is that we’re looking more at the former.

So that’s pretty impressive for a computer game to buck this trend… for it then to be compared to policy makers and their efforts to get kids out and about… that’s AMAZING!

Health Benefits – Digital Addiction While there is research, reports and comments about the positive physical and mental health benefits of Pokemon Go, there are new health concerns such as digital addiction.

The tech and gaming industry attracts top talent and the industry also learns from the gambling industry. So while having to walk 5k to hatch that lucky egg might play a role in addressing child obesity, having to have the app open for the duration of the 5k walk may perpetuate other gaming concerns like screen time.

The gambling industry today is fueled by some of the smartest people, they hire mathematicians, computer scientists, game designers, and psychologists because they want to addict you.

I'm not saying games are inherently addictive, but you can get addicted to any repeated behavior. They know how to do design these games through the research led by the gambling industry.

There is the potential of such tools to create an immersive medium where students may neglect their mental and even physiological wellbeing trying to achieve goals and gain recognition. Recent cases reported by media on the harm associated with the obsessive and addictive usage of social networks and online games could be used to argue that the digital space design is, at least partially, responsible of facilitating an impaired decision making and deviant behaviour. Pokémon Go, while expanding the potential for immersion and attraction, introduces additional set of risks related to presence in the physical space as well. Such a design should go through a proper testing and risk assessment process which we do not seem to deal with as a first priority in gaming industry Raian Ali (@bu_esotics)| Principal Academic in Computing | Bournemouth University

Health Benefits Extracts & Insights

Pokemon Go Is Having an Unexpected Effect on Players' Mental Health

A 2015 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesfound that a small group of people who walked around in nature for 90 minutes showed a reduction in negative thinking. Five Ways Pokemon GO Is Actually Good For You it’s remarkable just how much of a motivator the game is for getting out and walking around

The first eggs you get require you to walk 2 km or 5 km for incubation to complete.

I hate walking. I have a FitBit, but even my competitive nature doesn’t get me to the higher step counts. I enjoy podcasts while walking but will still put it off. But hatching Pokemon eggs? I’ve already hatched three this weekend

It sounds clichéd, but a wide range of studies suggest that breathing outside air—as long as it’s not polluted—may improve your mood and health a Yale study found that students’ test scores increased when they spent more time outside, and the difference appeared related to better air quality.

Again, for all the moaning that technology is driving people apart and making us more anti-social, I met and spoke to more new Peorians this weekend than probably the past few years of living here

Turns out Pokemon GO is unexpectedly great for mental health

"In the times since I've had the app I've been out just walking way more than normally would. It's made me feel really good," says Alex Tullet, a young game designer with anxiety and depression.

"There are definite mental health benefits to playing games," says Dr Greg Wadley, a lecturer in computer science at University of Melbourne who specialises in technology for mental health and wellbeing.

"That way of taking a break and letting the mind think about something different is better than smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol which is what lot of people do to de-stress."

The Science Behind How Pokemon Go Became the Most Viral App Ever A mirror neuron is a brain cell that fires not only when you do something, but when you see someone else doing it. When you're chasing Pokemon and people are laughing and smiling around you, the mirror neurons in your brain that relate to laughing and smiling fire, too, stimulating the release of hormones like oxytocin that make you feel connected.

Pokemon Go might seem like just a fun little app, but it has pretty profound connections to your body, psychology and brain. Those links undoubtedly are contributing to the viral status of the game to some degree.

Check out the DigCit PLN’s “Health Benefits” Collection here

Social Impact “Digital Citizenship is a concept which helps teachers, technology leaders and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately. Digital Citizenship is more than just a teaching tool; it is a way to prepare students/technology users for a society full of technology. Digital citizenship is the norms of appropriate, responsible technology use.” Dr. Mike Ribble

Given that the UK Government has just commissioned Scotland Yard with a new “Thought Police” Unit to hunt down Trolls and some DigCit leaders wonder when the digital aspect of Digital Citizenship will be dropped and we simply have good citizenship, the number and variety of stories that detail the positive social impact of Pokemon Go sure makes us smile.

Is 'Pokemon Go' Good For Science? According to a poll conducted in 2011 by The Nature Conservancy, only 10 percent of kids experience some form of nature on a daily basis.

In Churches cash in on Pokemon Go craze in the UK we hear how churches, which have declining numbers are embracing the game. When wondering “Why are churches accepted as Ingress portals/Pokestops.

We might wonder if this is for some “Walking Dead” AR tie up in the not-too-distant future… but exploring the founders aims and culture and interest in creating real life communities it’s more likely that the company is using the oldest hub of community through the churches a central building around which many towns were built.

The articles in the Social Impact Collection detail some of the fantastic ways that the Pokemon Go phenomenon is having a positive social impact and just the kind of DigCit we love!

I was immediately drawn to the Social Impact collection. I am passionate about empowering students to use technology to become digital leaders and I see such immense potential with Pokemon Go as the game allows for kids to learn and share their learning with others and allows for positive social interactions.

From my literacy lens, any time we can expand our traditional definition of literacy and have kids engage in reading and writing about topics about which they are interested, then it's a win/win. There are so many Pokemon books on library shelves that will now gain renewed interest. Trading cards also offer great reading opportunities and every aspect of the game lends itself to fun "fan fiction" writing. Kids can use the characters in the game as a starting point for adventure stories using their imagination about how they were caught. By including Pokemon Go in Language activities, we are helping kids begin to see that there can be educational value in everything. Of course, we don't want to ruin the fun either!

Beyond Literacy, popular culture references help (delete) bring unite people in a common interest and should not be undervalued. It reminded me of a quotation by Alexandre O. Philippe about how divisive religion, race and politics can sometimes be but how popular culture has the power to unite us all.

As I read through the various articles about safety and security, I also can't help but wonder if bringing the game into the classroom (or at the very least a conversation of the game) lends itself beautifully to incorporating many of Ribble's elements of Digital Citizenship in context.

For example, Digital Access Questions:

For Educators: Playing Pokemon Go depends in large part on using data, might there be students in the school/class who may not have been able to play the game as much as others (or at all)? What community partnerships might be explored to get students access? and so on.

For students: How do you think someone who doesn't have data or a smartphone might feel if we are always talking about the game? I wonder where we might be able to go in our community where there is free wifi access?

The more we can bring in the elements into authentic and relevant conversations, the better they will understand what it means to act in responsible and ethical ways when they are online. Jennifer Casa-Todd (@JCasaTodd) | Teacher-Librarian | Cardinal Carter CHS | Former Literacy Consultant for the York Catholic District School Board in Ontario, Canada

Everyone has their own way of learning and doing this, and this game is an excellent, major activity of enhancing streets and neighbourhoods to encourage social exchanges. Pokemon Go is not game you play alone in a room. This game is bringing our children out in the real world, to experience life as it happens.

If you feel like you’re late for your Pokemon Go adventure, don’t worry about it. This report takes you on the journey of this sensational world. All the ideas, you will read change your point of view about this spectacular game. Hopefully we all learn something. Thanks for everyone involving in Pokemon Go – back to school advice. Ahmet Coskun (@acvtcskn) | Key Account Manager | Pearson Education

Social Impact Extracts & Insights

How Pokemon GO Brightened a Dark World | Jeffrey Tucker Crucially, people were meeting each other with something in common – people of all races, classes, religions; none of it mattered. They found new friends and came together over a common love. we experienced the common humanity of our neighbors and strangers in our community

This kind of experience is key for building a social consensus in favor of universal human rights

Whatever it is we want to do – read, listen, play, study, create – the technology is there to make it easier and more widespread. It democratizes the tools we need to live better lives.

Facebook was her 911. Had private enterprise not been there, the world would not have known. Now that we do, change is made more likely.

What they have in common is that both are non-state solutions to crying human needs.

No politician in history has ever achieved so much for the cause of human rights and human happiness.

Pokemon GO Live: The Adventure We’ve Been Waiting For As a non-player, they welcomed me in to document their experience, sharing with me the Pokemon they found, the funny stories being shared on social media, and the bond that they felt as players. in this time of fear, there are so many good people in the world. So many people who are misunderstood or ignored because we’re being conditioned to fear strangers, to fear the unknown and ignore or run from it.

"Pokemon Go" Is Quietly Helping People Fall In Love With Their Cities "I've lived in Provo for about two years. I've NEVER seen nightlife like this in this town at all," Kyle Gray tells me, after documenting the scene on Twitter. "Especially at a library on a Sunday night. But there's been a crowd every night since Go came out . . . I'd say there would be no one at the library pre-Go." To the Geniuses Behind Pokemon Go

I’ve tried getting the whole family to go to Parkrun with me each week. I’ve tried to suggest walking to the park and exploring our local environment. But no-one is especially keen and on the few occasions we’ve tried, it’s been miserable for everyone.

Matilda (the longtime Pokemon expert in our family) has clocked up more kilometres over the weekend than she probably had in the entire year to date! we’ve walked around our local neighbourhood we’ve been able to chat about all sorts of things. It’s also been awesome having rare one-on-one time with each of my children.

We’ve also loved the chance to explore our suburb too. We found a new playground plus an amazing aboriginal park tucked in a corner of our neighbouring estate

I can also see so many ways this can help kids with autism

Which brings me back to my original statement – to the geniuses behind Pokemon Go, you have my lifelong gratitude!

Pokemon Go inadvertently promotes Syracuse tourism Local tourism groups also noticed the game's main effect: more people are walking around outside. Alice Maggiore of the Downtown Committee of Syracuse said it helps people learn where historical landmarks are and see public art, maybe for the first time.

Pokemon Go Is an Okay Game, But a Great Social Network Weirdly enough, people staring at their phones at public parks might end up being the best argument we have against Luddites who claim that technology is cutting people off from each other.

Pokemon GO Isn't Destroying Society, It's Making It Better | Nerdist According to health experts (and anecdotally from players themselves), Pokemon GO is helping fight depression. When the engulfing specter of depression has your ear, it’s hard to even imagine what happiness is

Video games can change lives, but it’s rare that you see an outpouring like this in such a short time, or from so many people Pokemon in Perth: where to catch them all Last night one of the biggest Pokemon hotspots in Perth was Kings Park, with nearly 1000 people spending the coldest night of the year chasing the elusive creatures.

Curtin University gaming design researcher Steffen Walz said Pokemon Go had “gamefied walking” and had become an unlikely fitness tool for dog walkers and runners. Pokemon Go Might Just Be the Perfect Dating App (Yes, Really) Less than a week ago, it would’ve been easy to assume a young person determinedly flicking at their smartphone screen in a bar or coffee shop was swiping through potential dates on Tinder. This week, it’s far more likely they’re playing Pokemon Go

Truth, Lies, and Pokeballs: The Sensation around Pokemon Go I find it fascinating that everyone knows to question Nigerian princess that want to give them money, but will immediately jump on the bandwagon when it comes to stories a company infiltrating our lives and stealing all of our personal information through an augmented reality game. Trust me, they’re more concerned with getting their servers to stay up than to read the emails you send to your grandmother. it has created an incredibly social experience. I’ve seen dozens of posts on Facebook from parents who are all of a sudden going for evening walks with their kids. I’ve seen people sharing that they’ve explore their cities more in the past week than in years prior. And from my own personal experience, it has brought people together unlike any other game I’ve ever seen. Churches cash in on Pokemon Go craze in the UK Following glitches and security warnings, it emerged a church in Birmingham, which attracted dozens of Pokemon Go players, invited them to stay for a service with the message “Jesus cares about you”.

The number of churchgoers in the UK has been in continuous decline with recent figures by the Church of England suggesting Sunday services attendance would dip to just 425,000 in England in 30 years from the current 764,700 worshipers.

Pokemon Go might be able to channel the much needed boost churches across the country need.

Pokemon for Social Impact? It's More Likely Than You Think - CASE What we at CASE love to see is the creativity of the social sector unleashing the power of a viral hit like Pokemon Go to reach broad audiences. cross the world, nonprofits, government agencies, and for-profit social ventures have been finding unique ways to use Pokemon Go to broaden their messaging reach

Charity Miles, an app that raises money for charities such as the ASPCA and American Diabetes Foundation, has created a campaign where users can raise money for charity while playing the game.

The Durham Bulls, recently opened up the stadium for players to hunt for Pokemon in exchange for a $5 donation to Second Chance Pet Adoption. In total the Bulls were able to raise $3000 in three hours for the animal shelter.

An animal shelter in Indiana has been recruiting dog walkers through Pokemon Go a food bank in California has been able to recruit volunteers through the game and their social media accounts.

These types of games are also a low-cost or free form of advertising that organizations strapped for marketing dollars can effectively take advantage of. Building Community Thanks To A Little Game Called Pokemon Go

when people walk by, phone hovering a foot or so from their face, all I have to do is yell, “Pokemon?” to get a conversation with a complete stranger started on my stoop. In a city where I've found strangers are usually reticent to speak to each other, this sudden friendliness is a welcome change from the status quo.

Molly Sauter, a PhD student at McGill University who researches online activism and digital politics, says the opportunity for real-world interactions like these are one of the things that fans of augmented reality games find so exciting. Sauter says: “When you have something that you know you have in common with someone else it’s a lot easier to say hello to them and exchange information because you have something to talk about.”

It’s also the kind of urban exploration that Elm City Games co-owner Matt Fantastic is banking on. “It’s super weird that this dumb, incredibly fun game is creating these instant communities,” says Fantastic. “People who would never talk to each otherwise are connecting to each other on this thing.”

SeaWorld, Fun Spot drop Pokemon lures to catch tourists SeaWorld may have been the region's first theme park to host an official Pokemon event, but they weren't the only tourist destination in town hoping to attract more guests through the game's popularity.

"So many people are playing it," said Julie Baross, Gatorland's director of marketing. "We really wanted to be a part of that because it's so huge."

