Pokemon GO vs School

We have been traveling all over the place this summer, mostly for cello: Montana, Chicago, Claremont, Chicago, Santa Monica, Aspen. I want to show you pictures of everything. But it would mostly look like kids playing video game in a lot of airports. Or me losing my mind.

My sons played music with kids all over the country. The older one tried to get as much alone time as he could, so we were twenty minutes early to everything:

The younger one tried to make as many friends as possible. Which meant being on their phones, together, of course.

Early on in the summer, I told myself I needed to limit their video game time. Even though I say all the time that limiting video games is misguided and stupid. I still worry. What if I’m wrong? Is it okay to be an outlier with my kids?

Then we met my friend Sharon, and her sons. We took the boys to a trampoline park, because any mom of boys knows that tired boys are manageable boys, and besides, we’d be able to talk to each other uninterrupted only while the boys did back flips.

But here’s what happened: they decided they’d rather go for walks. To play Pokemon GO. (When have boys asked parents to take them on a walk?) And they met lots of kids looking for the same Pokemon they were. They had fun, outside, meeting their goals. (The same is true of me and Sharon.)

Sharon is a stickler for video game time, but she was laissez-faire about Pokemon. And now I know why: Strictly speaking, Pokemon GO is better for kids than school. Take a look at this:

Here are the reasons people say video games are bad:

Sitting in one place is bad.

Avoiding social life is bad.

Lack of appropriate goals is bad.

Here is what happens in school:

You sit in one place for nearly all of the hours of school.

You are quiet unless the teacher gives you permission to talk.

Schoolwork goals work best at the mean, not for you.

Here’s what you get with Pokemon GO:

You have to walk around outside to play the game.

You play with people are are physically in the same place you are.

You set goals for yourself, make plans to meet the goals, and go up levels as a result of diligent work.

Sharon wouldn’t agree with me. She’s too pragmatic to let her kids play video games with no limits. Plus, her sons are black, and she thinks they don’t have nearly the leeway to operate outside the system that white kids do—especially boys.

But I’m convinced that the emergence of Pokemon Go accomplished more than doubling the value of Nintendo in one month: It forces parents to reexamine their fear that their kids will play video games all day if they don’t go to school. Because the dangers people think of when they think of video games are really the same dangers they accept when they send their kids to school.

35 replies
  1. YesMyKidsAreSocialized
    YesMyKidsAreSocialized says:

    I love seeing all these great photos! That Cello case!!

    Guess who else plays Pokemon Go? My husband and a huge group of employees at SpaceX. They take lots of walks now, in groups, and find Pokemon together. They even text each other about Pokemon. The other day I heard his phone continuously buzzing while he wasn’t around, I thought there was an emergency at work so I went to check what was going on, but instead it ended up being a bunch of Pokemon texts from his co-workers and employees.

    You’re right, that game pretty much goes against all the arguments for why video games are “bad”.

    • jessica
      jessica says:

      Here is a recent conversation with my husband: “Would you mind taking the kids out for a bit?”….silence…”Would you mind taking the kids out to play Pokemon Go?”….husband jumps up and grabs his phone. They leave immediately.

      I went to the spa.

      • YesMyKidsAreSocialized
        YesMyKidsAreSocialized says:

        Yay! It’s not just me!! :)

        I downloaded the game on my phone to have, but I’m not as into it.

  2. Jim Grey
    Jim Grey says:

    I quit limiting video game time a few years ago. When I ask my son(s) to go for a walk, or help me with yard work, or watch a movie on Netflix with me, or run an errand, they do it fairly cheerfully. This and other signs in their behavior tell me that their lives are in pretty good balance and they’re doing well mentally/emotionally. The only thing I wish is that they would be more physically active on their own. But that’s the pot calling the kettle black; their ol’ dad’s favorite pastime is sitting. I’ve always had to force myself to get out into the air and sunshine. So it’s not surprising to me that they’re the same way.

  3. Leena
    Leena says:

    All go is is walking and staring at a screen. Sorry if I’d rather my kids walk and talk. Two hours day video games or tv is my max. Beyond that it’s always parents using it as a sitter and rationalizing it. Whatever floats your boat.

    • Penelope
      Penelope says:

      How old are your kids? Because the last time I could get my kids to take a walk with me for no purpose other than to talk was about 7 or 8.

      Penelope

      • Amy A
        Amy A says:

        My kids walk with me. Older is 14 1/2.

