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Like a thunderbolt from Pikachu鈥檚 tail, Pok茅mon is once again electrifying the nation.

The latest incarnation of the Japanese franchise is a mobile app, , which puts a digital overlay on the real world, requiring users to walk around their neighborhoods to collect characters and do battle with one another.

The game has exploded in meme-driven popularity to become the largest mobile game ever, only 10 days after its launch in July.

The unexpected summer surge has parents and educators buzzing about the potential for educational applications, and fretting about privacy and safety risks they鈥檇 prefer children to avoid. Educators say they see opportunities to capitalize on students鈥� love for the game in the teaching of subjects like social studies, local history, math, mapping, and literacy.

鈥淧ok茅mon Go is interdisciplinary in a way that鈥檚 hard to obtain with other programs,鈥� said Jessica Torres, an assistant principal at Brook Avenue Elementary School in Waco, Texas. 鈥淚鈥檓 tired of seeing science in one area, reading in another area, math somewhere else.鈥�

The Pok茅mon world first rose to iconic pop-culture status in the late 1990s as a trading card game, then as a TV show, then as a Gameboy-supported video game. The unlikely resurrection of the virtual world of animated creatures into a social-gaming phenomenon is powered by a roster of over 21 million daily mobile users, and counting.

Nintendo, which owns a stake in the parent Pok茅mon Co., has seen its stock value rise by the billions as a result of the success.

Local Landmarks, History

The success that Pok茅mon鈥檚 developers have found in stitching together the real world and the virtual game goes a long way to explaining the game鈥檚 appeal to users.

Until now, the convention for nearly every game on the market has involved moving a virtual avatar around in a virtual world delineated by a virtual map. But in Pok茅mon Go, once the app is downloaded and an avatar is selected, the player is located by the game via GPS.

In Pok茅mon Go, users roam to parks, landmarks, and buildings in their communities to gather resources. Every once in a while the gamer鈥檚 phone will vibrate and shift the display from a GPS-maps-like view of the gamer鈥檚 avatar, to a view activated by the gamer鈥檚 camera.

At this point, the game jumps from a third- to first-person view, and the gamers see a direct feed of the grass or sidewalk in front of them, with a digital overlay of whichever Pok茅mon was randomly generated. When the illusion is conjured properly, the users feel as though they have 鈥渄iscovered鈥� a magical creature hiding in plain sight.

Pok茅stops, places where players can collect free items, are often placed at parks, historic sites, or monuments, drawing out local history, Torres said. By encouraging users to seek out these real-world landmarks in person, gamers are noticing their surroundings and absorbing real local history in ways that are getting educators excited, she explained.

鈥淚t is a springboard for learning urban geography and the history of a region,鈥� said Dawn Casey-Rowe, a social studies teacher at William M. Davies, Jr. Career and Technical High School in Rhode Island who plans to utilize the game in her classroom for the upcoming school year.

Geospatial Exploration

Even in other parts of the country where there might not be 400 years of Colonial history, the game has the potential to be a good introduction to civics, said Casey-Rowe. A teacher, leading students through Pok茅stops, might be able to take advantage of pointing out 鈥渢his is the town hall, this is where we do 鈥榵.鈥欌��

But perhaps the most promising application, suggested Casey-Rowe, is in teaching students basic skills about mapping, cardinal directions, and navigation. 鈥淭here is so much going on from a geospatial point of view.鈥�

Meanwhile, Torres also sees potential for young students to practice literacy through the app, which encourages a fair amount of reading.

Other students might be able to use math to analyze where Pok茅stops will occur, and grapple with the game鈥檚 points system, used to have characters battle to capture virtual Pok茅mon gyms. Science plays a part as well, added Torres, because Pok茅mon tend to pop up in their natural habitat areas鈥攆or example, a fish will usually appear near water.

One of the most appealing features of the franchise鈥檚 latest iteration, especially for adults concerned that kids are spending too much time indoors, is that the game cannot be played from a sofa. In order to catch Pok茅mon and level up, players have to mill about outside.

Rebecca Randall, the vice president of education programs and partnerships for Common Sense Education, noted that physical education teachers can use the egg-hatching function鈥攚hich requires players to run or walk a set distance for a creature to emerge from the shell鈥攖o increase student activity.

