Pokemon as an Educational Tool

The Pokemon Generation: Building Lesson Plans Around a Gaming Environment Creates Effective Learning by J.P. Porcaro is a must read for all teachers in conjunction with Marc Prensky's Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. The Digital Natives article makes the case that students learn differently these days because of their digital backgrounds.Their brains have been rewired and the traditional read the text, lecture, and take a test method is outdated and ineffective. Today's generation of teacher did not grow up in the same digital context and is therefore a Digital Immigrant. The correlation is made between a typical immigrant and the digital. Because of this difference in technological backgrounds teachers speak a different language and operate at a slower speed than their students.
The Pokemon Generation makes the case for using Pokemon, the most popular video game ever as "a valuable tool for teaching lessons across the curriculum." To see the value in this idea you must understand the basic premise of the game. The player takes a 'journey' to collect Pokemons then trains them using information learned in the game. The Pokemon brand has become much more than just a video game, there is a television program and many books to include graphic novels and beginning readers. Children are so immersed in the Pokemon world that they do not realize they are engaging in educational activities. Curriculum based on this model fits the idea of a Digital Native. It's hard to argue with this logic, "The goal of education is learning, and if gaming can help students learn more effectively, why aren't we doing it already?" So many students are bored with school or struggling. It would be great to have more techniques and lesson plans that excited the student about learning. Students are involved in these games, some on a daily basis at home. Being literate about gaming is another spoke in the wheel of being a Digital Native and part of what being literate means to this generation.

Prensky, M., (2001). Digital Native, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, Vol. 9, No. 5. Retrieved from: https://liffey.sjsu.edu/section/default.asp?id=SUMMER_2010-SJSU-SLIS_74

Porcaro, J., (2010). The Pokemon Generation: Building Lesson Plans Around a Gaming Environment Creates Effective Learning. School Library Journal. Retrieved from: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/884750-312/the_pokemon_generation.html.csp