        It’s sort of like buying habits. I notice the parents who buy their kids tons of stuff, and who are addicted to shopping themselves, are usually the ones who have kids who want to buy lots of stuff.
        (And then the parents complain about it.)

        The parents who don’t make shopping a big deal set the same tone for the family. Such as myself. We just aren’t into shopping for the sake of shopping. My kids don’t bug for a bunch of stuff.

        Parents set the tone for the family and household. I get sick of parents seeming helpless with their kids. And usually those same parents think it’s all-but-abusive to have boundaries; they tend to not understand boundaries and loving and kind parenting with really tight family bonds can go hand-and-hand.

    • MBL
      MBL says:

      Leena, I find your comment fascinating. I am not a black and white thinker as “it depends” is kind of a default for me. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be so certain in not only one’s own parenting choices, but those of everyone else too. “Beyond that it’s always parents using it as a sitter and rationalizing it.”

      But maybe you are right. I think it is rational to allow my daughter to choose how her time is spent. I think it is rational have Gilmore Girls marathons with her–stopping whenever we want and discussing the nuanced relationship dynamics. I love hearing my almost 11 year old say things like “I think she means well. It’s just that she thinks what she would want is what would be best for them, even though it wouldn’t.” I think it is rational to let her navigate online relationships via forums. They are usually moderated, but given that she still runs to tell me if someone has used the word “crap” or said that something was “stupid,” well, I’m not too worried just yet about her becoming too worldly.

      Last week she said “I want to go to yoga with you. Well, I don’t WANT to go, but I know that you would like it I went with you and you are always doing such nice things for me, so….” Afterwards she said it hurt and she didn’t like it and didn’t want to do it again. I just said I really, really appreciated her giving it a try and didn’t suggest she give it more of a chance. Later that night she asked if we could look up yoga videos (good thing she didn’t have some arbitrary screen quota) and she tried some things from there. That night after she was in bed she called out to inform us that she was doing some poses to “relax into sleep.” The next day she was talking about the “next time we go” and asking about a membership. The next I went she hopped up from her computer and headed out with me. No cajoling. No threats.

      If you have a style that works for you I am truly glad and I sincerely hope that that style also works for your children.

    • Janie
      Janie says:

      My son gets net cricks from
      His iPad. But you could get posture problems working in an office. I think video games and tv are fine in moderation. In excess people get into this glassy eyed state about the furthest thing from
      Actual concentration. We’re not built for endless screen time.

  4. Leonie
    Leonie says:

    This is the post I’ve been waiting for since I downloaded Pokemon Go. I was fully expecting to hate it (the original game never appealed to me as a kid) so I was really surprised at how much fun it was to play.

    My family is full of academics, so the first thing that came to mind is that in about a year or so there will be tons of publications about the health effects of PG. Increased levels of walking, community, social interaction etc. But honestly, I can’t wait to see how the narrative around video games changes. The baby boomer/Gen X obsession with the evils of screen time always seemed kind of weird to me – especially lumping all screens into one category.

    Colleges are already adapting. The other day a neighbor told me that she got a recruitment letter for her son that included a blurb about how they’ll have Pokemon lures throughout the campus tour! I laughed out loud.

      • Leonie
        Leonie says:

        You’re right, it was not an Ivy, but it was a school with a good reputation in the DMV. The parent was probably in her 50’s and she did not look at it favorably. I’m 30 and I thought it was a fun way to make the college visit more interesting.

        The generational divide about video games is really interesting.

  5. Jessica from Down Under
    Jessica from Down Under says:

    Your conversation with Sharon reminds me of one I had with a Somali friend of mine not long ago. I was discussing your views on education and the superfluousness of college, plus this article: http://carolblack.org/on-the-wildness-of-children/ , and how I am starting to agree with these points of view more the further we go on our homeschooling journey (we have 5 kids – 11 yr boy x 2, 8yr boy, 6yr boy, 3yr girl). My friend agreed with my feelings of wanting to give my kids more freedom/choices with their education, but said that since she had come here as a child refugee she felt as though she could not afford to let her sons ‘waste’ their opportunity to go to college when so many people in Somalia would love to have access to higher education and don’t. If I was in her shoes, I am sure I would feel the same, so I am grateful I am not (even though I have plenty of my own struggles).