"You know how social media is," she said. "When the next big thing hits, you have to go with it." Pokemon Go 'helped fight crime' say police in Doncaster - BBC News PokemonGo has helped fight crime." How Pokemon Go Could Help America Get Its Act Together Take my experience at a Poké stop in Ellicott City, Maryland, for example. There were 50, maybe 60 people there. And guess what. Nobody was talking about anybody's race. Nobody was arguing about whether minimum wage should be $15 an hour or whether Trump or H. Clinton should live on Pennsylvania Avenue. We were all just a bunch of people hovering, walking, laughing. For just that little bit of time, equality actually meant something. It was incredible.

This game gets us moving, pumping us full of endorphins that counter our stress. It gets us interacting and enjoying each other again, letting mirror neurons get other feel-good chemicals like oxytocin going

And maybe that's exactly what America biologically needs to stop ripping itself apart. Pokemon GO a social event with touch of nostalgia Dr Jake Wallis (pictured), an expert in the social use of information and computer technology worldwide and a lecturer with CSU's School of Information Studies, said, "The phenomenal growth and popularity of Pokemon GO has created a tailored, personalised level of engagement with our everyday, more mundane experience of our local environments.

"The game encourages spontaneous social interactions when it brings players together in public spaces, which is healthy for society," Dr Wallis said. "Game play involves engaging with public spaces in new ways, exploring local neighbourhoods with fresh eyes.

"Stories are already circulating in the media of the positive impact for players who are managing mental health challenges as it gets them out into the local environment and provides a bridge to social interaction."

Pokemon Go players push for progress in Louisiana

"We were walking through downtown and were approached by someone asking for money or food," said Jessy Broughton, 30, one of the people behind Pokemon for Progress.

Broughton saw the look of gratitude on the man's face and suddenly knew she and her fellow game players actually had the opportunity to do something remarkable while enjoying the latest phenomenon sweeping the nation.

Broughton spent the next three days finding volunteers — and "voluntelling" others — to help organize friends and fellow game players in an effort to gather supplies for the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission. New tool for voter registration: Pokemon Go Alexander Goldman has figured out how to sign up new voters for the coming presidential election: Stand right next to Jigglypuff.

“I stood next to it and received 45 vote-by-mail” registrations, he said. “That’s a pretty large number.”

Goldman said Pokemon Go “has come out of nowhere, and it has been absolutely great for attracting millennial voters.”

He added, “The fact that I can combine my love of Pokemon and grassroots organizing is something I never thought would happen in my life, and I’m really glad it did.”

The group’s chapters in Iowa, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Illinois are also using a similar tactic to register voters In Which I Am (a Bit of) a Killjoy About Pokemon Go at the Polls Goldman, a St. Paul-based regional organizer for Hillary Clinton, is among campaign workers around the country who are tapping into a powerful new tool: Pokemon Go.

The Pokemon critter Jigglypuff was recently sighted at Coffman Union on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus,

I stood next to it and received 45 vote-by-mail” registrations, he said. “That’s a pretty large number.” IU experts and public safety officer give their takeaway on the Pokemon Go phenomenon “Every time something new comes out, parents’ first reaction is often fearful,” Martins said. “The assumption is it is probably bad. Our reactions to new technology have been the same over the last 50 years, no matter what the technology is.”

Martins recommend parents take advantage of the game to spend time with their children.

“Have fun with it,” she said. “Research shows media can be used to have bonding family experiences. “If you and your kids are having a great afternoon playing Pokemon and enjoying each other’s company for two hours, am I going to say stop, you’ve met your recommended screen limit? No. But if they are doing it by themselves and spending long hours on it, then maybe you want to scale back a little.” 3Qs: How Pokemon Go is 'evolving the game genre' Imagine role-playing. Imagine games in which people interact with others and play games outside, where it’s something like playing tag. The game has led users to create social meet-ups.

And beyond the opportunities to entertain us, this technology can also be used to educate us and augment the learning process in areas such as science and health interventions

Two years ago, people were asking about eSports—where you’re sitting and watching people playing a game in front of a computer. Now it’s an enormous business, it would have been a hard sell in 2006.

Now that Niantic has fixed its serious security flaw with respect to Google Apps accounts, it is exciting to see a robust discussion about Pokemon Go and its potential role as an EdTech tool. And while the game is a commercial enterprise, I cannot recall ever seen large groups of pre- teens and teens congregating at our local library, historical society, and war memorials before Pokemon Go's release.

Stepping back, Pokemon Go demonstrates how Augmented Reality with a small dose of "Gamification" can engage learners. To create a topic-specific game within a classroom, a school, or a neighborhood is easy and affordable given several low cost AR solutions currently in the K12 market. It will be fascinating to see how creative educators adopt the Pokemon Go model to their curricula and classroom activities. Allen Falcon | CEO | Cumulus Global

Pokemon Go Homework Challenge In my recent DigCit PLN Update post where I highlight that we are exploring Pokemon Go, I summarize the various perspectives while considering the following questions:

How can we help the proponents explore the game? But in a way that takes the views of the detractors into consideration?

Understanding educators desire to explore Pokemon Go Realizing the need to test with some pilots before “scaling” Appreciating that there is hesitancy as some educators may be thinking “here we go again…the new next big thing in education” Kids will be playing Pokemon Go whether educators like it or not…whether the game is banned or not We agree with some of the comments from the blogs This summer, kids everywhere where above that we should be using all learning opportunities actively involved in playing Pokémon Anything that facilitates “Great teaching and more of it” Go. We were outside, engaged and is what good EdTech should do, so Pokemon Go has learning about our community. Let’s potential take that type learning and put it in That not all the Ingress Portals/Pokestops have a the classroom. Curran Dee, DigCitKids description

We came up with the idea of having a Homework Pokemon Go Challenge

Ask your students write a description about local Pokestops

If you share your story with us we will curate and share these stories with our PLN:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6289HGN

We hope this idea will allow any educators who are advocate of Pokemon Go to test the games’ potential and hopefully establish some evidence and case studies before taking this into the classroom.

Subject Related Ideas We hope that after reading this report that you appreciate the need to identify the early users and the value of allowing them to explore Pokemon Go, while being aware of what the safety and privacy concerns are.

This penultimate collection of articles includes some of the ideas that other proponents and early adopters suggest in terms of ways to bring Pokemon Go into the classroom and to facilitate learning in various topics.

We have included articles about how public libraries and museums are using the game for educational purposes, as well as to demonstrate that the game could provide some “Network Effects” as Universities, Libraries, Museums and other local attractions that have education outreach projects could connect and discuss ways to collaborate with education projects.

Equally, in What wildlife scientists and nature lovers can learn from Pokemon Go, the following observation is made: young children clearly have tremendous capacity for learning about creatures … it appears that conservationists are doing less well than the creators of Pokemon at inspiring interest in their subjects

Their conclusions in the paper included a joke about designing a game called “Ecomon” to capture children’s attention biologists could look to the Pokemon game design for ideas on how to better engage with the public on issues related to real plants and animals.

For us, this highlights the value of having all stakeholders: Students, Educators, Parents, Admins, Policy Makers, industry experts, EdTech companies, game developers etc to come together to share their experiences and collaborate (We hope that the collaboration of this document further demonstrates this fact!)

These articles detail some of the ideas that educators have come up with regarding how to use Pokemon Go to engage students in various subject areas.

Libraries & Museums Here’s How Museums Are Inventively Embracing Pokemon Go Swarms It’s fitting that Pokemon Go is sending its players to museums in droves. many of them are small, hometown institutions that have a hard time appealing to a younger demographic— and are willing to do whatever it takes to boost visitation.

Mid-July is the slowest time of year for the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio

“So when we see more people on the grounds, we take notice.”

On Monday, the museum shared an image on Instagram of the coiled purple snake Pokemon, called Ekans, in the museum’s courtyard; the post invited gamers to seek out the eight PokeStops and four gyms on the McNay grounds. In the two days since, the museum’s Instagram account has seen a 125 percent increase in engagement, and security estimates that the social media buzz has translated to a 50 percent bump in visitation

At the McNay, which sees 134,000 annual visitors, that represents roughly 1,000 extra bodies in the span of one week.

Even in Boca Raton, Fla., a place known more for retirement communities and golf courses than kids attached to their smartphones, Pokemon Go has driven a startling 25 percent single-day spike in attendance to the tranquil Morikami Museum & Japanese Gardens, where there are 15 PokeStops.

Louisville Zoo, which is promoting a tour designed just for Pokemon Go fans. Two thousand players have already signed up.

In upstate New York, a small-town historical society in Schenectady is similarly promoting a Pokemon walk in the downtown Stockade Historic District; the 100 registered guests will learn about the area’s unsung architecture and monuments.

Some museum professionals are also considering adding lures to their galleries.

While some institutions are desperate to attract Pokemon foot traffic, not all the museums that were automatically enrolled into Niantic Labs’ location database are happy about their inclusion

Generally speaking, though, Pokemon Go users have received a warm welcome from cultural institutions across the country and around the world

Only a few of them have gone rogue—one curator had to ask unknowing players not to sit on the base of a sculpture, and some players have hopped fences to avoid paying admission national park visitors who went too far off the trails some historic houses had also expressed a wariness about Pokemon hunts in delicate environments. But to his knowledge, no art has been harmed

“Arguably it’s been the most successful platform to drive people to any space,” said Gray. His colleague, Tiffany Rhoades, says that most of the app’s users are absolutely craving real-world interactions. “You need to find out what your visitor is interested in, and as soon as you know that, you can start connecting it back to your institution,”

Ultimately, hunting for Pokemon is no different than going on a museum-created scavenger hunt—a popular mechanism for engaging students on school tours.

We hope that once inside the museum, visitors will focus on the beauty rather than the game. If the game helps them get here and then they want to relax and enjoy, everyone wins.” Pokemon GO in Museums: Gotta visit 'em all Searching “PokemonGO” and “Museum” on Twitter has dozens of people posting about visiting a local museum, often for the first time. Most of these people have even entered the museum and walked around the exhibitions.

But, there are also museums where people are just sitting in the parking lot and not venturing inside. At one small museum, nine people were observed sitting in the parking lot playing Pokemon GO, none of whom entered the museum. And by sheer irony, this institution’s curatorial theme is fairly “nerdy”, which would likely interest the people playing the game.

It might be a challenge to pull these people away from their game, but if we museum professionals want to do community outreach, figure out what interests non-visitors, and then engage them in the world’s greatest treasures, we need to figure out how, quickly.

Everything Librarians Need To Know About Pokemon Go! Thousands of libraries across the country have been made virtual Gyms, and this has already caused an increase of foot traffic for our buildings, attracting teens and young adults who may not typically be library patrons

Personally, I believe this is a huge blessing. It opens doors for new patrons, it gives librarians the ability to make connections with a section of our demographics we don’t normally get the chance to talk to, and it gives us the opportunity to do some really, really fun programs and displays.

Set up some book/dvd displays as close to the front door as you can. If they walk in for Pokemon, and are instantly greeted with a Pokemon display, they’re going to have a much better feeling about being in our buildings

put up an semi-interactive display that welcomes trainers and shows which team is currently controlling our gym

Pokemon Go appeals to a huge spread of demographics.

Teens and young adults are playing it, young families and couples, middle aged and older. This is just like every other fandom you’ve tried to market to in the past. The people playing this game LOVE this fandom.

We have been given a huge gift of outreach. Let’s use it! Why Pokemon Go and The Library is a perfect partnership - ALSC Blog Why should libraries care about Pokemon Go?

Encourage people to come in from the parking lot? That’s exactly what Aluchua County Library did when they decided to drop a lure, then

While there, encourage everyone to stop in, sign up for Summer Reading, and get a library card

Set up a table by our front door to greet Pokemon trainers

Make a passive display in our window asking patrons to let us know what Pokemon they caught in the library.

Pokemon GO: What Do Librarians Need To Know?

Offer an introduction to game play and some tips about finding relevant locations in and around the library

If the Library is a Poké Gym schedule Pokemon GO Safaris for K–5 patrons

Get staff to take kids (and the caregiversof kids K–2) to local Poké Stops where they can collect items and learn about neighborhood landmarks. End the tour at the library’s Poké Gym and

cover physical safety and rules as well as digital safety

This may not be what attracts participants, but it does allow the library to achieve educational goals in line with its overall programming strategy.

“We see these programs as a vital opportunity to talk about digital and physical safety, privacy, and being conscientious users of technology….this type of program is a prime example of how libraries can serve as media mentors in the lives of kids and their families. We can use our expertise–in evaluating resources and offering developmentally appropriate programs–to model positive, impactful, and digitally literate ways to engage with technology in the course of everyday life.”

Explore Everything with Pokemon GO! I have developed an iTunes U course (LINK) as a resource for families to use with their children, or for young people to enjoy on an individual basis.

Gardner's original theory of Multiple Intelligences listed eight categories - Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Verbal- Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Naturalistic, Intrapersonal, Visual-Spatial and Musical. He later pondered Moral and Existential categories as pertaining to the Multiple Intelligences framework What can Pokemon Go do for education? | stemmatch The game is active, engaging and fun. It allows users to

* hit achievement milestones,

* do research, and be social.

* It utilizes geolocation, math, probability and memorization.

* Some educators think the game could be used as a tool to help children with autism learn skills for socializing.

There are also resources popping up for teachers, educators and librarians who want to take advantage of the game's popularity in the classroom.

One example, Explore Everything with Pokemon GO, is resource from a teacher that aligns learning experiences from the game to Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

With so many Pokè Stop at cultural or civic locations, it’s not hard to find a few around your area as examples of topics for classroom discussions

Without being heavy-handed this forces students to connect content with their immediate surroundings. Studying geology? Create a Pokè Tour to send students to a river to study the rock bed

Studying Communication? How about a trip downtown to see how the local museum prints their informational brochures

History? Visit the local historical monuments.

So while Pokèmon Go might be a game, there is no end to how we can take advantage of its popularity and supplemental information to enhance the learning process.

