Playtime gets serious

Schools should capitalise on the popularity of Pokémon. Studies of the trading card phenomenon are revealing potential educational benefits. "It's not all commercial exploitation," said David Buckingham, head of the Centre for Children, Youth and Media at the University of London.

Pokémon, one of the most successful computer game marketing exercises of all time, has attracted little academic attention. Buckingham and colleagues in London, in cooperation with international collaborators, have taken the first steps to putting this right.

After looking at how children use Pokémon, researchers have come up with surprisingly positive preliminary findings about the benefits it can bring to a child's education.

One London research assistant has focused on how children at a school have used Pokémon to help them invent characters, create storylines and include themselves in the narrative.

"Children are even making their own cards - they invented a game they called 'Rokémon' based on their own characters," Buckingham said.

Another research assistant is observing how children play with Pokémon under controlled conditions, and a third is studying his own son at play on their home computer.

Schools that are justifiably concerned about peer pressure might, however, be swayed by some of the centre's findings.

Banning the game from the classroom and relegating it to the playground simply highlights the contrast between Pokémon and "deadening compulsory programmes". Buckingham, whose own children surf the net and use pocket money to buy rare cards, believes the distinction need not be so stark.

"I know the argument that this is trivial information, but aren't there ways schools can capitalise on it?" Buckingham said. "Pokémon has a unique appeal to both genders and throughout the age range."