    Penelope, this comment is in rely to both this article and the one before it (your struggles in Aspen). I just wanted you to know that there was a moment when two friends were discussing your thoughts and opinions on the other side of the world and it was helping to shape their own thoughts and opinions.

    I don’t expect you to be perfect or have all the answers or be right all the time; I just like the flavour you add to my thoughts. So please keep sharing them with me for as long as it’s what’s best for you, too.

  6. Bostonian
    Bostonian says:

    As usual, this is an interesting argument, with which I disagree.

    Some here recall my prior posts, and know my son will be going to school in the fall after homeschooling with me for the past six years.

    I am not convinced that he will benefit academically from school. He will continue to study science elsewhere, probably still do math mostly with me, the locus of his academic learning will remain at home… if it were just academics, I’d recommend he not go. We could do more.

    He’s going back to school in large part for social reasons. Yes, I am aware that, during class, one typically doesn’t have much in the way of conversations – I recall that from my youth. And one sits at lot (as one typically does during reading, writing, and figuring, wherever that is done). But when my son went for a shadow day in the spring he was energized by the social interaction he had there. He enjoys participating in classes, he enjoys helping other students, enjoys interacting with teachers, and he especially enjoyed viola sectionals (this school’s orchestra program is so extensive that there are over 20 violas in just one of the four orchestras). Group work is a large part of school now, and he enjoys that sort of thing too.

    I know that all children develop differently – I have two who are doing so. At this point, at twelve, my son is experiencing a hunger for a larger social group, or perhaps a drive to develop the leadership (and followership) skills a person can grow only as part of a larger social group. Given his judgmental predilections, a rigid, rule-bound environment is likely a good place for him to pursue this, and I expect he will like it.

    I’d be interested to strap a pedometer to my son and see how far he really walks as part of school. It’ll be about three miles every day just walking to and from the train on both ends. There’ll be a bit of bolting up and down the hallways (I think the sitting in one place part usually goes away after elementary school – in high school you move from classroom to classroom), and a gym class or two. He participates in musical theater year-round, and there’s a fair bit of dancing in that. He’ll have extra walking on days he’ll walk from school to the conservatory, or take the train to the science institute. All in all, it’ll be a reasonable amount of daily exercise, even without participating in sports.

    I can’t deny that I find something cool about the latest Pokemon concept – I think it’s the best Pokecrud yet – but my aversion to the whole Pokeverse means I’ll never download it. I grew up before Reagan smashed the regulations about toy advertising, and I always felt disgusted by cartoon shows that were nothing but toy promotions in disguise. Pokemon, which came out after I finished college, struck me as belonging to the ilk of He-Man, Transformers, etc. It was created as an on-air promotion of game boy games, and has continued as a merchandising project / show in multiple generations. I would never watch it when I could watch far better cartoons, like Animaniacs or Phineas and Ferb.

    It is remarkable how much useless crap kids can memorize in the service of Pokemon. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like if kids memorized ancient history or rhetorical tropes with the same vigor. It’s no more useless than sports statistics, I guess. Fantasy Football is like Pokemon for fat old men. I guess it would be better if they had to walk down to the park to “catch” Cam Newton for their “teams.”

    My son was excited by the idea – he digs the Pokeverse – but he doesn’t have a smart phone because I didn’t get him one, so he can’t play it. A flip phone serves for emergencies, tracks his location, and lets him stay in the here-and-now; it’s useless for social media or games, which I see as a feature. He’s got enough to do without adding another ubiquitous fascination / distraction. Missing out on a social phenomenon? It’s fine; there’ll be another one next year.

    So for the comparison of school vs Pokemon Go? I guess there could be a kid for whom the latter is actually better… maybe a kid for whom book-learning is a wash, a kid who can’t learn anything unless he’s moving, a kid who will derive long-term benefit from social networking based on trivialities, a kid who would otherwise only sit on the couch playing video games and getting fatter and weaker, a kid who doesn’t have a future involving academic progress, and is better off skipping all that and going straight to menial labor, enlivened by fantasy preoccupations.

    But that’s not my kid.

    • Jennifa
      Jennifa says:

      Bostonian that is so exciting for your son. It sounds like he will like it. The challenge of a different environment! I have always thought by the age of 12, your person is pretty much set. After that you are tweeking.