Everything Teachers Need to Know about Pokemon Go use the game to help kids learn about

* data literacy,

* create visually appealing infographics,

*create mapped Google Pokemon Go Trips based on real places students have visited while playing the game, and

* engage students in digital storytelling activities using screenshots from the game

PokemonGo can be an effective tool to help kids

* develop mapping skills and learn about responsible use of GPS. And as she stated "Parents could use the game to help children learn mapping and responsible use of GPS. Even adults could use a refresher in not blindly following GPS instruction

Financial literacy lessons to be learned with respect to the use of mobile data plans and their limitations

many perceive of the game as providing a strong incentive for kids to get out and move enhancing thus their overall physical health.

Geography Geography Professor Pikachu?* An unlikely event is getting our kids outside, interacting with maps, and utilizing GPS and might very well be the grand coordinated global geo-education event many have been hoping for

Okay, what does this have to do with geo-education?

If you’ve ever had to face a classroom full of middle or grade-school kids and try to extol the virtues of math for surveying and geomatics, then you would have experienced that “why-is-this-geezer-here-to- bore-us” stare.

Something like the shared experience of this kind of activity would make a great ice-breaker and provide a common frame of reference from which to explain how asset mapping and hunting for survey markers works PokemonGo: 21st century geocaching, lesson plans, & all around game changer using Pokemon Go to connect to standards and instruction seems like a no-brainer.

ask kids to recreate their Pokemon GO experiences using paper and pencil, Google My Maps, or MinecraftEDU. You might adapt this NatGeo lesson. Or this one. Or this one. Or perhaps this one. Maybe this New York Times list.

And if the relationship between some Pokemon character and its relative or absolute location hooks students into a better understanding of geographic concepts, we ought to be all over it.

how might instruction in your room look like if you included Pokemon Go as part of what you do? GIS Education Weekly: Is Pokemon GO Educational? the game may be a significant geospatial education opportunity and provide a common frame of reference from which to explain how asset mapping and hunting for survey markers works – many of the same elements are there in this little app

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Science Is 'Pokemon Go' Good For Science? At first blush, Pokemon Go appears an unlikely intersection between young people and nature, and the app’s unintended consequences have some scientists debating its merits as a jumping-off point for future biologists

“I think the biggest lesson is how many people are truly interested in biodiversity, even if the biodiversity they are first introduced to is fictional,” Morgan Jackson, an insect taxonomist and PhD candidate at the University of Guelph

“It’s easy to write Pokemon off as a simple game or waste of time when there are so many ‘real’ plants and animals out there waiting to be recognized. But there are a lot of barriers to learning about nature, and there’s no tutorial mode to help people get started like there is in Pokemon.”

Several other biologists echoed his sentiment, telling me that Pokemon even played a role in shaping their career paths.

In a way, Pokemon’s appeal among biologists is understandable. After all, most of the game’s characters are exaggerations of real-life animals and scientific theories

Evolution is an analog of metamorphosis

"Virtually every biologist can describe their job in relation to Pokemon,” Joe Ballenger, an entomologist and molecular biologist

“More importantly, Pokemon puts young people into the shoes of biologists

Environmentalists have long criticized technology for sapping children’s curiosity about the natural world

According to a poll conducted in 2011 by The Nature Conservancy, only 10 percent of kids experience some form of nature on a daily basis.

“If we encourage children and parents to connect more regularly with their local nature and view technology as an enabler instead of a barrier, there’s potential for them to become more familiar with the shared natural spaces around them, and more willing to let their children explore and play more freely,” educator Bronwyn Cumbo once told Phys.org.

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'Pokemon Go' players are finding real animals while searching for digital ones Morgan Jackson, an entomologist and doctoral student at the University of Guelph in Canada, launched the hashtag #PokeBlitz to help Pokemon trainers identify their real- world discoveries.

Playing the Pokemon games as a kid helped spark his interest in biology. Now “I basically do Pokemon in real life,” he said. “Catching [flies], ID’ing them and figuring out how they’re all related.”

“For a lot of people, [“Pokemon Go”] is going to be their entry into biodiversity and natural history,” Scientists’ New Research Tool: Pokemon Go biologists and other scientists around the world, who have turned to Twitter to help people learn about the wildlife they’re seeing. They’re encouraging players to take photos while monster hunting and share them on Twitter under the hashtag #PokeBlitz—a play on “BioBlitz,” a term that describes an intense effort by biologists and volunteers to describe or count all the species in a given habitat.

biologists are rapidly identifying not just the species that people have photographed and shared on social media— ranging from snowy egrets to milkweed aphid eggs—but also their behavior. He’s even helped to identify an invasive snail species. “People are really keen to get that extra level of information,” Jackson said.

Just imagine that many people out there with GPS-enabled cameras, whether they’re looking for real things or fake things,” he said. “That’s going to have a lot of potential for serendipitous citizen science, even if it’s not directed as such at the time the photos are taken

the gamification of species observations is being embraced by existing apps such as iNaturalist and Project Budburst, which encourage citizen scientists from all walks of life to record species that they observe in the wild.

iNaturalist announced that a contributor in Vietnam rediscovered a snail species that hadn’t been seen in more than 100 years, and last year a 10-year-old girl photographed a bird called the social flycatcher in California, the first time that species had been seen in the state.

it would be great if Pokemon Go could integrate with projects such as iNaturalist

Although the potential for citizen science is just starting to be tapped, experts said the week-old game already has value. “I think the fact that this game is getting kids—and a whole bunch of other groups of people—outside is a huge step toward interesting people in the Earth’s biodiversity and science in general

They’re going to be running into real snakes while looking for Ekans and maybe seeing deer while they’re trying to catch Stantler. You can’t be interested in what you haven’t experienced

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What wildlife scientists and nature lovers can learn from Pokemon Go Some experts are hoping that biologists can look to the Pokemon Go game design for ideas on how to better engage with the public and get children (or even adults) as excited about real animals as they are about Pikachus and Charmanders.

“Essentially, if people are going outside to look for synthetic species, then there’s obviously a huge opportunity for them to connect with real species,” humans have an “innate desire” to hunt down and classify the animals around them. Pokemon is just an artificial form of what humans have been doing in the real world for millennia.

“Even as adults, we have this sort of preprogrammed hunting instinct,” he noted, which can take the form of bird-watching, wildlife photography or other wildlife-spotting hobbies. So in some ways, it’s not surprising that a game that involves running around and catching little animals — even imaginary ones — would become popular.

Pokemon’s popularity seems to have surpassed that of the real, natural world as children overall were able to identify about 80 percent of the Pokemon and less than 50 percent of the common wildlife they were shown. young children clearly have tremendous capacity for learning about creatures … it appears that conservationists are doing less well than the creators of Pokemon at inspiring interest in their subjects

While running around outside looking for Pokemon, many people have also run into some real-life animals along the way. The hashtag #pokeblitz recently emerged on Twitter as a way for biologists to connect with Pokemon Go players who’d run into real wildlife they needed help identifying.

So it may not be all bad that, for the time being, many people are more excited about Squirtles than, well, turtles. But in an ideal world — according to conservationists, anyway — it wouldn’t be long before people are getting outside and learning about real wildlife with the same enthusiasm.

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3 Ways Pokemon GO Can Create Meaningful Learning Opportunities research habitats that relate to where Pokemon can be found in your local area, as well as learning how to observe in a natural habitat and sketch the living creatures that you find there." English (… And Journalism/Homework) What journalists can learn from Pokemon Go

I see Pokemon Go’s augmented reality interface as a potentially useful tool for newsrooms

So what can journalists learn from the success of Pokemon Go, and how should we be thinking about possibilities for augmented reality beyond Google Glass?

How can journalists augment the experience within or alongside augmented reality games?

If people are traveling to various locations in your town or city, are there ways in which we could give players more information in the app or coupled alongside it?

would it be possible to show restaurant reviews, infrastructure reports about various buildings, or news photos from that location?

Perhaps players visit a location, and then see archival news stories related to that location

perhaps players notice something in that location that’s worthy of a news story in and of itself.

There also may be ways to augment this data collection with more information that might be potentially very helpful in the aggregate

could Pokemon Go players track and report potholes in a city? Could they track air quality?

You’re in this spot where X thing happened. Would you like to do Y? Would you like to sign up for Z?

You’ve looked for X creature at 7 p.m. at City Hall. Did you know there’s a City Council meeting taking place here tomorrow night?

What kinds of storytelling experiences can augment augmented reality? Right now, Pokemon Go doesn’t have much storytelling built in about the places people are going to; players simply find their Pokemon and head to the next location

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Video Games Weekly: Pokemon Go and Teen Programming (TPiB) Sort your program attendees into teams

One Truth and One Lie: Have you heard all of the outrageous news stories about Pokemon Go? There are so many out there that are unbelievable! Print out headlines on a piece of paper, and pair them with your own fake headlines. Have teens guess which one is real, and which one is fake Pokemon Go Is a Glimpse of Our Augmented Reality Future As every child knows, the world is a place of wonder, magic and adventure.

A walk through the forest becomes a journey into the lair of an ancient dragon or a hunt for ancient treasure. An abandoned house is consumed by dark spirits who must be avoided. An old wardrobe is a portal to another world.

The myths and legends used to feel so real. They were defining aspects of who we were and how we interacted with the world around us

I was finally fulfilling one of the great childhood dreams of myself and millions of others. I was a real life Pokemon trainer, on the hunt for my next catch. 9 Fun Ways to Practice English with Pokemon GO! Get learners to create a digital poster, presentation, comic, or video of what makes a good trainer.

Your students can then create presentations or digital posters about their top three favorite Pokemon.

Ask your learners to work in pairs or small groups and come up with a list of five to ten safety tips and good practices for players. Some ideas include having an non-playing adult present, not playing in the streets, practicing good judgment, and exhibiting good manners

Once your learners play the game, have them write a digital story of their experiences battling or capturing a Pokemon

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Math August 2016: Pokemon Go in the classroom Have them use the Google Street View app to take a 360° spherical panoramic image of the Pokestop

Students can use the data to figure out the average number of events per day or to graph their allocation of items from a Pokestop. Using data they have collected and analyzing it will help students start to become familiar with the data literacy skills of data processing, data manipulation, data presentation, and data analysis.

This data can be analyzed and manipulated for any number of measurement activities. (i.e. How many of which Pokemon would you need to stretch all the way across the US? What would be the total weight of all of them?)

create a health-related infographic based on the number of steps I have taken while playing the game.

Have students write a short piece about their personal reflection of the game.

Once students have reflected on their sketchnotes and reworked their essay on the topic, have each student create a short podcast about their experience with “Pokemon Go”. Pokemon made me do it - BBC News There has been a spike in searches for kilometre to mile conversions in the wake of the game's success, according to Google Trends. Units are measured in kilometres, which presents a challenge for those not raised in a metric world with no in-game setting which allows users to change measurements. PokéMath – Gotta Solve ‘Em All!

Pokemath – Gotta Solve Em All In essence, PokéMath is just a thematic rebranding of a sticker/badge rewards system

Students can maintain a “pokédex” of their collection as trophies to be proud of, to show off to their friends, and to remind them (every time they take it out for homework) that they probably still have many more to catch!

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Subject Related Ideas – Math Tweets & Images

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Subject Related Ideas – Math Shed

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Subject Related Ideas – Tweets & Images

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ISTE Games & Simulations Network: Classroom Ideas

Write a story about your favorite Pokemon - Maybe an interactive fiction Write from the perspective of a wild Pokemon and how it feels to be caught When using Google Maps, use your cardinal directions when talking about directions Record Pokemon weights and heights; create a comparison chart of their difference sizes and weights. Rank them in order. When you catch a Pokemon look around you. What is its habitat? What other animals / bugs/ birds share their habitat? Pokemon incubate. What does that mean? What else incubates before it hatches? Give examples. Use Twine for having older students create Interactive Fiction (twinery.org). How can you manage your resources to achieve your goals in Pokemon Go? You want to evolve a particular Pokemon? Does this take potions or candy? What resources are used? How much? How will you get what is needed? Compare and contrast the digital world on online games, IRL games, and augmented reality games? How does Digital Citizenship fit in this? Should you behave any different in any of these situations? Is one more or less dangerous than the other? Look at the Pokemon’s height and weight. Convert it to American weights and measures. And then find a comparison. What animal would be of comparable size and weight? Make a chart using Google Draw, Sheets, or Docs to show differing Pokemon and their real life same sized “match”. Pokemon have special abilities; make a list of animals and their special abilities. Include when and why they use those abilities. Create a “Pokédex” of all the information you have acquired.

This is not an exhaustive list of ways to incorporate games like

Pokémon into your classroom. The key is for you to play the game and then see what competencies or standards each game addresses.

You can access the ISTE Games & Sims Pokémon Go Back to School Edition slides at Hangout slides.

Trish Cloud (@trishcloud) Technology110 Instructor, Grand Oak Elementary and ISTE Games & Simulations Network Officer

ISTE GAMES & SIMULATIONS NETWORK Trying to Catch’Em All

The Games and Simulations Network (GSN) includes almost 2,000 educators in ISTE who have an educational interest in games and simulations. In using and developing games, GSN focuses on five broad topics: games, game based learning, game studies and gamification.

GSN has been exploring mobile augmented reality games since 2014. The network in anticipation of the popularity of a mobile augmented reality game based on Pokemon Go started holding webinars on and playing Pokemon Go predecessor’s Ingress. By mobile augmented reality games, we mean games that are location based and require the player to physically move to the location where an object or the location has been geotagged. This type of game has also been called a pervasive game, a ubiquitous game and a location based mobile game. Google Maps is required for Pokemon Go but other games may use different geolocation services to provide the overlay onto the real world environment.