Math skills can be used to log distances between stops or Pok茅mon gyms, where characters can battle, or to calculate probability around the rarity of some Pok茅mon species.

James Gee, an , sees the app鈥檚 success as partially derivative of the way 鈥渋t enchants the environment.鈥� In a country that Gee and other commentators argue is becoming more fractured for a variety of , Pok茅mon Go seems to cut across class and race in its popularity, he said.

鈥淓very human would love to think that there are little fairies running around鈥攖hat鈥檚 been a theme of literature, and many cultures actually believe it,鈥� Gee said. 鈥淧ok茅mon comes along and does that.鈥�

Privacy Protections?

Nevertheless, educators should be cognizant that the game might not hold the same appeal for every student, said Casey-Rowe. Some of them might get wrapped up in 鈥渦nhealthy competition鈥� over controlling territory, or simply won鈥檛 find the game interesting, she added.

As with any new-age digital tool, Casey-Rowe argued that it is incumbent upon teachers who engage in these spaces to model professional uses of social media, and social games.

In addition, as important as the 鈥渁ugmented reality鈥� features of the game are to its popularity, the game鈥檚 need to track a user鈥檚 geographic positioning has stirred fears among data-privacy advocates.

Those fears increased after early reports from bloggers, later picked up by mainstream news outlets, that the developers were gaining access to users鈥� entire Google accounts, including full email records, through a broadly worded privacy waiver.

Bill Fitzgerald, the director of the privacy-evaluation initiative at , said educators need to be wary about data collected by apps like Pok茅mon Go. 鈥淚t was very bad,鈥� he said of the initial glitch. 鈥淭he issue is: what else did they miss in their QA [quality assurance] process?鈥�

Randall, of Common Sense Education, also noted that schools should tread very carefully around encouraging students to use personal accounts for educational purposes with Pok茅mon Go, particularly for those under 13. Laws like the Children鈥檚 Online Privacy Protection Act, or , are designed specifically to protect these younger students.

While a said the digital-security issues have been resolved, there have also been concerns about physical safety. According to news reports, gamers have been injured because of not paying attention to their surroundings, and in some cases, they鈥檝e even been .

Some observers are also wary of the marketing aspects of the game, especially since Nintendo will soon or purchase Pok茅stops as a way of driving traffic to their site.

The game also borrows from popular iOS games of the last five years in using a 鈥渇reemium鈥� business model. The practice is controversial because it creates feedback loops which give players a thrill when they spend real money and improve their character that gradually dissipates as improvement plateaus. Gamers then feel compelled to spend more money, chasing the rush of seeing their avatars become more powerful, said Gee of Arizona State.

Social Component

But perhaps the most unexpected criticism for such a popular game is that many expert gamers find some of its mechanics wanting. 鈥淭he app is very faulty, and it鈥檚 not smooth in terms of the user-interface or the gameplay,鈥� said Steve Isaacs, a middle school game design teacher at William Annin Middle School in New Jersey.

As Isaacs points out, Pok茅mon Go will inevitably see patches and updated versions. But to date, the game lacks an effective tutorial, and Isaacs found the mechanics used for throwing Pok茅balls to capture Pok茅mon to be overly simplistic. Other reviewers who have progressed further in the game have reported that 鈥渂attling鈥� can feel like more of an exercise in reflexive button-mashing than nuanced decision making.

A lot of kinks need to be worked out to incorporate Pok茅mon Go into the learning day, Torres said. But teachers can help themselves by taking the time to understand the game and how students experience it.

鈥淥ur kids are going to want to talk about it when they get back to school,鈥� Torres said. 鈥淚f teachers are familiar with it and can talk about it, that鈥檚 going to be an easy way to build a relationship.鈥�

鈥淕et a teen consultant鈥� and 鈥渕ake sure that you are an authentic part of the community,鈥� advised Casey-Rowe on how educators can make the most of the Pok茅mon Go opportunity. 鈥淯se your experts, be invited in, and learn to use it.鈥�

鈥淭here are going to be a lot of naysayers,鈥� but teachers who focus on 鈥渉ow do we use this to promote education鈥� will find a goldmine, she predicted. 鈥淚鈥檒l always use any tool I can to further the cause.鈥