      For what it is worth my sisters kids were mostly homeschooled until middle school, and now go to public school. They love it. And what mostly amazes me is their ability to put the school experience into perspective and keep it a little at arms’ length. Their identity is not school, and school is not their whole identity, just one thing out of many things that they do. Also they are so generous and helpful to their school-friends, I love to see that. I think the other kids around them benefit from having them there. So cool. It is a beautiful thing to have the confidence and love to reach out and pull others up.

      I am quite sure your son will be a raiser, not a downer.

    • YesMyKidsAreSocialized
      YesMyKidsAreSocialized says:

      It’s much easier to manage social expectations while homeschooling. Social peer pressure is excruciatingly brutal in middle school. Coming from experience, it totally sucks to be the kid that isn’t allowed to do things that everyone else is doing, regardless of how “trivial” the activity.

      Maybe your son’s school will be different, maybe there will be a good group of kids who put academics above all else, but based on the negative press it has had over the past year it sounds like being different makes one a target at that school.

      On a personal note, the Pokemon phenomenon has been great for my highly artistic kids. They draw their own intricate pokemon, create background stories, and have made their own games even! They used to program their own pokemon related video games in Scratch. It made it easy to find reading material for them when there were times when reading was not a priority. It’s all perspective. Like the My Little Pony fad, Pokemon has made it’s way to the dog pile, now it’s all about Warrior Cats. Year round competitive swimming and performing arts keep my kids socially engaged and physically moving so they don’t become couch potatoes with the potential to get “fat”.

      • Bostonian
        Bostonian says:

        Hi YMKAS.

        I’m glad your kids have fun with the pokestuff. I know my son and some of his friends had fun with skylanders when they came out four years ago. They all entered a design contest and one of them won it, and shared the booty with the group. Fun at 8, but they’re all kind of over that stuff now, and I’m glad.

        Yes, it is much easier to manage social expectations while homeschooling. But my son’s social expectations aren’t really mine to manage. He’s got some goals to work on, and as you say, ” it totally sucks to be the kid that isn’t allowed to do things that everyone else is doing…”

        If my son finds peer pressure at school to be excruciatingly brutal, maybe he won’t want to be there anymore. That was never one of my issues with school; I was mostly just bored. But I was at a small school in rural Kentucky in 7th grade, not the place he’s going, which most certainly has a large group of kids who put academics above all else, maybe even a majority of the students. That’s been true for hundreds of years, and isn’t affected by the beef a group of students has found with it lately. The negative press lately has complicated origins in local and national racial politics, and very little to do with kids at the school being targeted for being different. It’s a diverse, majority-minority school with thousands of kids, all there (for now) because of high academic ability. I worry about him being a target of the football coach more than anybody else (his testosterone is coming in, and he can pick me up and carry me around the room now).

        I still believe that the group of kids for whom school is better than Pokemon Go is larger than the group of kids for whom Pokemon Go is better than school, and that my son is in the first group.

        • YesMyKidsAreSocialized
          YesMyKidsAreSocialized says:

          Do you think that the controversy regarding past racial issues that have occurred at the school ends at race? I felt it was safe to assume that any difference that would put one in the minority, be it low testosterone or what have you, would make one a target there. By the way, I do hope that healing of wounds happens and better measures are put in place to help prevent it from happening in the future. And I truly do hope your son has only positive experiences at school that help him meet his goals.

          Like you, I went to small schools until high school. I was bored, but I was also bullied and without the maturity or life experience at the time to stay strong or know what to do. I definitely didn’t tell my parents about it.

          I don’t think Pokemon GO should or can replace anything, except maybe sedentary activities. It’s simply something fun to do that is video game related, and gets people moving about their neighborhoods and socializing.

          • Bostonian
            Bostonian says:

            YMKAS, I didn’t go to the school, so I don’t have personal experience there, but I don’t believe that there is a lot of bullying based on visible differences. It’s an exam school. Nobody is going to pick on the geeks, because they are in the majority. It’s a school where sports participation doesn’t bring a kid special prestige. Class ranking brings more prestige. I’d bet there’s bullying for not taking AP classes.

            I understand that the biggest rifts are, because it’s a city-wide school, between kids from different neighborhoods, specifically Southie and Westie. But most of the kids there don’t bother themselves with that. My son is sure to develop a sympathetic group of friends among the 440 kids in his class.

            I say national and local politics because the current flap began when the two young ladies at the heart of the matter participated in a… debate?… on twitter about the merits of the BLM movement. Mind you, a lot of children of police officers attend the school. I don’t think any of the kids made a good account of themselves. From there it turned into a political witch hunt, with all the usual suspects involved. Witch hunts demand sacrifices, and so they eventually took the headmaster’s head.