GSN has been waiting for Pokemon Go to go live since 2014 when the game was first introduced as an April Fool’s Joke. No, really! Rumors of an actual game using Google Maps and Ingress portals started to circulate in the game development discussion forums shortly afterwards. We started playing Ingress after Michael Flood led GSN through an introductory webinar in 2015. Ingress was also a featured game in the GSN Game Night for ISTE 2015 in Philadelphia and the Mobile Learning Network Birds of a Feather Meet-up. At ISTE 2016 in Denver, Michael Flood was able to show us the Pokemon Go beta and also tell us how to prepare as we were eagerly awaiting its launch the following week.

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Pokemon Go launched on July 6, 2016 in the United States and GSN started and continues to be collecting and curating game based learning specific Pokemon GO articles and blog posts on this Google doc http://bit.ly/pokemongointro. We didn’t feel this was enough so GSN created a Intro to Pokemon Go for Educators Panel on July 13, 2016 over Google Hangout. Here is the Hangout slides and padlet for the backchannel. If you click on “show more”, you’ll get an index of the Hangout. Interesting portions include a question received during the session from a middle schooler, #PokeBlitz, and parting thoughts on Augmented Reality, Pokemon Go and Digital Literacy.

In the initial weeks of reviewing and curating game based learning related articles, two articles stood out. First was this quote from the President of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Chris Presland,

"Crazes come and go, they're all learning opportunities, it's just a question of how cleverly teachers can catch them." from Pokemon GO may help, not hinder in rural schools, Sydney Morning Herald (July 17, 2016). That statement might be just the right answer to educators belonging to the late majority of technology adopters.

The second is this informed and thoughtful article from an educator who has been studying and creating games and immersive environments for over ten years. Should Teachers Care about Pokemon GO? by Dean Groom (July 20, 2016) http://linkis.com/wordpress.com/wIKON

GSN followed up their Intro to Pokemon Go Hangout with an ISTE Games & Sims Network Pokemon GO Back to School Hangout with Kids, Parents and Educators on Wednesday, August 24, 2016. Here’s the link to the Hangout slides.

@CCCOnlineEdu https://twitter.com/CCCOnlineEdu/status/768478729198862336

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Panelists included Chris Luchs (Associate Dean, Career Technical Education), Tanya Martin (Educational Consultant and former K-12 Teacher), MC Ninja (student), MC Ninja’s Mom, Caoilin (student), Michael Flood (Educational Technology Entrepreneur), Kae Novak (Instructional Designer), Trish Cloud (Elementary School Technology Teacher) and Kristina Thoennes (Middle School Librarian/Media Specialist).

MC Ninja and MC Ninja’s Mom on the Pokemon Go Hangout https://www.flickr.com/photos/center4edupunx/28928680200/in/pool-gsniste14

Discussion Sections:

Kid Questions Pokémon is the modern day treasure o What potential value do you see in the playing hunt, it is a fantastic idea that has of this game? brought the young and the old into the What, if any, concerns or cautions do you have about outside world. I can see it being used in safety of children playing this game? so many different ways, in education, driving footfall back into the high street How might educators go beyond the game or add to stops and most of all it is getting our the game of Pokemon Go to augment teaching and younger generations to get out and look learning? at the world around them. Gamification Using Pokemon Go Google Maps – Trish Cloud is becoming part of our everyday life and soon will be used much more in Creating Trading Cards – Trish Cloud education. We need to change the way we are teaching in school. The next Ideas for using Pokemon Go – Trish Cloud and Kristina generation learns in a different way. I Thoennes feel that games like Pokeman will

revolutionise the way we do this Stella More Augmented Reality and Mobile Options o Field Trip, Ingress, Goose Hunt and Klikaklu James | Founder | Planet Gooseberry

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Beyond Pokemon and into the Classroom

This section is closer look at the Ideas for using Pokemon Go section of the Pokemon Go School Edition Hangout starting at https://youtu.be/8gzDmYu6Jgs?t=53m1s.

One of the greatest attractions of Pokemon Go is the augmented reality of the “critter” showing up in an ordinary place you are familiar with. Much of the technology and considered uses for the game have existed for some time in other games like Field Trip, Klikaklu, and Goosechase. Each of these three games requires walking around and using your smartphone to gather and record data. The games allow for customization by teachers or students to develop their own scavenger hunt or field trip. As with all suggestions, adjust and adapt for your grade level, content, and standards or competencies.

Check in your area is there a Google Pokemon Go community? If there is they probably have a map like the one below. It shows PokéStops, Gyms, and the location of rares. Use is this as an opportunity for students to learn to read map legends and do the other activities on the sheet.

The next idea is to have students create their own trading cards. This is a great opportunity for students to learn to use the advanced search tools in Google and to find fair use photos of their favorite Pokemon to create the trading cards. They will have to be selective in what information they choose. It will need to be important enough to go on to the limited space of the trading card. They will have to use digital citizenship skills to find reputable and credible locations to find their information and record that information on their card. These cards are printable, free, and great educational artifacts for digital citizenship!

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Pokemon Go and its fit in Game-Based Learning

@Center4eduPunx https://twitter.com/center4EduPunx/status/756217963460427777 Game-Based Learning in Higher Education As one of the ISTE Games & Simulations PLN Leaders, and as a long time game-based learning practitioner and researcher in higher education, I view games as logic machines and narrative metaphors that reference some of our sociopolitical realities, aspirations, and fears. Unlike other narrative mediums, games possess the unique properties of interactivity and situatedness that the player experiences simultaneously in a feedback loop; when playing a game, the player is required to interact with elements in a virtual or physical gaming space and receive feedback from the game system on whether or not the interactions made have been logical, in order to determine how to progress to the next level of the gaming experience. Games should be used in education because they: 1) express cultural logics and narrative metaphors that call for critical analysis; 2) enable players to experience a scenario through interactivity; 3) provide feedback loops to help the player learn how to progress. Guided Instruction in Game-Based Learning Although the game-based learning (GBL) method does call for the use of games in education, it does not necessarily require practitioners to develop a game specifically for educational purposes, nor should practitioners believe that simply assigning a game and expecting students to learn something from the act of game-playing represents the limit of the GBL method. Many critics offer the aforementioned assumptions as grounds for dismissing GBL as a frivolous educational method, or as a way of converting education into an entertaining spectacle. Rather, the GBL method is a form of guided instruction with the use of the game medium, and GBL designed activities can be quite rigorous. For example, a GBL practitioner would provide the learners the reasons for engaging in a gaming activity, so that the learners can bracket a part of the gaming experience, apply a critical lens to analyze that gaming experience, and ultimately arrive at an interpretation.

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Game-Based Learning with Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go, like other augmented reality (AR) games and apps, is a boon to the game-based learning (GBL) method, because AR games and apps project virtual objects to physical locations, and thus expanding the horizon of interactive and learning possibilities to include both virtual and physical spaces. To correlate Pokemon Go with the intended educational objectives, educators should incorporate the game into the curriculum using an appropriate, GBL method. A Pokemon Go Assignment Designed with the Critical Game-Based Learning Method

I have developed several critical game-based learning (GBL) methods for creating rigorous assignments with games, and as an example, I offer one of my critical GBL assignments that assigns Pokemon Go as a lens for examining the phenomenon of context collapse. The assignment requires the student to consider what happens in augmented reality experiences in the moments of context collapse, which refers to the phenomenon in which contexts from multiple audiences collapse onto a single moment, rendering our ability to adjust our social behaviors and interactions to a single context impossible. In terms of Pokemon Go, context collapse occurs each time the game’s virtual context collapses with the social contexts of the physical environments, or in other words, when a Pokemon monster appears in and intrudes a public space with its own game context. To complete the assignment, students would play the AR game in a populated place, usually located near a major Pokéstop, and then take photos of each of the captured Pokemon monsters in AR mode. Then, instead of examining the captured Pokemon monsters in each photo, student would examine the people who were “captured” along with the monsters within the same photo. The purpose of this assignment to make students reflect on how Pokemon Go imposes its own game context onto the contexts of the audience who exists in the physical environment, and confuses the player to neglect the social etiquette of not taking a public person’s photo without permission. A real life example of Pokemon Go induced context collapse is when a Florida man shoots at Pokemon Go players, mistaking them for burglars. In this case, the players, in the blind pursuit for Pokemon monsters, ignored the context of the Florida man who desires to protect his own property.

The aforementioned assignment demonstrates that educators can create rigorous assignments with games using a critical game-based learning method. The future of using Pokemon Go and other AR games in education looks promising.

Sherry Jones (@Autnes)| Philosophy Instructor | Game Studies SME for Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design | Co-Founder of the Metagame Book Club

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Pokemon Go: School Strategy & Classroom Management

When researching this report our own kids went back to school and Boy! How we laughed when we were told about a sign in a teacher's class that said:

“If you play Pokemon Go in Class… I will waste all your pokéballs… probably on a Pidgey or Rattata and I’ll miss every time”

Diana Bidulescu, created one of the first mobile technology immersion programs in Texas kindly offered the following advice for school strategies & classroom management with Pokemon Go.

● School Pokemon Go Policy and Plan Schools will have to anticipate that Pokemon Go players WILL attempt to play during class, and on school grounds; it is critical that the school has a policy or plan about how this should happen,

● Each school has students whose privacy is unlisted

● Unauthorized Personnel & School Grounds As a rule, school grounds are off limits to visitors unless a background check has been done on them. Pokemon Go will attract a wide variety of players, some of which may be adults with unclear intentions to the children. Most laws state that the school is liable for anything that occurs while on school grounds.

● Niantic Terms Opt-out of “forced arbitration”, a paragraph in the Terms of service that takes away the user’s right to file a lawsuit against Niantic, and also prohibits them from joining a class action against the company - parents and schools must know this as they only have 30 days from signing up to opt out at [email protected].

● Student Data While on school grounds, student data has to be protected, and Niantic shares all data with a great number of third parties

● Geofencing The school building should be a request that each school should take into account, not to prevent the players from chasing Pokemon, but to ensure student safety and prevent bullying

On the following page is a sign that quickly conveys Bidulescu’s points.

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Pokemon Go and Augmented Reality – Sector Feedback

I have followed the launch of Pokemon Go with great interest because of how closely it aligns to my company and our mission, TechTerra Education strives to merge the digital and physical worlds for students to better understand their world. Our work is carried out through STEM activities with a focus on citizen science work in the natural world. We use many #AR and #VR tools in our work with students and teachers. Although this particular game has its critics, I am extremely excited about how the next tools merging the digital and physical worlds will impact learners. The opportunity to move from singular digital facing activities and beyond a 360 viewer, will allow unique opportunities and access to both worlds. I absolutely believe engagement, interest, motivation, fun and yes, student achievement will all be positively impacted by this movement.

Susan Wells (@wellssusan)| Founder, TechTerra Education | ISTE Mobile Learning Network President

Last semester, I had my graduate students play and deconstruct Monument Valley in class to investigate themes related to instructional design and this semester, I am going to recommend that we play and deconstruct Pokemon Go for themes related to critical digital literacy. My students (and I), who are educators, will investigate the multiple aspects that have arisen from this “game.” I can’t think of anything recently that has so quickly become a cultural phenomenon crossing generations; intriguing educators, families, businesses, communities, etc.; and raising a variety of concerns related to actual physical safety, cyber security, and personal responsibility. I recently heard of someone leaving in the middle of their job to catch a Pokemon. Sometimes, NOT "catching them all” is important. As we start to immerse ourselves in augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR), there are opportunities and responsibilities for all of us.

Dr. Julia Lynn Parra (@desertjul) | Learning Design & Technology | College of Education, New Mexico State University | Education Publications

"We believe the tools now exist to bring high-quality learning opportunities to every learner on the planet. We've been tracking advances in augmented and virtual reality in education over the years, because we see its potential for powerful learning. The Pokemon Go story is an interesting one for many reasons. Perhaps most importantly as it relates to education, the app and its rapid uptake have done more to advance public understanding of topics like game theory, AR/VR and learner experience in the months since its release than the edtech field has been able to do over decades. This opens the door to more investment in AR/VR specially designed to engage students in deeper learning through advancements that will leverage technology to power Place-Based Education."

Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) | CEO | Getting Smart

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"You are so right in exploring this topic! I think it's worth looking up from a smartphone to see that so many others are immersed in something so captivating, whether it's Pokemon Go, or whatever they might be looking at. I would encourage fun, and with Seymour Papert in mind, be alert to ensure the student is in control of the technology, not the other way around. In fact, I recently interviewed Papert protégé and edtech pioneer Idit Harel, and felt compelled enough to ask her about the current craze. Worth looking at? Or should we ignore it and walk into barriers like its players? She strongly agrees with a let's-learn-something approach: 'How can someone ignore a phenomenon that entered the masses consciousness overnight? I think there are several things we can learn from it,' she said. You can read half a dozen really thoughtful points that she makes in the EdTech Digest interview, but the bottom line? Gaming can and should be used for learning."

Victor Rivero (@edtechdigest)| Editor in Chief | EdTech Digest

"As we see the extreme craze over Pokemon Go, it's clear that Augmented Reality (AR) has a powerful opportunity at impacting classrooms all over the world. The use of AR offers the students a chance to engage, explore and experience learning in a way otherwise impossible. Taking notice of student interest is a necessity as educators and Pokemon Go has connected fun with Augmented Reality and we can all learn from that success." Jaime Donally (@JaimeDonally)| EdChange Global Organiser | ISTE Presenter

@GmSimNetwork https://twitter.com/GmSimNetwork/status/763088186130083840

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A Word on AR in Edu…

Dr. Scott Garrigan is a Professor of Practice of Teaching, Learning & Technology at Lehigh University College of Education and teaches graduate instructional technology students (mostly practicing teachers) about augmented reality and has his students create their own augmented reality mobile games.

Pokemon Go clearly demonstrates two things: o Augmented reality games and activities may deeply engage kids o Location-based mobile games can deeply engage kids in outdoor exploration activities.

The question regarding “Does Pokemon Go belong in schools” asks the totally wrong question. The question should be

Can we use the engagement with Pokemon Go to help kids in school?

