Using Pokemon Go in the classroom

How can you utilize the game "Pokemon Go" in your classroom in a meaningful way? Student excitement about this game can be easily harnessed to support all kinds of fun and pedagogically-sound lessons and activities!

Before we start, and if you have not yet played the game, there are some vocabulary words you might need.

VOCABULARY

Pokemon Go: an augmented reality, GPS-based, mobile device game which uses real-world locations to gather virtual items

Pokemon: the characters in the game you seek to capture and use for other purposes

Pokeball: the item you need to capture Pokemon

Pokestop: Place you locate in the game and visit to gather Pokeballs

Pokedex: An incomplete encyclopedia given to you in the game that is populated with details of the Pokémon as you capture them

Gym: a specific place in the game where you can have your Pokemon battle for control

Journal: a time-based list of your activity in the game

Pokemon trivia: Pokemon is short for "Pocket Monsters"

APA style guide for "Pokemon Go" information.

I doubt if there are many Pokestops or Pokemon in or around your school. And I'm not suggesting playing the game in your classroom. However, after playing it myself for the past few days, I've had some thoughts on how to use the game to expand the learning and target some of the literacies we want students to attain.

Some of the following activities require students to take some extra time and gather information as they're actually playing the game. Others they can complete after they're done for the day.

VIRTUAL REALITY IMAGES

Many of the Pokestops in the game showcase a local business, attraction or historical site. Since students  already have their phone in their hands, have them use the Google Street View app to take a 360° spherical panoramic image of the Pokestop. Having these images to share with others will both promote community pride as well as allow immersion in the Pokestop via a Google Cardboard Viewer or via the Ricoh Theta S app. By taking the time to create and share the 360° images, students will become familiar with some of the cool sites in their community.

Here is a sample of a 360° image taken at a site of a Pokestop. Click and drag your mouse around the image to view it. (Direct link)

As you or students create 360° images, please consider Creative Commons-licensing them for use by others, joining my Flickr group called 360° Images for Schools and uploading them!

• Google Street View app (iOS) (Android) (Windows Phone)
• Theta S App (iOS) (Android) (Windows) (Mac)
• Google Cardboard app (iOS) (Android)
• Kathy's Katch Discovery Education blog post: Virtual reality in the classroom

DIGITAL STORYTELLING

One of the neat features of the "Pokemon Go" game is, when students find a Pokemon in the wild, they can turn on an augmented reality version of their mobile device screen which puts the virtual Pokemon into the live scene where their camera is facing.

Students can then take a screenshot of the image. By saving the screenshots to their camera roll, students will have access to them later to use in other classroom projects, such as creating a digital story about their adventures.

Don't forget- students will need access to tools for planning, preparing, and producing their digital story. Ideas and successful practices for creating digital stories can be found on my digital storytelling site.

Easy digital storytelling creation tools

• Adobe Spark Video: easy-to-use video creation tool
• Explain Everything: screen casting tool which allows students to speak, mark-up, and save as a video
• Pixntell app: One to five images with student recording behind them
• Adobe Spark Post: single image with overlaid text

DATA LITERACY

The Journal component of the game automatically records the time and date of the events as they occur -- whether it be collecting Pokeballs or capturing a Pokemon. 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. A great rubric for data literacy analysis by Andrew Churches can be found here.

Another treasure trove of data can be found in the Pokedex. Each Pokemon that is captured includes an information card, including height and weight (in metric). 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?) In addition, students could use Airtable (iOS app) to create their own relational database of their "Pokemon Go" data and become familiar with some of the features of a database (i.e. tagging, searching, sorting, etc.)

MAPPING

Encourage students to either gather the GPS points of their finds as they play the game or have them collect that info when they are done for the day. One site that makes this easy is http://www.gps-coordinates.net/ Students can search for a location on Google Maps from this site and then copy the GPS coordinates that show up.

Once students have this GPS data, have them locate the GPS point in Google Earth, add the screenshots for the Poketops or areas they visited in the game, and have them create a "Google Pokemon Go Trip". Students quickly become aware they are actually using real-life places in the game and can share their journeys with others. To learn how to start this process, instructions for the Google Lit Trips project will help you out!

