Latest / Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast / Conversations from ISTE Live with Leonardo Ortiz Villacorta from the The Pokémon Company International

Transcript

Conversations from ISTE Live with Leonardo Ortiz Villacorta from the The Pokémon Company International · Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Integrate This EdTech podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm Jeremy Mikla and I'm really excited to be
• 0:05
  joined by Leo here today and Leo is from Pokemon.
• 0:11
  Yeah, who has a very strong presence here at
• 0:14
  the ISTE conference. If you happen to be at the
• 0:16
  ISTE conference, you look for the giant Pikachu
• 0:20
  balloon that's got up above where your booth
• 0:24
  is. So you can't miss that, right? Exactly. Yeah.
• 0:29
  What has been your experience so far at the conference?
• 0:32
  Well, we're very excited to be here representing
• 0:35
  the Pokemon Company International. One of the
• 0:37
  most interesting things is that most people...
• 0:40
  Many of them who are teachers, principals, administrators,
• 0:44
  are asking us, what is Pokemon doing here? What
• 0:47
  are you guys doing here? Why are you here? And
• 0:49
  that's the main question. And our answer is because
• 0:52
  we are launching an after -school program. We
• 0:55
  actually launched that a few months ago with
• 0:58
  the American Library Association. So right now,
• 1:00
  that has been implemented in school libraries
• 1:03
  and public libraries. But we're now launching
• 1:06
  a partnership with ISTE. to basically bring the
• 1:11
  joy and the community of Pokemon to students
• 1:15
  everywhere. And the idea for that is that with
• 1:19
  these clubs, we're creating a safe, nurturing
• 1:22
  environment for kids to acquire skills while
• 1:27
  playing. Can you tell me a little bit more about
• 1:29
  what those clubs look like as an organizational
• 1:32
  structure? Is it very much like... adult advisor
• 1:36
  driven, is there opportunities for students to
• 1:40
  take leadership through some of those clubs,
• 1:42
  and what exactly do they do within the club?
• 1:44
  Yeah, I think the first thing that is important
• 1:46
  to clarify is that it's an after school program,
• 1:49
  so it's not integrated, it's not curriculum integration
• 1:51
  within the classroom. It's the extra curriculum.
• 1:54
  That's one thing. Second, yes, it is adult led,
• 1:58
  meaning you have to be either a teacher or anyone
• 2:02
  in the staff of the school to run it. And that's
• 2:06
  important, but that does not mean that other
• 2:09
  students cannot play a role. We have been seeing
• 2:12
  in our current experience with public libraries,
• 2:14
  for example, that librarians sometimes recruit
• 2:19
  teenagers, like high schoolers, to come and help
• 2:21
  teach and run activities for younger kids. Or
• 2:25
  school librarians also recruiting older. grade
• 2:28
  and kids from older grades to help mentor the
• 2:31
  younger. And we were just talking to teachers
• 2:34
  this morning at a session and that's a lot of
• 2:38
  what came through in their own experience of
• 2:41
  how they create nurturing dynamics within after
• 2:44
  school activity. Sure. I think organically some
• 2:47
  of those clubs have probably been in existence
• 2:49
  and I know even my son who when he was in college
• 2:54
  he graduated from college like a year ago but
• 2:57
  was part of the at the college that he was at.
• 3:00
  You're totally right. And he's just a Pokemon
• 3:04
  Go fool. He goes to... events that they have
• 3:07
  all over the place. And so I've seen not just
• 3:10
  like the engagement that he's had when he's playing
• 3:13
  the game, but also I think the other benefits
• 3:17
  that come along with it, the collaboration, the
• 3:19
  communication. When you're playing Pokemon Go,
• 3:22
  it's the physical exercise you're getting all
• 3:24
  at the same time. So I'm imagining some of those
• 3:26
  same benefits are what you're hoping to instill
• 3:29
  in these extracurricular clubs. Totally. You
• 3:31
  just mentioned one of the key ones. Engagement
• 3:33
  is one of the main reasons why... teachers are
• 3:37
  they want to do this because of a student engagement
• 3:39
  thing the kids want to come that's one thing
• 3:43
  many clubs have been happening already but schools
• 3:49
  or teachers are doing it just with their own
• 3:51
  devices which means sometimes teachers buying
• 3:54
  materials or parents donating materials and we
• 3:58
  wanted to formalize or have a formal structure
• 4:02
  for schools now to be able to get all of this
• 4:05
  for free. This is a free program. It's a free
• 4:07
  program where we provide all the materials for
• 4:11
  the clubs to have cards and games for everyone
• 4:16
  to be able to play. One of the things that we're
• 4:18
  trying to achieve with this program is to provide
• 4:20
  broad access. And providing broad access means
• 4:24
  lowering certain barriers of entry. to make it
• 4:28
  accessible. Yes, for me the barriers of entry
• 4:30
  primarily are three. One is geographical. So
• 4:34
  we want to make sure that we are well distributed
• 4:39
  throughout urban, suburban and rural locations.