Three ways to use the ideas and excitement of Pokemon Go in schools: o Do you want to make a game like Pokemon Go? Augmented reality games can be created by teachers and students using Note: ARIS currently is only o ARIS to create outdoor location-based games available on Apple devices. https://arisgames.org/get- aris/ o QR codes to build indoor games

Aurasma while a Aurasma to create games that superimpose characters o wonderful educational (like Pokemon Go characters), videos, text, or graphics technology tool does have over visual trigger images. a technical learning curve.

Connect the games to interesting locations: o Every museum should have Aurasma or ARIS-based games to help guide kids through the exhibits in engaging way.

o Every historic area and park should have ARIS-based games to create informative, interesting, explorations of the region and its history and/or ecology

Use clues in ARIS or Aurasma to direct kids to the next location like a scavenger hunt, but the clues chosen require them to use their curriculum knowledge to solve the puzzles.Create team-based curricular games with ARIS or Aurasma so that kids learn from each other and practice solving problems together.

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Understanding the Pokemon Go Phenomenon Through Augmented Reality Research Pokemon Go is a game app that successfully introduced augmented reality (AR) to mass consumers due to its user friendly game design, as the AR game app offers ease of use, the free-to-play (F2P) marketing model, and the childhood nostalgia factor by referencing the well-established Pokemon manga, toys, and media franchise that has become globally popular since 1995. However, academics and game designers have been researching and creating augmented environments with augmented reality technology for decades, focusing on the use of AR technology to enhance the social experience of working in private and public sectors beyond entertainment, such as journalism, surgery and medicine, archeological exploration, and other uses (for example, see Georgia Tech’s Augmented Environments Research Lab bibliography for a list of scholarly research on AR design and use cases). Due to the popularity of Pokemon Go, more AR apps will proliferate in the mobile market, and become regular staple installs on mass consumer devices.

Pokemon Go: The Catalyst for Introducing Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality to Education

Several implications and forecasts can be made for the future of education given the popularity of Pokemon Go. Since the majority of students are mobile device consumers, this means that in the very near future, students will be using augmented reality (AR) apps, and later on virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) apps (as they become more affordable), as an inextricable part of daily life. Given that the use of mobile devices in education is becoming a trend, as more digitally connected educators are encouraging students to use mobile devices to conduct research and complete assignments, educators will need to begin considering the educational implications of AR, and how to utilize AR apps for educational purposes, such as the inclusion of AR apps usage as part of the requirements for achieving digital citizenship literacy.

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Philosophical Investigations of Augmented Reality via Pokemon Go

As a philosophy and game studies instructor, I have been incorporating in curriculum design Pokemon Go and other AR apps, such as Ingress, Within, AR Concert with Miku, Plague Inc., Flow Powered by Amazon, Vear, and more, as ways to call on students to critically play and examine the philosophical, cultural, and socio-political implications of the use of such apps in the public space. One assignment that I have developed is to ask students to investigate the phenomenon of parasocial relationships in the digital world through the augmented reality of Pokemon Go. Parasocial relationships refer to a one-sided relationship where a person invests and directs emotions to another person who is unaware of receiving such affections. For this assignment, students are asked to follow other Pokemon Go players, and record the players’ responses to the Pokemon monsters that appear on their mobile devices. Then, students are required to write an analytical essay about the possible philosophical issues that could arise from players’, or in other words, mass consumers’ development of parasocial relationships with their Pokemon monsters. My students have expressed surprise at the majority of the players’ illusion of bonding with the 3D programmed fictional monsters, and have questioned what will happen to the future of social relationships, and people’s sense of reality, as smart cities and other environments adopt AR, VR, and MR technologies to create augmented spaces in architectural designs. The intention of creating a game-based learning assignment using Pokemon Go is to help students realize that like all technologies, augmented reality and other location based technologies are not innocuous play things, but simultaneous communicators of cultural and social messages, whether consciously or unconsciously, to its end users. Preparing Students to Enter a Future Dominated by Augmented Environments My Pokemon Go based philosophy assignment, as I have described briefly above, demonstrate how we can apply rigor to our examination of any new technology introduced to education, instead of limiting our thinking about technology in terms of their intended, marketing application. The assignment is designed to guide students’ critical thinking about how AR technology can affect their lives, far beyond being entertained.

We, as educators, have a responsibility to help students understand how to operate in a predominantly digitized world, from communicating on mobile devices via the web and social media, to operating the internet of things (IoTs) that are taking over the physical environments, to experiencing the world through augmented reality apps such as Pokemon Go, and to learning new social behaviors in augmented spaces that present mixed realities. Incorporating technology into education does not necessarily lead to the creation of frivolous learning activities, as some critics against technology or games in education have claimed. Using technology in instruction also does not necessarily mean that educators are supporting corporate agenda. Ignoring educational discussions of the existence of such technologies, or resisting the use of such technologies in education, is a form of denying the increasingly digitized reality that students face outside of our classrooms. Constantly, students are being bombarded by new technologies that they may or may not understand the implications of using

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these technologies in their daily lives. Education can offer guidance in these exciting yet confusing times.

In recognition of the social relevance of such technologies, I have developed many more assignments with AR apps (beyond Pokemon Go), as well as VR and MR, to enhance philosophical discussions of pressing social issues, and to raise students’ awareness of how these technologies will affect their social and professional future.

Functioning also as a game designer, I currently am developing MR apps that express philosophical theories as interactive games. I plan to share more AR assignments examples and models in future editions of the ISTE DigCit PLN Pokemon Go - Back to School Advice reports. Sherry Jones (@Autnes) | Philosophy Instructor | Game Studies SME for Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design | Co-Founder of the Metagame Book Club

@BrookingsInst https://twitter.com/BrookingsInst/status/756700124244537344

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Pokemon Go, Augmented Reality and Transferable Skills

From a Career Technical Education (CTE) perspective, Pokemon Go and other AR applications provide an interesting array of skills applications. The first skill application is students becoming comfortable with seamlessly incorporating mobile devices into their everyday work life to enhance productivity and reduce errors. A workforce example of this is how extensively mobile apps are used by those in the welding profession. The reason for this heavy reliance on apps is that welders face a variety of challenges such as identifying different types of metal, reviewing metallurgy to ensure their welds will hold, what temperature is needed and what consumable electrode or filler can be used. All of these factors play into creating a weld that will hold and maintain the integrity of the workpiece.

Another aspect is gaining mastery and understanding of the affordances and constraints of augmented reality applications. This is an area that is emerging as individuals, cities and corporations explore how they can incorporate augmented reality, geotagging, and other similar technologies to enable remote monitoring of homes and buildings, mapping essential infrastructure like water, sewer and gas mains, and other public projects and assets. The City of Boulder, Colorado started using GPS data to develop a Geographic Information System that mapped road signage and maintenance in 1995. The City of Boulder has since expanded their use of GIS related data and now offers an open data portal to its residents and visitors to create their own apps and uses for the data provided. Another example is the City of Boulder Colorado eMapLInk which allows users as browser based map that they can add and remove various data points to give existing businesses, residents and potential businesses an in depth view of the city infrastructure. In addition, the idea of Smart Cities is catching on as a way government can provide value and improve its effectiveness and leverage efficiencies of real time data.

Lastly, use of AR games like Pokemon Go allow the users to develop fine motor skills that will be needed in the workplace as it continues to incorporate more and more technology into all facets of the workforce. Sites like Medicalaugmentedreality.com, Medical Realities, AccuVein, Current Studios, and Va-Sta to name a few show the promise of AR and VR in the medical field. These applications will require users to be comfortable with mastering the hand gestures and micro movements needed to manipulate content on their screen quickly and then effectively use this information to perform their task.

So who knew that mastering your poké curveball and being able to navigate your environment might have applications outside of catching them all?

Chris Luchs (@NorthMetroTech)| Associate Dean, CTE | CCCOnline.org | ISTE Games and Simulations Network Co-Chair | Inevitable Instructors

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On The Hunt for Other Mobile Augmented Reality Games

Ingress has been another pervasive, location based mobile game that GSN has been playing and producing professional development content for the Metagame Book Club.

Ingress players are typically older than Pokemon Go players, levels are 1 -16 and most of gameplay is at the highest level or endgame. Ingress also allows for higher level players to create missions and send other players out on quests to portals.

The following is reference material for those interested in learning more about Ingress:

Ingress Play (Metagame Book Club)

21st Century and Welcome to ARG (recorded webinar) https://youtu.be/P5-ikML4Szw

This webinar tied for 2015 Best Professional Development 2015 in the Virtual Environment Journal’s (VEJ) Reader’s Choice Award

Panelists: Michael Anderson, ARGNetwork, Thomas Arteaga, Level 16, college student, Ingress Broward County Organizer, Dr. Cynthia Calongne, Colorado Technical University, Michael Flood, ISTE Mobile Learning Network

Pervasive Games: Using and Creating (recorded webinar) https://youtu.be/S3R-aakZ4G8 Panelists: Dr. Christopher Holden co-creator of Mentira and ARIS game developer Kae Novak and Dr. Farah Bennani creators of Project Outbreak

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Ingress: The Predecessor to Pokemon Go

The augmented reality (ARG) online location based game, Ingress, requires players to capture locations and then connect these locations in a sort of “digital crop circle”. Ingress is a product of Niantic Labs, the company responsible for Pokemon Go and Field Trip. The locations are all culturally significant sites and were identified by players at the game’s inception. The locations include historic landmarks, signs, buildings, statues and murals. These very sites, or Portals as they are called in Ingress, are the blueprint for the Pokemon Go Gamestops and Gyms. Many Pokemon players are also Ingress players who take advantage of the Intel Map of portals all over the world as well as the built in communication system.

Ingress includes a science fiction based narrative. The only requirements to play the game are a smartphone with a data plan and eligibility for a Gmail account. Global, Regional and local Ingress communities plan and play together as they contribute to the global Ingress “mission” to save the planet, based on either the Resistance or Enlightened philosophy.

Just as in Pokemon Go, Ingress players must walk around to play the game. A player claims, fortifies and maintains portals, for either The Resistance or Enlightened teams. Portals are connected to form triangles and capture “mind units” in numbers based on population of the area. These “fields” over heavily populated areas will capture more Mind Units and help progress a team forward. The game includes individual scores and team scores for local, regional and global communities.

In this image, the Fort Lauderdale Welcome Sign is a designated portal (it is also a Pokemon Gym). The site is real, the portal designation, deployed enlightened resonators and mods reinforcing the portal are the augmented reality layer of the game.

The second image shows each faction (Resistance and Enlightened) claiming ownership on two different sides of a park. The blue portals are Resistance owned, green are controlled by Enlightened and the white portals are unclaimed. Control typically goes back and forth particularly in well-traveled areas. This control is akin to the Pokemon control of a Gym.

Players of each faction interact with each other as well as with the opposing faction. This interaction can be competitive or collaborative. An example of cross faction collaboration was a half blue, half green heart that covered a large portion of the state of Florida after the Pulse Nightclub tragedy. Some of the images teams collaborate to build in

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this digital layer over our real world have been impressively elaborate, but are gone in a few days as players move on with the game.

Ingress is a free app, and like Pokemon has a store for purchases, if desired. Playing alone will glean limited success, collaborating and communicating with others is essential to being successful in the game. Players use the Ingress communication channel or another communication software product like SLACK or Google chat as they carry out a mission or to strategize for future missions. Players often meet-up with teammates to complete missions that help everyone to level in the game and help the team faction. The Ingress Intel Map shows where all the portals are and is used for planning purposes. This map is being used by savvy Pokemon players as those portals are the same locations as Pokéstops and PokéGyms. Niantic sponsors live Ingress events. The schedule is on the website https://www.ingress.com/. These day-long events provide for specific missions to be accomplished in a particular locale.

The use of Ingress for educational or training purposes can be aligned to team building, community and cultural awareness, history, mapping, strategizing, communication, mathematics, digital citizenship, and data analysis. The many portals on college campuses make it a viable resource for higher education institutions. K-12 schools, firehouses, and other locations that may be considered dangerous or inappropriate are not designated portals.

The mission statement for the Online Teaching and Learning Series that I edit for Routledge is a quote from a former colleague, Stephen Anspacher: “ It’s not about technology. It’s abusing Pokemon Go out learning.” I have no doubt that there might be uses for Pokemon Go in education. The question is would using Pokemon Go be the best way to use teacher/student time to teach/learn. It must be. Otherwise all or part of the activity diminishes learning- the point of education. Marjorie Vai (@vaireal) | Series Editor for Online Learning and Teaching | Routledge

Pokemon Go is a great example of technology capturing the attention and interest of youth, and this is where educators can take advantage of the game. Teachers that look to make learning unique and relatable to their students need to harness these attention-getters, and connect curriculum learning concepts to them. Minecraft has been another great example of how students engage with the method of learning to understand spatial and mathematical concepts. It’s always been our philosophy at Chalk.com to encourage teachers to innovate on their own curriculum, differentiate, and apply it to the interests of learners in their classes. William Zhou (@WilliamWZ) | CEO | Chalk.com

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ISTE Mobile Network Photo Quest The ISTE Mobile Learning Network regularly organizes a large scale mobile photo quest at each annual ISTE conference. In 2015, GooseChase was used to have conference participants do missions in the streets around the Philadelphia Convention Center. For June 2016, the ISTE Mobile Learning Network had over 100 people embarking from the Colorado Convention Center in two directions to do the Auraria Campus Crawl and the LoDo (Lower Downtown) Lope. These educators displayed the typical Pokemon Go behavior of looking down at their mobile devices as well as collaborative behavior we have seen such as working in groups, sharing information with other players and talking to people on the street as they were doing their quest.

