Can Pokémon be educational?: How to implement Pokémon in the classroom

[BulbaBot]

Can Pokémon be educational?: How to implement Pokémon in the classroom

All over the world, children love Pokémon. It inspires their imaginations and their creativity. Can teachers harness this power to help students learn?

Read more on Bulbanews

 

[Typhoon]

Absolutely educational. When I was an elementary student one of my first gba games was pokemon gold and it encouraged me to learn how to read (so I could understand what was happening in the game) and was excellent practice for practicing to read. I also practiced my artistic talents with inspiration from pokemon. And now I am currently a junior in high school with all A's (save for this semester) and I am taking many AP and honors classes, including AP art and AP English

 

[Oblivion]

Can Pokemon be educational? Yes.

Will people actually use the franchise as a basis for education? More than likely not.

Most adults, due to the inexplicable wonders (obvious sarcasm) of the generation gap, view Pokemon, or even video games in general, as brain-corrupting and mind-erasing.

 

[Cyber Jet]

Yes I beleave that pokemon can be educational as I learned to read pretty much from pokemon silver as a kid and in the class room it would be useful to help kids learn skills.

 

[Shiny Staraptor]

Hey, I don't really hate writing!

I thought this was a very interesting article. Besides education, it may be good to stop closet fans from pretending to hate Pokémon and who beat up the kids with no regret in admitting they play it.
But it might be a good idea to stop when they start to teach about Hypno.
In all seriousness though, I think this could work reasonably well as long as the teacher actually knew what Pokémon is. As the author said, many adults think video games are corruptive.

 

[Zekurom]

I'm assuming my Pokémon-themed Data Management exam doesn't count for much?

Most adults, due to the inexplicable wonders (obvious sarcasm) of the generation gap, view Pokemon, or even video games in general, as brain-corrupting and mind-erasing.

This is definitely true. Well, most older adults. The ones who are in their 20's are mroe accepting of these things,

 

[Danny-boy]

They could teach stuff about stats, too.

And Catch Rate, IVs...

 

[Zekurom]

And Catch Rate, IVs...

That's all probability. There's actually some higher-grade (even up to university-level) material in there, like degrees of freedom and infinite series.

You could even do an entire lecture on 63.2% (which is an approximation of the probability you'll catch a Pokémon with a catch rate of 1/n using n Pokéballs, assuming n is large enough).

 

[hurristat]

I think that this idea has some potential, although if none of the students play pokemon, it probably wouldn't engage them as much.

However; very interesting ideas, and extremely well-written. Well done!

 

[Iteru]

I sure would have loved being able to write about Pokémon when I was younger when we did creative writing in English. I definetly agree that playing towards childrens interests is a good way to get them exciting about learning.

You could even do an entire lecture on 63.2% (which is an approximation of the probability you'll catch a Pokémon with a catch rate of 1/n using n Pokéballs, assuming n is large enough).

"could" being the key word here
Though it does sound a lot more interesting then having a lecture on the use of the students t distribution, which only really requires 5 minutes explanantion of when to use it and you're done. I think I feel asleep in that lecture.

 

[winstein]

When I read the "On the Origin of Species", I was more than enough convinced that Pokemon is in a way a deep franchise. The other factor that convinced me are their competitive metagames (TCG and videogame). This is why I love Pokemon: it's got the educational value, the competitive value and the entertainment value.

Wonder what the first place's article is like, though.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Somari]

Pokemon has taught me terms and helped me learn terms. I suppose it's also helped me learn a bit about different cultures as a little kid too. It's also quite useful when it comes to learning about nature.

I remember in elementary, once we were given these sheets at lunch that compared JPN Pokemon names to their English counterparts. That's the only time, besides educational video games and that one DP site, that I've seen it been used for educational reasons.

 

[The Outrage]

If the On the Origin of Species articles show us anything, its that Pokemon can be used as a venue for education, and probably even bring awareness to endangered species.

 

[Hellion]

Great article and I agree, pokémon and other interests that children have are great vectors for education since it keeps it relevant to the child's life which will more likely keep him/her motivated.

 

[Kyuuketsuki]

I think it is a great idea that could help, but I don't see it working for 12+ year olds. This could just be from my experiences, but preteens and teenagers would mock the idea of using Pokémon (stereotyped as a children's game) in school, and it wouldn't be taken seriously.

 

[raychuu]

It also helps learning new languages other than Japanese, or at least it helped me. My first and most important contact with English was due to Pokémon, and it motivated me to search on a dictionary to learn words.
Of course I understand a good deal of influent countries already get the games translated and that other videogames can have this role as well, but it's still something I would like to point out.

Rest assured, it was a good read. Thanks!

 

[Rev]

Using Pokémon as an educational tool is definitely an interesting idea, but it seems to me that only students that had played the games would truly feel engaged in the lessons, and appreciate the links between the real world and Pokémon. Students that had never played the game wouldn't necessarily feel it was relevant, and as such, wouldn't learn as much as the Pokémon players in the class. So yeah, in a class where everyone played Pokémon, it makes sense to integrate the game with their lessons, but otherwise, it would kind of be wasted.

 

[Zervah]

I have learned about nature and different cultures, taking as reference the names and origins.

Yes, pokemon can be used to educate children. Little by little. Step by step.

 

[Lazyboy0337]

I love the idea, but I can see it being a flop due to bullies.

 

[Sushi-X]

It taught me math and reinforced my reading skills.

Is it educational: Absolutely.

Is if for everyone: No