Mr. Clayton Here...
Augmented reality or AR has been in use in education for many years now as a resource for everything from project-based learning to literature. With the invention and craze of the Pokemon Go app augmented reality is now a huge part of mainstream culture and has become a part of the the new #MR or mixed reality (combining VR & AR) push of virtual reality (VR) and AR uses in education.
I have an obsession with VR edtech(check out my #ISTE2016 presentation Buncee or this link to a blog post about VR at ISTE) which led naturally to my interest in AR and MR. I am also a nerd and love video games, so I also got into the Pokemon Go craze.
Being an early adopter I naturally think of all technology in terms of how I can put it into motion in my classroom. Therefore, I talked to my twitter PLN and my wife (where I get all my best ideas) and we came up with these starter lessons.
Being an early adopter I naturally think of all technology in terms of how I can put it into motion in my classroom. Therefore, I talked to my twitter PLN and my wife (where I get all my best ideas) and we came up with these starter lessons.
- Basics (21st century skills): I began with my Pokemon Go app mirrored on my TV in my classroom and I introduced them to the app... at least the ones that hadn't played yet. I walked them through catching/hatching/training of pokemon. I also let them all try it out and if you are a 1-1 mobile device classroom, you could have them download it and create teams at this point!
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Math/PE:
- Measurement: I had a group of trainers begin with one device... yes I trusted them with my phone... and they wrote down the starting kilometers(km) for their "buddy" pokemon (this can also be done with eggs); this is found when clicking the picture of your trainer and adding a buddy pokemon to your trainer.
- PE: Then I had them walk laps around our track to measure the distance they walked/jogged when at PE during a timed period. Walking with the device will also help to improve hand-eye coordination which is an essential skill in the PE standards.
- Measurement (cont.): When the trainers came in from class they would write down the new number on the buddy or egg screen and I would have them compare (not giving them the tools to solve it) the two numbers to find out the distance they walked.
- Then I would have them answer how their distance compares to standard measurements (for this they would have to figure out km - miles conversions and calculate).
- To extend the activity even further, I had them use the measuring tool on Google Maps (right click on any zoomed in satellite Google map and click measure distance) to find if the Pokemon Go GPS monitoring was accurate to the distance they walked.
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Writing: As they walked the laps they would also run into pokemon to catch, therefore I showed them how to take an AR picture of the pokemon they caught.
- They would have to make sure to include the surroundings.
- Then I would load the picture into Google drive on my phone and share it with the group.
- Writing cont:
- They would have to compose a paragraph each on the name of the pokemon, what type of pokemon it is, their opinion of the pokemon and where they found it. This portion can be altered by to include a narrative of their adventure, an math/writing piece on the frequency of pokemon sightings, an explanatory piece on how easy it is/process on catching certain pokemon (can bring in background knowledge), etc...
These are just some simple examples to get you started on working with gamifying your lessons using Pokemon Go! If you have any other ideas on how to include this on lessons please comment below!!
.......... and lastly for those early 90's cartoon watchers........ check out the awesomeness!!