PokemonGo the future of learning? There is no app for that.

I’ve played Pokemon Go.  I’ve shared a few laughs with my family over it.  I even took my daughter to the park to play it in a ginormous “Pokeraid”.  But the claim that it’s the “Future of Learning”? I just don’t see it.

Interactive tech has already been here.  Google street view and GPS navigation.  Field trips with AR embedded tours in museums. Creating virtual worlds in Minecraft. Interactive whiteboards and watches that track your location. Scanning the environment to bring something to life, hiding a code to link to a video.   There are so many great pieces of technology out there, just waiting for the perfect chance to embed them into a lesson.  Tools.

Maybe I’m just skeptical. Maybe I’ve seen one, two, or twenty bandwagons take off in education and misdirect the focus of well meaning educators who get sucked in.  Maybe I’ve been one of the ones sucked in.   Okay, I’ve been sucked in too many times.

But this? I’m SO glad people are having fun and getting out to enjoy the game.  I had some fun with it, and even got slightly competitive when my husband caught a rare Pokemon and I didn’t have one.  But to say it’s the future of learning?  I’m way too skeptical to say that an app like this is going to come in and change the game.  I believe changing the game is up to us taking a hard look at the fundamentals of what we do.  Our teaching, guiding, lesson planning.  We can acknowledge that our kids need opportunity to move, to design, to create, and to change the world. I won’t buy the idea that catching a Pokemon “in your own environment” is going to lead to design, big thinking, and changing the world. Trust me, if there was, I’d have already installed on it on every single device in my classroom and launched a campaign of “Pokemon for All.”   Unfortunately there is no shortcut, no app, for that.

So, it’s NOT the future of learning… that doesn’t mean it’s not fun.  I’ll keep playing PokemonGo AND also try to make learning right for kids. I can’t give up knowing education doesn’t have a quick fix and I certainly can’t let my husband catch more Pokemon than me.