Dr. Michael Mills’ suggestion of klikaklu, which he had used with his faculty at the University of Central Arkansas, propelled the organizing group forward in their development of the Mile High Photo Quest. Angie Wulff, Chris Luchs and Kae Novak then went out on reconnaissance and found two pathways. The Casual Campus Crawl, which took players onto the Auraria Campus (University of Colorado - Denver, Community College of Denver and Metropolitan State University of Denver), and the more aggressive (faster paced and longer) LoDo Lope, which took you into the urban arena and down to Union Station. The 2016 Mile High Photo Quest had over 100 people playing at the ISTE Conference in Denver. Klikaklu uses GPS and augmented reality to have you set up a photo quest where the participants need to take the same picture as the one you set up. The focus of the quest was to see public art and buildings in the two quests area. The Mile High Photo Quest Creation Team put their planning notes up on a Google doc http://bit.ly/mobilequestiste16 in case anyone would like to use it or expand on it.

One of the complaints about Pokemon Go is that it does not include a communication channel for players. Klikaklu does not have one either; so a Voxer channel was setup for audio and text communication for the players and was monitored by an organizer.

In the past 18 months we’ve seen data suggesting that most people don’t download apps anymore. What the success of Pokemon Go tells me is that apps are not dead, that mobile still has a ton of growth curve left, and that people are willing and even eager to explore mobile apps and games that take the familiar and give it a 30-degree twist to the new, to the interesting, to the magical. John Koetsier (@johnkoetsier) | Mobile Economist | Tune

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Pokemon Go and other Mobile Augmented Reality Games Professional Development (2 - 3 hours)

This scaffolded experience starts with educators playing Klikaklu in teams, then picking a faction and playing Ingress, and finally see how Pokemon Go is based on Ingress while taking a walk with higher level players.

30 educators took part in exploring these three Augmented Reality games at the Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology conference at the University of Colorado - Boulder on August 4, 2016.

Introduction

Part 1 After a brief introduction, participants were introduced to a model of KWL What Do I Know? / What Do I Want to Know? What Did I Learn? Using the KLW model based on a suggestion from Tanya Martin @gridjumper, the KLW graphic organizer was adapted.

Part 2 Participants grouped up ensuring that at least one member of the group had an iPhone or iPad. Klikaklu currently only works on Apple devices with Internet access. The participants paired up in groups and then spent the rest of the session in motion.

Klikaklu First, they played a short Klikaklu Hunt. Literary License Hunt from the campus commons to the Planetarium with 8 clues to solve. Klikaklu allows users to create photo quests with hints, quizzes, and rewards. Players must match up their image with the one the quest creator took at the same location. This exercise in Klikaklu game play emphasizes exploring image identification software, points of reference, and the educational potential of this application. Here’s a link to Flickr screenshot album from the Literary License Hunt.

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Ingress Next, the group downloaded and entered the fray of Ingress as members of the Resistance and Enlightened battled for control of public art, open spaces, and other monuments of human intellect and culture. This was the first time many participants were exposed to pervasive gaming, where the world is your game board. In Ingress, you are the player and must walk to specific geotagged locations to achieve objectives and collect resources for your faction. Participants returned to the starting location and discussed the possible applications of the information dossiers of each object and what could be added. One great suggestion was to utilize student reflection on strategies, locations, and information provided and have the students think about what they experienced and how it could connect back to course competencies and outcomes.

Pokemon Go Lastly, the group downloaded Pokemon Go for more experience with the potential of pervasive gaming for educators. The group quickly learned that Pokemon Go and Ingress were very much related. Not only was the same company behind the two games, but many of the Ingress portals served as Pokégyms and Pokéstops.

One of our experts led us through a capture of the Law School gym with his father.

Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/center4edupunx/28692397032/in/pool-gsniste14/

Key Takeaways (L - What Did I Learn):

Augmented Reality is not new; it has been around for a while. There are additional tools that allow educators to build their own AR content using tools such as Layar.com, Aurasma.com, and Arisgames.org. Like all content, instructors need to play the games and review the content themselves to determine fit. Also, not all AR is fully accessible, so there is a need for equivalent alternatives if you are going to use them.

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Pokemon Go and the Metagame

Metagame or meta-game is a term originally used by gamers to mean knowledge outside of the game. It was not meant as a positive term, rather it was thought of as cheating. Times have changed. With the proliferation of player built online sites and the player generated knowledge, the meaning of the term metagame has changed. In the last decade, it has begun to be used by education researchers and academics to mean all the learning that happens outside the actual game. Wagner M.D. (2008) used the term to describe the game related activities outside the game. Pivec (2009) suggested the meta-game surrounding the game may be as important for learning as the learning in the game. Gee and Hayes (2012) called for more research on online affinity spaces where the metagame resides. Young, Slota, Cutter, Jalette, Mullin, Lai, Simeoni, Tran, and Yukhymenko (2012) described the metagame as the online sites that include “hints, cheats and modding (p. 82).” With all this in mind, the ISTE Games and Simulations Network in collaboration with Inevitable Instructors created a book club called The Metagame. Its purpose was to include all the learning happening outside the book and outside the games we play. Pokemon Metagame and Ecosystem

Let’s take a closer look at Pokemon and the ecosystem that revolves around Pokemon video games and Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) and the whole Pokemon franchise. Pokemon the game has a huge narrative with 721 species of Pokemon and Bulbapedia, a community built and driven Pokemon wiki created for the video game and trading cards. In addition, there are comics, animated cartoon series, and books that provide and build the history, Pokemon and player backstory, and form the collective cannon of Pokemon since 1995.

Pokemon Go, is a new entrant to this ecosystem and pulls from the existing metagame as well as attracting new metagame resources. These include the discussion posts on reddit that started before the game beta was open. Silph Road is Pokemon Go most prolific metagame community with endless downloads, badges, gear, local Face-to-face meetup groups and a YouTube Channel. It also has its own VOIP chat group over Discord. Discord is one of the newest voice and text chats aimed at gamers. Also before Pokemon Go was released, an “Attention libraries” post went up on reddit to let libraries to expect to have a PokéStop or Pokégym at their locations.

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Pokemon Go and Information and Technology Literacy

The Sliph Road on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/

With all these resources at the player's disposal, knowing where to find the most accurate and navigating the technology need to use it makes any detailed search into the Pokemon Go metagame a test or an assessment of Information and Technology Literacy. To get a sense of what this literacy entails, here is Front Range Community College’s student learning outcome rubric for Information and Technology Literacy. As this rubric illustrates, any venture into the metagame would require a player or student to use all of the skill components. A student would need to plan the search, articulate the scope, effectively access the technology, evaluate the information, synthesize the ideas, and determine the ethical use of any material they found.

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#PokeBlitz place in the Metagame

As an educator, one of the most exciting Metagame experiences that have developed with Pokemon Go is the use of the hashtag #PokeBlitz. #PokeBlitz is a take-off of #BioBlitz for biodiversity and #PokemonIRL (in real life) and #wildlifeID. This hashtag was started the Sunday after Pokemon Go was released in Canada. Morgan Jackson @BioInFocus from the University of Guelph and co-host of @BreakingBio Podcast http://breakingbio.com/ began tweeting out that he and other wildlife biologists such as David Steen @AlongsideWild would be willing to identify the real animals people were finding when they were playing.

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#PokeBlitz was covered in a number of the early articles on Pokemon Go. These articles are provided below.

‘Pokemon Go” players are finding real animals while searching for digital ones, LA Times (July 11, 2016) http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-Pokemon-go-real-animals-20160711- 20160711-snap-story.html

Is “Pokemon Good for Science”, Motherboard (July 12, 2016) http://motherboard.vice.com/read/is-Pokemon-go-good-for-science

Scientists’ New Research Tool: Pokemon Go, Take part (July 12, 2016) http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/07/12/scientists-new-research-tool-Pokemon-go

What wildlife scientists and nature lovers can learn from Pokemon Go, The Washington Post (July 13, 2016) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/13/what-wildlife- scientists-and-nature-lovers-can-learn-from-Pokemon-go/

Which iconic science centers are also Pokemon Go hot spots? Science (July 14, 2016) http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/which-iconic-science-centers-are-also-pok-mongo-hotspots 9 Science area where it would just be cool to get a screenshot of a Mankey!

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#PokeBlitz in Action

As a college mentor for Information and Technology Literacy, last week I participated in Shushila Heath’s English Composition course as part of a seamless mobile learning project design.

@CCCOnline Edu https://twitter.com/CCCOnlineEdu/status/769595864876744705

That afternoon, we took students with their mobile devices into an open space in the Rocky Mountains called Big Dry Creek. Students take pictures and use their mobile devices to access information. This assignment develops into a larger writing project. During the walk, there was an unidentified beetle. We immediately sent out the educator's version of the Bat Signal. We tweeted it out the Bat-Signal #PokeBlitz

@kzenovka https://twitter.com/kzenovka/status/768594936170065 920?lang=en

Before Morgan Jackson @BioInFocus could respond, one of our ISTE members and presenters, Erica Liszewski @BlueAppaloosa responded. While she claimed that she wasn't 100% sure … Batman (Morgan Jackson) concurred.

So if you are playing Pokemon Go take a picture of any unidentified animal, bug or plant and tweet it out with #PokeBlitz! It’s a great way to get you and your students involved in the metagame.

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Acknowledgements: Report Collaborators Curating this document would not be possible without the assistance of the amazing people in our PLN. We would like to thank the following people and organizations for all their time and support

Thank you to William Jenkins (@EdTech_Stories) for sharing your vision and talents on this report. Your attention to detail has been meticulous and work ethic has been unsurpassed with the research. You continue to inspire and empower countless educators everywhere, thank you.

Curating, organising and then sharing the insights that we got from all the Pokemon Go artilces would have been a challenge without having a platform like Declara (@Declara). We hope to continue exploring all things Pokemon Go by adding to these collections.

We also plan to use the platforms team feature when the DigCit Pokemon Go steering group with share their experience

Digital Citizenship for kids by kids: A student run #DigCit ambassador program for K-12 students doing #DigCit monthly challenges.

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Acknowledgements: My DigCit Crew

When we shared an early draft of this report, it wasn’t long before we had more than 100 people offering input of all kinds of ways. For example, our PLN shared articles (which we added to the Declara collection), made introductions to experts who specialized in gaming and AR, provided insights and comments (which we added to the report), and others who offered to help circulate the final report and assisted with proof reading and editing.

This assistance came from across the spectrum of the Education community and included educators from pre-K12 to adult education, educators and EdTech startups and people across the Atlantic collaborating and talk about good Digital Citizenship!

THANK YOU!

YOU ROCK!.

On the following pages, we acknowledge people in our network who have helped with this report, as well as other projects. Please feel free to connect with these awesome people by following them on Twitter and on this Pokemon Go Twitter List or complete the form on the following links if you want to join the DigCit PLN (And Games PLN?) Pokemon Go Steering Group Contact Form.

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Acknowledgements: My DigCit Crew

The ISTE Professional Learning Network offers ISTE members (@ISTEConnects) year-round opportunities to connect and collaborate with like-minded colleagues. It’s been fantastic collaborating with our colleagues in other PLN’s. Thank you all for your time and valuable contribution with this project

A special shout out to Jaime Donally and her Edchange Global (EdChangeGlobal) and Global Maker Day crew for your constant support. The next Global Maker Day is scheduled on October 25, 2016. Edchange Global is an amazing 24 Hour Online Global Learning Events. Next event: #ECGC17 EdChange Global for Classrooms

Sarah Thomas (@sarahdateechur) walks the walk and talks the talk and she is committed to connecting educators of similar interests. Her ultimate goal is to foster collaboration and to learn together. Her EduMatch (@edu_match) community is education for educators, by educators. #edumatch

This shout out goes out to all the edchat moderators who take the time to share their talents and expertise and who are constantly modeling best practices. A special shout out to everyone who has every moderated #digcit chat including Tracy Mercier, Susan Bearden, Jennifer Scheffer, Craig Badura, Glenn Robbins, Sandy Kendell, Kay Conners, Alan Katzman, Mike Ribble and Sarah Thomas.

To our Digital Citizenship Summit community including the Digital Citizenship Summit UK, thank you for supporting the SAFE, SAVVY and ETHICAL elements of digital citizenship. A special shout out to the University of Saint Joseph, Bournemouth University and Twitter Headquarters for hosting the Summit.

. #WhatIf curiosity based learning is the foundation to digital citizenship? Grateful to Matt Murrie, Founder & Chief Curiosity Curator for merging #WhatIf and digital citizenship to make an authentic learning experience for everyone.

A special thanks to Utah for being the first state to include digital citizenship in legislation. We've enjoyed working with Epik Deliberate Digital (@epikalliance) and are grateful to Michelle Linford for her time and support on this report.

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Acknowledgements: The Cmgr Community

The My Community Manager (@MyCmgr)team organize the weekly #CMGRHangout which is run by and for Community Managers. This has become a key source of PD for us… check it out on Fridays at 2pm ET

“My struggle is your gain” is a comment that CMX (@CMX) CEO says in his Getting Started in Community Management post which includes lots of great resources. With Michelle Cordy’s closing ISTE keynote being about communities and educators are wondering how utilize Pokenon Go to build community… It’s a perfect time for educators and EdTech startups to check out CMX.

In David’s post above the advice for anyone looking to be a Community Manager is that you Listen! Listen! Listen! before you doing anything. I Joined #EdTechChat (@EdTechChat1)most weeks in the first year.Through listening and learning I came up with the idea of #Get2ISTE, the inaugural Connected Educator Appreciation Day (#CEduAD, Inspired by CMAD) and saw how Edu/supplier relations could look through Susan Bearden collaborating with Mad Learn

#ISTE16Pirates as a #Cmgr newbie just like Niantic learned a great deal from Ingress I learned a great deal from an earlier project where we tried to curate ISTE 2016 data in the same way we have here… Thank you to everyone who got involved with this! Why join the navy when you can be a Pirate? Pirates have more fun ;)!