INFOGRAPHICS

Use the data compiled from the "Pokemon Go" Journal and any additional information students collect (for instance, the number of steps they take in any one day) to have students create an infographic using one of the online tools or mobile apps. I have lists of these apps and tools both on my Guide to Everything Infographics page as well as in a previous Discovery Education Kathy's Katch blog post.

Infographics should have an eye-catching image at the top with the most important data and then include secondary and tertiary data for those want to know more. Shaelynn Farnsworth provides some solid tips about teaching the basics of infographics to students here.

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

SKETCHNOTES

Have students write a short piece about their personal reflection of the game. How long did it take them to learn how to play "Pokemon Go"? Have they joined any groups of people searching for rewards? What do they like best about playing? Least?

Have students exchange their writings or share a Google doc with another student. Each student should create a sketchnote from the writings of the other. Provide students with the basics of sketchnoting before you begin this project (i.e. text connectors, containers, shading, color, format) and then have them share the completed sketchnote with the author of the original piece. This can help students both practice visual notetaking, as well as learn how to pull out the most important points from a piece of writing. 

I have much more information about sketchnoting on my Guide to Everything Sketchnoting in the Classroom page.

POKÉ PODCASTS

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". Embed these podcasts in your class website and parents can enjoy the excitement that will definitely come through as each student reflects on their time with the game!

Podcasting tools

• Audioboom
• AudioPal
• iPadio
• Podomatic

Do you use Pokemon Go in the classroom? Share tips with us on Twitter! #kathyschrock

Sketchnoting revisited

Back in December of 2013, I posted a blog entry titled Sketchnoting: A Primer . I had recently been introduced to the topic of sketchnoting and this mode of visual notetaking was just starting to be talked about and tried in schools. That article provided some of the research behind why one should sketchnote, including the important work done by Paivio, Begg, and Sadoski in the development of the Dual Coding Theory. The Dual Coding Theory “was the first systematic, scientific attempt to bridge two traditions in philosophy and psychology: the imagery tradition and the verbal tradition.” (Sadoski, 2009).  The research discovered that the brain processes information using both visual and verbal cues and makes connections between them.

Since my blog post in 2013, teachers have been experimenting with sketchnoting on their own and teaching students how to take visual notes. There are many more resources to look at, learn from, and practice with today!

Kevin Thorn, on his blog, offers a great definition of sketchnoting by defining it as “a form of visual writing by expressing ideas, concepts, and important thoughts in a meaningful flow by listening, processing, and transferring what you hear by sketching either by analog or digital means.”

COMPONENTS OF SKETCHNOTING

 The UXmastery blog breaks the components of sketch noting into planning, listening, processing, and drawing.  Let’s talk about the planning process.  The first thing to do is to decide on your tools. A good notebook and a thin line marker or an iPad app and a drawing drawing stylus are the two basic choices.

 Next, they suggest you practice sketchnoting a TED talk (or a Discovery Education Streaming segment) to help you become adept at sketchnoting a presenter’s talk or content-based video.  Continue on your own to practice basic drawings for things that might pop up in your area of interest  such as basic shapes, basic objects, logos, or brand names. One well-known sketchnoter, Mike Rohde, contends you can create any sketchnote by using just a circle, a square, a triangle, a line, and a dot.

The next part of the planning process is to think ahead. Look at the conference or presentation program ahead of time and populate your sketch with the presenter’s name, the date, the title of the talk, and sign your name to the sketch. You might also want to decide what format you will use — a grid, a map, or a flowchart — and set up the structure on the page.

Brad Ovenell-Carter states that most presentations, meetings, and lectures flow in one of three ways and you should layout your page to match the presentation.

1. People speak in a narrative. First this  happened and that happened.
2. In a meeting there is usually an agenda so there might be a section on the page for each short topic.
3. If a team is brainstorming or you’re just pulling key points from a presentation, then notes usually can wind up anywhere on the page that makes sense to you.