            I certainly had my struggles with bullies at school, which I handled all right. I had to fight a lot. Of course, I also didn’t go chasing my antagonists down outside of school to insult their parents in writing.

            My son will not be tweeting. This generation needs to revise Lomasney’s dictum thusly: Never tweet if you can text. Never text if you can snapchat. Never snapchat if you can speak. People all say stupid shit. If it’s out loud, it gets forgotten eventually. If it’s in writing, it’s forever.

            For context, this is a city where the dean of students at another high school was fired last year because he shot a student in the head for refusing to continue dealing drugs for him. Look him up, Rev. Shaun Harrison. The headmaster at that school was not fired, because an in-school drug ring run by administrators caused less of a furor than a binder full of nasty tweets.

            A student was shot to death during a fire drill at a third high school earlier this year, a block from the house of one of the political activists involved in the witch hunt, and he said little about that besides that police asking fellow students to come forward with information was “revictimizing” them. Again, not deserving of a federal investigation.

            The storyline about the school being racist has legs because we’ve got a bunch of politicians and lawyers whose bread and butter is exacerbating racial tensions. They’re still busing kids here, and it’s still making segregation worse. One source of tension at the exam schools is the recombination of white kids who didn’t go through city elementary schools with black kids who are used to being a majority. Past racial issues? The past isn’t over, it’s not even past.

            I guess this where I say “don’t get me started,” and stop.

            Anyway, I agree with you that Pokemon GO seems like a healthier video game than most. Can you play on Team Rocket?

        • YesMyKidsAreSocialized
          YesMyKidsAreSocialized says:

          B, I hope that you don’t think I was trying to disparage or malign your son’s school. I only brought it up because it seemed relevant with what I had read and it was/is national news. You don’t even want to know about the issues that exist here. Sexual misconduct cases at elite schools where the headmaster (is that a regional term?) was fired after the investigation was completed, so I will spare you the equally upsetting breakdown. But, after looking up the Rev. I am truly disturbed for many reasons.

          Switching gears, have there been any issues with your kid being too advanced in certain areas and needing accommodation outside of the school or is the school able to accommodate acceleration? Or is this not an issue for you?

          And on a lighter note. NERDS UNITE!

          p.s. I do have a Pokemon GO account, but I have my husband log into my account while he is at work to get me to higher levels, I am on team Valor with other spacex people.

          • Bostonian
            Bostonian says:

            YMKAS, it remains to be seen how well the big guy fits in academically; he starts in September. I expect he will find challenges, but that they won’t initially be in the areas of science or math. He will continue to advance in both outside the school. I hope the level of analysis and discourse in the humanities suits him, and that he comes to enjoy the classical focus. I know that I would have loved to have had the opportunity to go to a school like this at his age. And he’s a little bit like me.

        • YesMyKidsAreSocialized
          YesMyKidsAreSocialized says:

          B, last spring my daughter spent a whole day at Elon’s school, Ad Astra, as part of their application/enrollment process. While she is advanced in math and science, there were other areas where it was very challenging. As a result, she wants to do more part time group learning stuff this year to overcome her deficits. She’s 9, but she is a very goal-oriented individual. I have been able to procure several different classes that will challenge her in a group setting, while still allowing us to homeschool. I’m still not certain it will be enough or that a few semesters will be enough time to overcome those challenges in time to re-apply next year. I have been forced to rethink things, and reshape what learning is for her. We are working on lots of essay writing, and critical thinking exercises. Any thoughts you can share would be great, since your son seems ready to fit right into the new environment, which is kudos to you and all you have done to help him.

          • Penelope Trunk
            Penelope Trunk says:

            What are you doing to work on essay writing and critical thinking? And how did they test critical thinking? I’m worried that I need to be more focused on that as well, because my older son really wants to have lots of choices for college.

            Penelope

          • YesMyKidsAreSocialized
            YesMyKidsAreSocialized says:

            P,

            For example, on a daily/weekly basis students may be presented with various case studies ranging from made up legal cases, to ethics cases etc. After being presented with a bunch of facts, they are asked to choose a position and defend that position using critical thinking skills. With minimum word counts of at least 1,000 words.

