Pokemon Go can help students build stronger communication skills, apparently
The game illustrates different modes of communication, which makes it a good learning tool for students.
You wouldn’t associate an augmented reality mobile game like Pokemon Go with improving a person’s communication skills but one researcher begs to differ.
Emily Howell, an assistant professor at Iowa State University whose area of expertise is literacy and education, has written a paper on how Pokemon Go can help promote learning in the classroom.
She says the game, created by American software developer Niantic, incorporates different modes of communication – like gestures, directions and visuals – making it a good learning tool for school students.
According to Howell, Pokemon Go “illustrates the need to understand multimodal text, which reflects how we communicate with others”.
Multimodal learning goes above and beyond the traditional classroom teaching methods that students can relate to.