• 4:43
  And the reason for that is currently not everyone
• 4:46
  can go to a league or a store or places where
• 4:50
  people gather to play. Because those mostly gather
• 4:54
  on certain stores, retail stores, specialty stores.
• 4:58
  And sometimes there are kids in schools that
• 5:01
  live 200, 300, 400 miles away from the nearest
• 5:04
  store. So that's one barrier. So we're trying
• 5:07
  to have clubs in schools everywhere. The second
• 5:10
  is social economy. We want to make sure that
• 5:13
  that's why the materials are free. And these
• 5:15
  materials are for the clubs to have. so that
• 5:18
  any kid that comes to the club, whether they
• 5:20
  have cards or not, will find resources there
• 5:23
  to play, which will remain there for other kids
• 5:26
  to come. And then the third piece, in terms of
• 5:29
  lowering barriers of entry, is making it easy
• 5:32
  for kids to learn. So Pokemon, the tarot card
• 5:37
  game, is like chess. Like chess, I said, on steroids
• 5:41
  because of all the characters and all that. But
• 5:44
  it doesn't need to be that complicated at first.
• 5:47
  You can learn in a scaffolded way. And that's
• 5:49
  what we're trying to do with clubs. So they play
• 5:51
  mini games. This is not a competitive environment.
• 5:54
  So we don't expect the kids to learn how to play
• 5:57
  with the 60 card regulation decks. They just
• 6:00
  need to play with a few cards, learn the first
• 6:02
  moves. the gameplay dynamics and they will slowly
• 6:05
  be built. It'll build as they progress and the
• 6:08
  longer they stick with it. Exactly. The other
• 6:10
  thing that we're trying to make sure we do here
• 6:13
  is, I'm talking about the card game, not necessarily
• 6:18
  video. We're leading with non -screen activities.
• 6:27
  You're getting that engagement and it's not going
• 6:29
  to be on a... device that's going to shine that
• 6:32
  light back in your face. But you're getting the
• 6:34
  light shined off of the person that you're interacting
• 6:37
  with. And that is critical because when we were
• 6:40
  putting together this program, we started figuring
• 6:42
  out if there was research. We anecdotally knew
• 6:45
  the benefits that this can bring to children.
• 6:48
  But we said there must be research out there.
• 6:50
  And it happens that Columbia University has a
• 6:53
  Teachers College. And the Teachers College has
• 6:55
  a lab that studies game and gamification in education.
• 6:59
  And in 2018 -2011, they went out and analyzed
• 7:03
  trading card games. And they specifically analyzed
• 7:06
  three. One that's called Yu -Gi -Oh!, Magic,
• 7:10
  and Pokemon. And their findings were that someone
• 7:15
  who plays these games basically acquires skills
• 7:19
  that are cognitive, like strategic thinking,
• 7:22
  resource planning. or academic, like reading
• 7:25
  comprehension and math. Every single movie during
• 7:27
  the game requires math. And, or, and, actually,
• 7:33
  social and emotional learning skills. And we
• 7:38
  have been seeing that that last category is perhaps
• 7:41
  the one that promises more opportunity. And maybe
• 7:46
  one that surprised you. Or did you think that
• 7:49
  that was there? We knew it anecdotally. And then
• 7:54
  it was interesting for us to see that someone
• 7:56
  with the right credentials and the academic background
• 7:59
  identified that as well. So now we're hearing
• 8:04
  from the people who organize clubs that that's
• 8:06
  what they most like about the club. The fact
• 8:08
  that the kids come and they have to play face
• 8:10
  to face and they interact and they learn about
• 8:13
  sportsmanship, about how to... engage with other
• 8:18
  kids. Let's talk a little bit about the session
• 8:20
  that you had earlier today, which was called?