            What we are doing on our own is first working on getting word counts up. So everything she writes about is something she chooses, and currently she has written dozens of short stories following the Warrior Cats, fan fiction. Next, we will work on non-fiction case studies and using the model from the school to do that. I don’t think it will be easy. I really think it will be quite the challenge.

          • Bostonian
            Bostonian says:

            YMKAS, I think you’re on the right track. Unschooling (or just being very lassez-faire about homeschooling, which is how I would describe what we have done, because honestly I’m not even deliberate enough to commit to unschooling) is always going out on a limb. And the fruit out there on that limb is your child’s drive, passion, commitment.

            There’s no substitute for internal motivation. No curricular rigor can beat it. Your daughter will see the challenges ahead of her and she will overcome them, because she wants to. My advice is that your best contribution is in familiarizing her with the standards by which others will judge her. That’s her target, now she practices on it until her aim is true. Hang it high enough.

            A year ago my son’s handwriting was miserable. For the past five years, I had him type instead. He knew he’d need to fix his handwriting for school, so he practiced and practiced and practiced, and now it is handwriting to be proud of – people comment on it. What was a weakness is now a strength, because it mattered to him.

            I expect that by next year people will comment on your daughter’s particular strength in persuasive writing.

          • YesMyKidsAreSocialized
            YesMyKidsAreSocialized says:

            mbl,

            I hope I can meet her needs and desires this year with our current plan and as a result she will want to continue. But, I think it’s been four months since she spent the day there, and she still wants to go. As you know, since we talked about it, it is not unschooling!!! It is surprising to see how motivated she is to go there, going from no writing to writing everyday. She doesn’t like being told what to learn, but is willing to give that up to be in that environment. When you are making ice cream experiments for science class, when other kids are peers, when she got to show off her advanced math abilities in an applicable and tangible way that boosted her confidence….I can see the appeal.

            The things we are willing to do for our kids amazes me, it’s so unconditional. Like, the commute alone…during LA rush hour… so I really hope my game-plan of part-time classes will work, obviously.

  7. Mark W.
    Mark W. says:

    “Early on in the summer, I told myself I needed to limit their video game time. Even though I say all the time that limiting video games is misguided and stupid. I still worry. What if I’m wrong? Is it okay to be an outlier with my kids?”

    “What if I’m wrong?” My counter would be – “What if you’re not perfect?” and “What if you don’t have all the answers?” I think you have to say to yourself – “I know myself and my children very well” while at the same time being able to listen and open to suggestion. I would be an outlier if I had children who I thought devoted too much time to video games. The fact is that I rarely play video games. I didn’t grow up with them. I’m thinking environment and generation are factors here. If you believe your kids spend too much with video games, then a solution may be for you to model doing activities such as hiking, camping, biking, etc. and inviting them to do them with you. If they see you “always” on the computer, they’re aren’t necessarily going to make the distinction of whether it’s video games or work related stuff. It’s all screen time to them.
    As a nod to video games and being a latest fad, I thought you may like this article on Pokemon GO and its intersection with business (and, of course, making money with it) – http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pokemon-go-real-examples-of-businesses-that-have-turned-it-into-a-moneymaker/ .
    Also, I’m glad to see you’ve got Melissa back on board with editing current photographs. Artwork images are nice but I like a mixture of your selection of art and your photos.

  8. Mark W.
    Mark W. says:

    I read a great article ( https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/25/board-games-back-tabletop-gaming-boom-pandemic-flash-point ) this morning on games – board games. I’m posting this comment here even though it doesn’t fit within the context of the title of this post. However, board (or tabletop) games still have a sizable share of the market and many new games of this format are being designed. And they do meet this criteria – “You play with people are are physically in the same place you are.” While the article doesn’t say as much, it occurs to me that board games are similar to hardcover or paperback books. They aren’t going away because people want that tangible interaction with the medium in which they’re engaging.

  9. Pearlie
    Pearlie says:

    Players of the hugely popular Pokémon Go will be faced with a fine of €55 if they create a hindrance or pose a danger to others in public.

  10. Mark W.
    Mark W. says:

    My third comment on this blog post but whatever. I came across this article ( https://www.edutopia.org/article/pokemon-go-transforms-school-natalie-catlett ) written by an art teacher in Brazil. Her students were all excited about Pokemon Go so she had them explain it to her. They then created their own version of the game with their drawings. It became an adventure outside of the classroom on the school grounds. It became a game with many lessons beyond creating the artwork for the game. It was learning inspired by a video game.

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