Awesome Startup Experts Speaking of pirates… I’ve collaborated with James Stanbridge (@Stanbridge) on a few projects and I’ve never met anyone who listens as intently as he does! James is currently working with a number of people to help them with their leadership skills and personal growth. I couldn’t recommend getting in touch with him enough!

Stacy Holland is the founder of Exceptional People who specializes in hard to find talent in Sales, operations and product development for EdTech startups. Her website says that they are the 3rd leg of the startup stool and, given her record of repeat business, it’s a statement that’s hard to argue with

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Acknowledgements: Media & Distribution Partners

We are grateful to Education Scotland (@EducationScot) for adding this report to their Digital Learning Community site ( www.digilearn.scot ) which raises awareness of digital learning and teaching in Scotland.

Thank you TES Scotland (@TESSScotland) for running an article about this research and including a link to the report

A huge shout out to Jeff Bradbury (@TeacherCast) for all his help and input when drafting this report and for his ideas around ensuring that as many educators as possible access this research

EdTech review (@etr_in) are always extremely supportive of our initiatives and this project is no different, thanks for all your help!

Thanks to Tom Vander Ark for his support with this project and for inviting us to write a guest blog post about this research and our Pokemon Experiences on Getting Smart (@Getting_Smart)

Thank you to Victor and his team for your contributions with this project and for keeping us up to date with all things EdTech (@EdTechDigest). We’ll get some content to you and look forward to continuing with our collaboration on this project

Awesome Authors Trends and principles in the Tech Adoption Cycle of this report were spotted because of the research in my EdTech report where we were kindly given permission to reference these books.

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Appendix 1 - Negative Stories and Aspects of Pokemon Go The following articles detail some of the more negative (and bizarre) stories about Pokemon Go. Our particular favorites being all the ways that Pokemon Go will kill you.

Also the false stories prove to be a valuable lesson in Digital Citizenship… and that you can’t always believe what you read in the mainstream or social media ;)

If the overwhelmingly positive examples do not convince you to explore this game and/or the negative stories here are more persuasive then it is possible that it is only when a significant body of case studies demonstrate that the game has value/is not “just another fad or flash in the pan.”

This is an understandable perspective and we hope to bring you news of these case studies as and when the DigCit, Games and other ISTE PLNs become aware of them.

Check out the DigCit PLN’s “Pokemon Go: Negative Stories” Collection here

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When asking people from within and outside the education sector to provide their feedback and input about Pokemon Go in education Sandy Duncan who is the Managing Partner at Ferno Technology LLP provided his insights regarding the positives and negative aspects of the game in general as well as in education.

Positives 1. Exercise is a real positive. I’ve found myself walking an extra km or so, just to hatch an egg.

2. I’ve also walked to get to Poke-stops and the odd Gym

3. My biggest plus is some of the historical and architectural discoveries I’ve made. Even in a little town local to me like Romsey there are tens of places that had been off my radar until now. BUT, In a big city like London this isn’t necessarily amplified due to distances between Poke-stops.

Negatives 1. I’ve also seen people sit in their cars to do both of the above positives. (1 and 2). It’s a well known fact that using a bike has some obvious advantages vs walking :)

2. This is a (badly) designed game with the main aim of extracting cash from players. My 3 biggest concerns are

a) Very unfair advantage from Lucky Eggs and Incense. Both of which can be bought easily but gained very little from exercise and game play.

b) The game is really only about XP. Gyms are next to useless as a gameplay incentive and there is no trading of Pokemon (yet)

e.g. My eldest son (age 16 and next eldest aged 13 have given up or are struggling because they can’t buy Items freely). My 4 boys are all VERY committed gamers , but only my 12 year old has persevered at all with the game.

c) Level progression is VERY badly designed. With no cash you hit a brick wall at about level 15/16. e.g. It takes 100,000 XP to move from level 22 to 23

ALSO - in an Education environment the “random” use of CP for wild Pokemon appears to follow few rules and is unpredictable, worse CP has NO impact on XP so a Rattata at 10CP gets me 100XP and so does a Rattata with 250CP, not exactly a good life lesson :(

3. It’s completely skewed towards Urban communities. I live less than 5 miles form my nearest town, but there is no way to play the game without Incense unless I go town. .

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4. Poke-stops outside residential houses skew the game. When I was in London recently there was a Poke-stop outside my Hotel room and I was able to generate Poke-balls all night :) Otherwise I have to buy them :(

Any kid living near or at a Poke-stop will have a HUGE advantage over others and will quickly “level up"

5. Gyms don;t really contribute much to gameplay. The mechanic is pretty poor and stifles competition. A level 5 gym is almost unassailable unless you have a team to attack it. Even then, the defenders are entirely passive and can repopulate the gym without doing much as soon as they’re defeated if they’re close by. There is no skill involved for the attacker either other than tapping the phone screen :(

6. The (gym) game is effectively grossly skewed towards level 20 and above as they have the most powerful Pokemon by far. e.g. I have 10 Pokemon over 1,000 CP, my 16YO is level 17 and has none over 1,000

7. Due to it’s bad design The game has been hacked and they’ll struggle to close these down as they don't have the resources.. They’ve closed down some of the obvious loopholes but I’ve seen blatant examples of Teleporting as recently as yesterday. Here is a known hack on iOS that was working yesterday http://bgr.com/2016/08/22/Pokemon-go-cheats-ios-no-jailbreak-gps-hack/

8. There are still some serious bugs… no issue in the general population , but not suitable for education. Most serious one I can think of by example is hatching eggs (main reason to take the exercise benefit !) I’ve regularly (at least 25% of the time) lost eggs that were due to hatch. Also the app regularly crashes when in background mode….sounds trivial but imagine organising a class “walk” when half of the participants don’t get any distance credits because they had their phones in their pockets, not in their hands. Recipe for classroom anarchy I think. Sandy Duncan | Managing Partner | Ferno Technology LLP

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Appendix 2: Pokemon Go Edchats

Pokemon Go: Edchats

14/07/2016 Games4Ed 18/07/2016 EdTechChat 28/07/2016 WeirdEd 06/08/2016 Tlap 14/08/2016 AussieEd 07/09/2016 DigCit

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Appendix 3 - List of all Articles in the DigCit PLN Pokemon Go Collection

Article Date Author (Twitter)

Truth, Lies and Pokeballs 13/07/2016

Why You Can’t Stop Playing: The Psychology of Pokemon Go

Site of the Niantic 01/01/1978 AtlasObscura

Pokemon Go is everything that is wrong with late capitalism 12/07/2016 Timothy B. Lee

Ingress: The game that reveals Google's secret war to control London 04/06/2014 WordMercenary

Sitrep - Operation: A Series of Tubes 05/12/2013 Snake Plissken Ingress Candidate Portal criteria 01/09/2015

How the gurus behind Google Earth created 'Pokémon Go' 11/07/2016 arielbogle

Pokemon GO, A Popular Game with Some Troubling Consequences » ADL Blogs 13/07/2016 Pokemon GO: Police urge gamers to stop trying to catch Sandshrew in Darwin police

station 08/07/2016 Rob_Flaherty

People Are Flocking To This Guy’s House Because It’s A Gym On Pokémon Go 10/07/2016 Stephanie McNeal The mysterious Pokémon Go gym at the border of North Korea and South Korea has

disappeared 13/07/2016 Mike Wehner

You Can Now Request New Pokestops and Gyms 14/07/2016

How Pokemon Go locations work (probably) 15/07/2016 Jimmy Blake

Inside the Mind of Google's Greatest Idea Man, John Hanke 20/12/2012 EricMarkowitz

The Man Behind Pokémon Go: John Hanke, MBA 96 12/07/2016 Laura Counts Pokémon Go: This New York Times reviewer told us exactly how we’d react to the game

— in 1999 12/07/2016 ajaromano

Pokémon GO field testing expands to the United States 16/05/2016

When the Guy in the Back Row Turns Out to Be the Man of the Moment 12/07/2016 Jerome S. Engel

7 Valuable Marketing Lessons Pokémon Go Has Taught Us 12/07/2016 jaysondemers Oh god. Someone has already written the “how Pokemon Go will revolutionize education”

article 11/07/2016 What the instant success of Pokémon Go means for the future of business - Business

Insider 12/07/2016

#PokemonGo, Being Observant, and Innovation 12/07/2016 gcouros Five Reasons Why Pokémon Go Will Change Education, and One Reason Why It Won't |

Just Visiting 13/07/2016 John Warner

Pokemon Go and Medical Mindfulness 17/07/2016 Bryan Vartabedian

How Pokemon Go took over the world 20/07/2016 John Luhr

Rice U. expert: Companies can capitalize on Pokémon 20/07/2016 RiceUniversity

How Google's Niantic Labs took over the world 07/08/2014 therachelweber

Pokémon Go and Education 13/07/2016 spiraledu The follow-up to the immensely popular game Clash of Clans topped the app chart in 12

hours 03/03/2016 Alice Truong

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Almost nobody pays for virtual goods in apps, but those who do shell out a lot 30/06/2016 qz

Pokémon GO is now the biggest mobile game in U.S. history 13/07/2016 surveymonkey_i

How 'Pokémon GO' Can Lure More Customers To Your Local Business 09/07/2016 killyourfm

The Tragedy of Pokémon Go 11/07/2016 andersen Pokemon Go Chauffeur - $25 (Hampden) 11/07/2016 Mike B. Pokémon Go is making $1.6 million each day in the US from iOS users paying for silly

virtual goods 12/07/2016 qz

Pokémon Go will soon get ads in the form of sponsored locations 13/07/2016 TechCrunch

Pokémon GO is retaining players at unprecedented levels 15/07/2016 surveymonkey_i Mark Caswell- Daniels and How Pokémon Go's game mechanics are set up to be a hit 18/07/2016 Chapman Lee

WHY LOCAL BUSINESS NEEDS TO PAY ATTENTION TO POKÉMON GO 18/07/2016 LauraDonovan

How “Pokemon Go” Took Augmented Reality Mainstream 21/07/2016 whartonknows

Putting Education in “Educational” Apps: Lessons From the Science of Learning 13/04/2015 PsychScience

14 Reasons Why Pokemon GO Is The Future Of Learning 08/07/2016 davidtedu

Getting started with Pokémon Go & Students: Using Lures at your school Pokestop 12/07/2016

The Ed Tech Maniacs: Pokemon GO, Summertime Fun, and Your Classroom 10/07/2016 coachdarin22

Pokemon GO: What Education Should Be - TechNotes Blog - TCEA 12/07/2016 YorPalDave

Pokémon Go tops Twitter’s daily users, sees more engagement than Facebook 13/07/2016 TechCrunch

Don't overlook teaching potential of Pokémon Go | Toronto Star 13/07/2016 TorontoStar

How Pokemon Go is changing the world 14/07/2016 cnnworId

Pokémon Go, or The Next Next Big Thing in Education 14/07/2016 stritchID

Meet the teacher who's using Pokémon Go to make his classes awesome - Techly 14/07/2016 wrenasmir

What PokemonGo tells us about education? 14/07/2016 thebandb

Pokémon Go See the World in Its Splendor 14/07/2016 sarahdoody

Will PokémonGO 'Save' Education - and ELT? 14/07/2016 tonygurr

Five Things Education Technology Could Learn from Pokémon Go 15/07/2016 new_edu

Pokemon Go & The Future of Education. 15/07/2016 ICTmagic

When Tech Met Ed... 15/07/2016 Rhonda Wise

School uses Pokémon Go to boost learning 15/07/2016 Brett_Henebery

Educators see gold in Pokémon Go 16/07/2016 gtoppo

ACT public schools off limits to Pokemon Go players during school hours 17/07/2016 ParentVoiceACT

Principals need to be Pokemon ready 17/07/2016 westaustralian

Pokemon GO, Augmented Reality, and Education 17/07/2016

The teachers who are planning to outsmart the Pokemon Go craze 17/07/2016 James Lemon

5 Ways to Trick Students Into Learning with Pokemón Go 18/07/2016 NatGeoEducation

Pokémon GO: Can an AR Game Change the Reality of Education? 18/07/2016 Getting_Smart

Policymakers: Play Pokémon Go, or Shut Up About It 18/07/2016 reeveskd

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POKEMON GO OR NO GO? IS THERE EDUCATIONAL VALUE IN THIS LATEST CRAZE? 19/07/2016 LevelUpVillage

Evaluating the Power of Pokemon Go: Q & A with Jim Gee 19/07/2016 educationweek

Pokemon Go and the Future of Augmented Reality 19/07/2016 UOAIMProgram

Pokémon Go: A window into how we might reimagine learning #BecomingBrilliant 19/07/2016 BrookingsGlobal Should teachers care about Pokémon Go? 20/07/2016

Digital Citizenship with Pokemon Go 26/07/2016 Ryan7Read

3 Ways Higher Ed Is Playing Along with the Pokémon GO Craze 03/07/2016 MDMeg

Pokemon Go brings all our dreams to [augmented] reality 07/07/2016 pace_seidenberg

Catching”Em ALL at NYPL with Pokémon GO 08/07/2016 nypl

10 Ways to Use Pokémon Go on Campus 11/07/2016 KasandreaSereno

College Campuses Are Being Overrun by Pokémon Go 12/07/2016 MatthewWynd

‘Pokemon Go’ introduces new students to Wright State’s campus 13/07/2016 WrightStateNews

What is Pokémon Go? Everything You Need to Know | Globe University 14/07/2016 GlobeUniversity

Campus Pokemon Go players hope to 'catch 'em all' | Penn State University 14/07/2016 Robb Frederick

Gotta catch 'em all: Pokemon Go takes over Illinois State - Illinois State University News 14/07/2016 IllinoisStateU

Which iconic science centers are also Pokémon Go hot spots? 14/07/2016 ScienceInsider