A GOOD sketchnote captures the meaningful bits as text and drawings.  A BETTER sketchnote uses composition hierarchy to give structure to the content and brings clarity to the overall narrative of the lecture.  And the BEST sketchnotes express a unique personal style and add editorial comments on the content– these are entertaining and informative all at once.

PROCESS OF SKETCHNOTING

The actual process of creating the sketchnote takes some practice too, but there are some basic things to remember and Craighton Berman outlines these in a great article entitled “Sketchnotes 101: The Basics of Visual Note-taking”.

• Text – When recording what is being said, capture the meaningful quotes and key points in text.
• Containers – Simply putting words inside shapes brings structure to a page.
• Connectors – Your should connect ideas and pieces of stories with arrows and lines.
• Frameworks – try to use your own design structure to help you better understand your thoughts later.
• Icons – Use icons for objects and concepts to represent an idea as simply as possible
• Shading – Adding simple shading can add contrast to your sketchnote.
• Color – Use color to differentiate and distinguish information.

LESSON IDEAS

• Carol McGuire provides a great overview of how to begin the use of sketchnotes in the classroom in this strategy from the Discovery Education series “Spotlight on Strategies“. (PDF version / Vignette version)

• This teacher used a science lab setting for grade 5 students to sketchnote, using the iPad, for documenting the process and results of a science lab

• Katherine Bilsborough was inspired to have students work with sketchbooks in her high school ELA classroom, and has a nice overview of how to introduce the process of sketchnoting.
  
• Hall and Russac work with teachers and have students visual note-taking in the elementary grades. Grade 2 students sketchnoted about communities. Grade 3 students sketchnoted about the rain forest. And, in grade 5, students conducted research and drew a sketchnote from their research notes.
• And, remember, I also have much more information on my sketchnoting page on Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything!

Have you tried sketchnoting yourself? Have you had students create sketchnotes? Do you have any samples or lesson plans to share on the topic? Share on Twitter! #kathyschrock

Paper by FiftyThree for the iPhone

On the iPad, Paper by Fifty Three is the app I use most often for sketchnoting. The apps feature set makes it easy to quickly sketch, change drawing tools and colors, and to "rewind" quickly to undo my mistakes. Paper includes the ability to draw perfect auto-shapes (square, rectangle, circle, triangle, diamonds, parallelograms, line segments with arrow, etc.) and with just a tap, fill-in the shape. Paper also allows the user to move any component of the sketch by just circling it and dragging the item. You can explore the capabilities of the app by viewing the FiftyThree channel of videos on Vimeo.

Today, Fifty Three released the Paper app for the iPhone! For those of you that are Paper users on the iPad, you will be excited about the new features that have been included for the iPhone version! And both the iPad version and the iPhone version are free!

I have an iPhone 6+ and Paper for the iPhone works great! Paper for the iPhone has the same functionality as the iPad app for drawing, sketching and moving components, but has some very useful new features! 

• Users now have the ability to import and resize images, something I have been hoping for. And there is a Spotlight feature included to highlight a portion of the imported image if you want. 
• Users can type text, which is very useful for adding notes to the bottom of the sketches
• With this text input, there comes a very cool way to create a to-do list. Simply type a list item and swipe right, and it adds the checkbox for the to-do item! And swiping left makes the text at the top the header for the list.
• Users can combine the text, drawings, and images all on a single sketch.

MY SAMPLE PAPER IDEA WITH DRAWING, IMAGE, SPOTLIGHT, AND TO-DO LIST

Simplicity and ease-of-use continue to be how Fifty Three develops and re-develops this app!

When I use Paper, I use Pencil by FiftyThree as my drawing tool since, with its Bluetooth connection to the iPad or iPhone, with used with the Paper app it has pressure sensitivity, the ability to erase with the "eraser", a blending of colors mode, and a palm rest area. I use Pencil with all my drawing apps and you can see from this page the Pencil-ready functionalities that exist when using Pencil with apps from other companies.

Here are a few company screenshots from the new Paper by Fifty Three for the iPhone...give it a try right now!

Sketchnoting in the Classroom

Way back in 1999, I was asked to be part of a team to craft the goals for the second version of the US DOE National Technology Plan.