• 8:25
  It was called Empowering Young Minds Through
• 8:29
  Play. Through Play. I'm imagining, because I
• 8:32
  was not able to attend that, but you probably
• 8:34
  had a lot of teachers that walked into that room,
• 8:37
  maybe with their guard up thinking... Oh, boy,
• 8:41
  what is they gonna say about this? And I'm gonna
• 8:44
  be a little bit oppositional. How did you, in
• 8:47
  your session, try to break that wall down to
• 8:50
  get them to see how Pokemon and empowering learners
• 8:54
  through play can actually be something that you
• 8:57
  can incorporate some of that engagement that
• 8:59
  they're getting from there that they can then
• 9:01
  turn in to start to use? Even though I know it's
• 9:04
  an extracurricular program, even with extracurriculars
• 9:07
  you want to see that carryover that goes into
• 9:10
  the actual classroom itself. You would be surprised
• 9:12
  that we didn't face much of that oppositional
• 9:14
  point of view. There were various teachers that
• 9:21
  were already running clubs, or that used to run
• 9:24
  clubs on their own. So they were happy to see
• 9:27
  that finally there was going to be some support
• 9:30
  for them to be able to do it for free. There
• 9:33
  were other teachers that were inquiring or maybe
• 9:36
  more skeptical about how are you guys intending
• 9:41
  to bring this into the classroom as part of the
• 9:44
  curriculum. And then we clarified that this is
• 9:45
  an after school experience. Yet, some teachers
• 9:49
  shared experiences of how they do things in the
• 9:52
  classroom. Can you point to an example of that?
• 9:54
  Yeah, I'm going to give you a few. Not all of
• 9:57
  them. Not all of these anecdotes came in that
• 10:01
  session, some did, but I've been getting a lot
• 10:04
  of these anecdotes in the booth. Teachers that
• 10:06
  say that they use the cards for when they're
• 10:09
  teaching math, that's an obvious one, and I think
• 10:11
  that's a very easy one. But the ones that are
• 10:14
  more interesting to me is teachers saying, like
• 10:16
  a language teacher saying, all Pokemon characters
• 10:21
  have a backstory. A little bit is in the card,
• 10:24
  but if you go to an online resource called the
• 10:27
  Pokedex, you can read that every character has
• 10:31
  a story, and you say, well, this character was
• 10:33
  born here and has these characteristics, and
• 10:36
  this is their attitude, these are their powers,
• 10:39
  and this is the ecosystem in which they grew,
• 10:41
  blah, blah, blah. And it's like probably half
• 10:43
  a page of text. So this language teacher was
• 10:47
  saying to me... I ask the kids to read the backstory
• 10:51
  of their favorite Pokemon. Once they read it,
• 10:54
  then I say, now, write a story. Like, what's
• 10:58
  next? What else is this Pokemon? And maybe that
• 11:02
  teacher gives prompts. Like, imagine that the
• 11:04
  Pokemon goes and visits X. What would happen?
• 11:07
  And then they start writing a story. So that's
• 11:10
  one example. Another example is a science teacher
• 11:13
  that's saying to us, sharing with us, that...
• 11:17
  But I don't know if you know but Pokemon characters
• 11:20
  evolve So all Pokemons have a basic character
• 11:24
  and then they evolve and they have more powers
• 11:27
  and they're even their physics Changes and they
• 11:30
  have they become more powerful. Sometimes they
• 11:32
  have two evolutions and they become even more
• 11:34
  powerful For so then this teacher uses that for
• 11:40
  kids to understand what evolution is and then
• 11:42
  just relates that back to the theater. Well,
• 11:45
  maybe even it kind of helps a student understand
• 11:47
  too how they change over time as well. Yeah.
• 11:50
  So those are ways to tie in topics. Yeah. That's
• 11:55
  great. So now I'm thinking - We're not doing
• 11:56
  that in the club just to be clear, but - It's
• 11:59
  just interesting to see that teachers make whatever
• 12:03
  connections they feel are appropriate and relevant
• 12:06
  for their students. So I'm thinking now of a
• 12:09
  teacher at a school, they just heard about the
• 12:12
  program. How do they get started? They just need
• 12:15
  to go to the ISTE webpage. This is a free benefit
• 12:19
  for ISTE members. Any ISTE member can enroll
• 12:24
  and bring a club to their school. So they just
• 12:27
  need to go to the website. To the website. Yeah.
• 12:30
  And we will definitely make sure to link that
• 12:32
  in the description. I'll give you that. Exactly.
• 12:35
  Yeah. Perfect. Well, I really appreciate you
• 12:37
  taking your time with us here and I hope you
• 12:39
  have a great rest of the conference and have
• 12:41
  a lot more people coming through. Thank you so
• 12:42
  much. My pleasure. Thanks. Thanks.