UT Austin Grad Leads Development of Pokémon Go 14/07/2016 UTAustin

MIT Pokemon Go Fans Unite 14/07/2016 MIT_alumni

Pokémon Go @Inver 15/07/2016 InverHillsCC

Pokémon Go redefines night-life for Albuquerque college students 15/07/2016 krqe_headlines

WSU Tri-Cities starts Pokémon-themed campus tours 18/07/2016 _tybeaver

Academic organises Pokemon GO walk at USC 18/07/2016 usceduau

Jacksonville State University | In Pop Culture: Pokemon Go Takes Over Campus 18/07/2016 JcksnvllNews

Pokémon Draws Community to UM-Flint Campus 20/07/2016 UMFlintIC

New students use Pokémon to explore the campus 20/07/2016 AlfredState

Pokémon? On Campus? Yes! 20/07/2016 UTTOGS

Pokemon GO @ SF 20/07/2016 SantaFeCollege

Pokémon Go Tips 20/07/2016 utrgv

A HOPE POKEMON JOURNEY INCLUDES A GYM WITH A STORY 21/07/2016 HopeCollege Crowds flock to Pokémon hunt around Central Florida 21/07/2016 Marco Santana

UC POK-E-HUNT 21/07/2016 nicholasklomp

Pokemon Lure Party Draws 6 People to Christ 22/07/2016 swbts

LOCAL POKÉMON GAMERS VISIT C OF I TO ‘CATCH ’EM ALL’ 22/07/2016 collegeofidaho

Pokemon 101: New UI Course Uses Pop Culture Games to Get Students Active, Involved 22/07/2016 collegeofidaho

Pokémon Go @ EKU | Communications & Marketing | Eastern Kentucky University EKUAdmissions

Gotta map ’em all onlctn

University of Michigan Division of Public Safety and Security umichdpss

Enjoy Pokemon Go Safely! UofAlabama

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Pokémon Go at #okstate okstate

Pokémon Go: Health Benefits and Safety Tips 18/06/2016 BCMHouston_News 'Pokémon Go' Players Are Spoofing GPS Locations to Catch' Em All 08/07/2016 IAN BIRNBAUM

Stop Hitting on Me When I Play Pokemon Go 11/07/2016 samusclone

Is Pokemon Go Illegal 11/07/2016 associatesmind Does Pokémon GO Pose National Security Risk? - NINTENDO CO LTD ADR (NTDOY), Twitter

(NYSE:TWTR) 11/07/2016 WasilSheppard

Pokemon Go – Gaming gone mobile 11/07/2016 UK_SIC

SFPD Issues Pokémon Go Safety Tips, Like ‘Do Not Run Into Trees’ 12/07/2016 KQED

pokmon go creators urge players to be aware of their surroundings 12/07/2016 Siliconera

Sen. Al Franken questions Niantic over Pokeprivacy policy 12/07/2016 TechCrunch

'Pokemon Go' digital popularity is also warping real life 12/07/2016 APBusiness

Senator Al Franken demands Pokémon Go release privacy information 12/07/2016 GuardianUS

News Anchor Walks Through Meteorologist's Live Shot While Playing Pokemon Go 12/07/2016 InsideEdition

UW-Madison police ask Pokemon Go players to watch where they're walking 12/07/2016 NSavidge

Police Departments in the US are issuing some hilarious warnings about Pokémon Go 13/07/2016 BuzzFeedBen

How to Make Pokemon Go Actually Useful 13/07/2016 JustinSablich

How to play Pokémon Go without being a jerk 13/07/2016 CNBC

‘Pokémon Go’: Why You Should Play 13/07/2016 JoannaStern

Antwerp police caution of dangers of revoluntary game Pokemon Go 13/07/2016 AntwerpNews

Does Pokemon Go Have To Comply With The Americans With Disabilities Act? 14/07/2016 associatesmind Why Dogs Are Loving Pokémon GO - NINTENDO CO LTD ADR (NTDOY), Apple Inc.

(NASDAQ:AAPL) 14/07/2016 Benzinga

Pokémon Go App: What Parents Need to Know 15/07/2016 Zeeko_Education

The Pokemon Go craze: Sure, it’s taken over, but is it a friend or foe? 15/07/2016 TrojanFamilyMag

Jin Ha Lee on Pokémon Go: How to stay safe and play to win 15/07/2016 UW_iSchool

Poképrivacy: Privacy and Legal Issues in Pokémon GO - On the Edges of Science and Law 18/07/2016 ChicagoKentLaw

POKÉMON GO: SECURITY RISKS | @TheU 18/07/2016 UofUIT

Pokémon Go: Professor's gameplay tips & safety advice 19/07/2016 UW iSchool Pokémon Go sparks concern about children’s privacy 19/07/2016

All around the world, authorities are worrying about Pokemon Go 20/07/2016 PostWorldNews

Pokemon Go A Parents Guide TheParentsZone

Is Pokemon GO Safe for Kids? A Guide for Parents 13/07/2016 ThirdParent

Pokemon GO, kids and school: a new challenge for parents and teachers 11/07/2016 tweens2teen

‘Pokémon Go’ is good for us 20/07/2016 WLTrumpetOnline

The $105 Billion Enterprise Market for Pokémon Go 21/07/2016 mitsmr

5 Ways Pokémon Go is Actually Good for You 11/07/2016 tarahaelle

To improve the Pokémon GO experience at BGSU, view the interactive map and list of bgsu

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gyms and Pokéstops on campus

Auburn police: Driver crashes into tree while playing 'Pokemon Go' CitizenMason

Turns out Pokemon GO is unexpectedly great for mental health 12/07/2016 triplejHack Obesity in Children and Technology 11/12/2015 Elle Paula

Pokemon Go: What the heck is it, and why parents shouldn't be scared 13/07/2016 TODAY_Parents

Pokémon Go Is Having an Unexpected Effect on Players' Mental Health 08/07/2016 LauraDonovanUA The Science Behind How Pokemon Go Became the Most Viral App Ever (in Less Than 10

Days) 14/07/2016 tpopomaronis

Health benefits of Pokémon Go - Vital Record 15/07/2016 TAMHSC

Quick Take: Pokemon Go and 'Accidental' Exercising 18/07/2016 DrexelFrank

The Westboro Baptist Church Has a Pokemon GO Gym Too 09/07/2016 CatsComicsCbus

Pokemon GO launched in Australia and Sydney gamers are everywhere 10/07/2016 dominikasanda

'Pokémon GO' Is About To Surpass Twitter In Daily Active Users On Android 10/07/2016 killyourfm

How Pokémon GO Brightened a Dark World | Jeffrey Tucker 10/07/2016 dixoneer

Pokemon GO Live: The Adventure We’ve Been Waiting For 11/07/2016 SouthernMuse

Pokémon Go Is Quietly Helping People Fall In Love With Their Cities 12/07/2016 FastCoDesign

To the Geniuses Behind Pokemon Go 12/07/2016 MyHomeTruths Pokemon Go inadvertently promotes Syracuse tourism, public art 12/07/2016

Pokémon Go Is an Okay Game, But a Great Social Network 12/07/2016 selectall

Pokémon GO Isn’t Destroying Society, It’s Making It Better 13/07/2016 nerdist

Pokemon in Perth: where to catch them all 13/07/2016 natsuzrich

POKÉMON GO MIGHT JUST BE THE PERFECT DATING APP (YES, REALLY) 13/07/2016 WaterSlicer

Churches cash in on Pokemon Go craze in the UK 14/07/2016 tele_education

Pokemon for Social Impact? It's More Likely Than You Think - CASE 14/07/2016 KMunnNC

What Pokémon GO Teaches Us About Winning In The Workplace 15/07/2016 MeghanMBiro Building Community Thanks To A Little Game Called Pokémon Go 15/07/2016 KATIE TOTH

Pokemon Go app set to help children on autism spectrum 15/07/2016 Rob_Virtue

Pokémon GO: What parents of individuals with autism need to understand 15/07/2016

SeaWorld, Fun Spot drop Pokemon lures to catch tourists 16/07/2016 orlandosentinel

Pokemon Go 'helped fight crime' say police in Doncaster 17/07/2016 BBCLookNorth

How Pokemon Go Could Help America Get Its Act Together 17/07/2016 Inc

Pokémon GO a social event with touch of nostalgia 18/07/2016 CSUMedia

Pokemon Go Six Flags Day! 18/07/2016 replummer

Pokemon Go players push for progress in Louisiana 18/07/2016 USATODAY

New tool for voter registration: Pokemon Go 18/07/2016 Julio Ojeda-Zapata

In Which I Am (A Bit Of) A Killjoy About Pokemon Go At The Polls 19/07/2016 Doug Chapin

IU experts and public safety officer give their takeaway on the Pokémon Go phenomenon 22/07/2016 Vitality_IU

3Qs: How Pokémon Go is ‘evolving the game genre’ 22/07/2016 Northeastern

Charity Miles Pokemon Go Challenge CharityMiles

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2 MARINES PLAYING POKEMON GO HELP CATCH ATTEMPTED MURDER SUSPECT IN

FULLERTON ABC7

EXPLORE EVERYTHING WITH POKEMON GO! 10/07/2016 wrenasmir

Geography Professor Pikachu?* - xyHt 09/07/2016 xyHt

Everything Librarians Need To Know About Pokémon Go! (July 11, 2016) 11/07/2016

PokemonGo: 21st century geocaching, lesson plans, & all around game changer 11/07/2016 educatoral

Pokémon GO In Museums: Gotta Visit ’Em All 11/07/2016 MuseumHack

'Pokemon Go' players are finding real animals while searching for digital ones 11/07/2016 latimesscience

Catch ‘em All at Crystal Bridges 11/07/2016 crystalbridges

What journalists can learn from Pokémon Go 12/07/2016 mkramer

Why Pokémon Go and The Library is a perfect partnership 12/07/2016 alscblog Pokémon GO: What Do Librarians Need to Know? 12/07/2016

Is “Pokémon Good for Science” 12/07/2016 motherboard

Scientists’ New Research Tool: Pokémon Go 12/07/2016 johnrplatt

Pokémon Go is a Glimpse of Our Augmented Reality Future 12/07/2016 singularityhub

What wildlife scientists and nature lovers can learn from Pokémon Go 13/07/2016 postgreen

Video Games Weekly: Pokémon Go and Teen Programming 13/07/2016 TLT16

August 2016: Pokémon Go in the classroom 13/07/2016 DiscoveryEd

3 Ways Pokémon GO Can Create Meaningful Learning Opportunities 13/07/2016 MDMeg

Our Favorite Water Pokémon and Their Real-Life Doppelgängers 13/07/2016 OceanPortal

GIS Education Weekly: Is Pokemon GO Educational? 14/07/2016 adenas

What can Pokemon Go do for education? | stemmatch 14/07/2016 StemMatch

Art Museum Sculpture Park and Pokémon GO 14/07/2016 miamiuniversity

Here’s How Museums are Inventively Embracing Pokemon Go Swarms 14/07/2016 luxury

Pokemon made me do it 15/07/2016 BBCNews_couk

Use SAS to Analyze your Pokemon Go Data 15/07/2016 Ayan Sen

9 Fun Ways to Practice English with Pokémon GO! 18/07/2016 ShellTerrell

My Miami Art Museum Experience 19/07/2016 MiamiUArtMuseum

THE SKIDMORE GEOSCIENCE AUGMENTED REALITY SANDBOX 20/07/2016 geoparadigm

Edutip: Pedagogy and Pokèmon Go 20/07/2016 YorPalDave

Everythng Teachers Need to Know about Pokemon Go 21/07/2016 medkh9

Suspects charged with using 'Pokemon Go' to commit armed robberies 11/07/2016 KMOV

Pokémon Go: armed robbers use mobile game to lure players into trap 11/07/2016 guardian

Holocaust Museum: Please stop playing Pokémon Go here 12/07/2016 KDVR

Amid frenzy, Pokemon Go leads to robberies and injuries 12/07/2016 ReutersUS Fake news reports that a homeowner fatally shot a trespassing Pokemon Go player 13/07/2016 Kim La Capria

Five of the most random Pokemon Go stories so far 13/07/2016 BBCNewsbeat

Despite Islamic fatwa, Pokémon Go is the rage of the Arab world 13/07/2016 PostWorldNews

Pokémon GO Vexes Me So 13/07/2016 tracy_staedter

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Appendix 4 – Cybraryman’s Pokemon Go Page

Links from master curator, Jerry Blumengarten (@Cybraryman1). Reproduced here with permission from Jerry.

Pokemon GO Practice safety when playing Pokemon GO

Pokemon GO App Review - @CommonSense Pokemon GO | Pokemon Video Games

Pokemon Go... and Global Success Skills? | What is Pokemon Go and why is everybody talking

Edutopia @JMcCarthyEdS about it? - Recode

Pokemon GO, kids and school: a new Everything Teachers Need to Know about Pokemon

challenge for parents and teachers Go

What is Pokemon Go? A Parent/Educators Pokemon GO: What Do Librarians Need To Know? |

Guide School Library Journal

5 Important Safety Tips For 'Pokemon GO' Great Learning Activities to Use with Pokemon Go

5 things we learned from 'Pokemon Go' Pokemon Go Tips and Tricks » Resources »

Surfnetkids

5 Ways To Use Pokemon Go for Critical 'Pokemon Go': The Ultimate Tips Guide | Digital

Learning Trends

9 Fun Ways to Practice English with Pokemon Pokemon GO Wiki Guide - IGN

GO! – ESL Library Blog @shellterrell

Ten Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Pokemon GO has already taught me so much

'Pokemon GO'

Pokemon GO Safety Tips How the gurus behind Google Earth created

'Pokemon Go'

Careful now, Pokemon Go players: Pay Meet the teacher who's using Pokemon Go to make

attention as you use your smart phone to his classes awesome - Techly

“catch ’em all” – The Denver Post

PSA: Pokemon Go Gets Full Access To Your Pokemon Go used in classrooms to help autistic

Google Account On iOS children

My Geocaching page My Augmented Reality page

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