There were about fifty people in the room, from all areas of education. We had lots of discussions, then jigsawed to share thoughts, then shared out with the whole room, then had additional discussions with our new group, and then moved to more jigsaws to share, and then, again, sharing out publicly.
However, as this was all going on, there was a gentleman who was sketching the whole-group sharing discussions on big pieces of chart paper that lined the room. I was fascinated watching him take our verbal ideas and turn them into visually-beautiful works of art that represented exactly what we were saying! He never asked a question or for a clarification of the content.

During a break, I went to talk to him and asked him how he knew so much about educational technology that he could keep up with us as we both raised our hands and, sometimes, interrupted others. He told me he knew nothing about the content we were discussing and his company did this same type of visual notetaking for any content area or company. I was then TRULY amazed!
On that day, these great works of art were photographed, and they were shared on the Web for a bit, but they are long gone. Fast-forward to today, and these same visual notes are starting to be created using digital tools. For whole group sharing, the visual notetaker is usually using a tablet device, drawing software, and projecting the results to a large monitor. They are easily saved this way, but the participants cannot usually view them all at once. Even if the visual notes are created with pen and paper and then photographed or scanned, there are many new places to share them online. Visual notetaking is both an art and an organizational tool.

THREE TYPES OF VISUAL NOTETAKING

There are various ways visual notetaking can be used. The first, as my story outlines, is about the notetaker visually recording what is taking place in a meeting or lecture. The notetaker is not a participant in the conversation.
The second type of use of visual note-taking occurs when the facilitator of a meeting or group is the one creating the visual notes. He or she is interacting with the others as the notes are created. As the facilitator, he or she may also be sparking additional conversation by adding elements to the visual notes to spur new avenues of thought or to keep the group on task.
The third use of visual notetaking is now being used by many students and teachers and is commonly called “sketchnoting”. Sketchnoting, in its purist form, is creating a personal visual story as one is listening to a speaker or reading a text. I also believe the interactive notebook, which includes the process of taking “regular” notes” while listening to a speaker and later creating a sketchnote of the text notes, should also be considered sketchnoting.
My friend, Tracy Sockalosky (@tsocko) who has just begun to sketchnote, was attending the EdTech Teacher iPad Summit last week. Here is the link to the presentation she sketchnoted.  Tracy has just begun to sketchnote, but, as you can see from the image below, she is really getting it!


PURPOSE OF VISUAL NOTETAKING

What is the purpose? Why should one draw and connect thoughts and ideas visually? The research is clear about the benefits of visually representing content and it is based on the research in the area of Allan Pavio’s dual coding theory. I am no expert in the theory, but I have found that this Education.com article by Mark Sadoski does a good job of providing a general overview and references for the work of Paivio.
In addition, there is an extensive article by James M. Clark and Allan Paivio that provides some of the research into the relationship between the dual coding theory and education. It includes everything from teacher education to learning, memory, and study skills.
Ben Norris created a Slideshare about sketch notes and includes his version of an image to illustrate the dual coding theory. The image was created by Sunni Brown and re-created by Norris.

INFO AND RESOURCES FOR YOU ON SKETCHNOTING

I have done a lot of reading and watching on the topic of sketchnoting, and all the tutorials and overviews state that one does not have to be an artist to sketchnote. It seems to be all about learning how to listen and how to plan and organize your sketchnoting. One way to practice sketchnoting would be to watch a short Discovery Education Streaming clip and sketchnote the content. Pretend you are in a graduate class or at a conference lecture. This would also be a great way to provide professional development for your teachers and students in sketchnoting. Their sketchnotes could serve as an introduction or summary of a Discovery Education Streaming video!
Here is a well-done video about visual notetaking so you can learn more about it.

I have also recently created a support page with resources for learning about sketchnoting in education and tutorials on how to sketchnote.

Do you sketchnote? What tools do you use? Have you posted your sketchnotes and would like to share them with us? Have some favorite sample sketchnotes or tutorials? Email me or find me on Twitter @kathyschrock with any resources…thanks!