Many young people are well versed in playing video games, yet few have actually created their own interactive programs and then shared them on the Web for others to enjoy. Scratch, intended for 8- to 16-year-old students, is a recently emerged programming language developed by the LifeLong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab and made available in a free download in 2007. It allows users to develop their own interactive stories, games, and animations. Students integrate mathematical and computational skills, geometric relationships, and systematic reasoning, with creative problem solving techniques.
Although diffusing rapidly (548,512 registered members), the open-source site suffers from the lack of a viable marketing campaign. The technology, for the most part, relies on word-of-mouth in social and professional networks for people to become involved in the Scratch community. Even though the site has several tutorials to help guide the user, they are inadequate for covering the over 100 programming blocks. Instead, Scratch depends on the creativity, experimentation, and discovery process of the user and the ability of the user to view previously developed programs to interpret how the programs were designed. This can be rather intimidating for those who take tentative steps regarding new technologies. The technology would benefit from easy-to-follow curriculum plans that are linked to national technology and content standards.
According to Silver (n.d.), Scratch is a tool that can easily be integrated into any curriculum at school, but it suggests to the learner that this is a technology that would be fun to use at home. It is a technology that reaches across curricula and cultures to engage students in creative problem-solving tasks. It encourages students of all ages to mix media (graphics, sound, color, motion) and then share the product online. Perhaps the greatest advantage of Scratch is the open-source nature of the site. Users can collaborate, communicate, experiment, break apart and alter programs in the process of running them, and learn from the greater global community of Scratchers. This, indeed, represents the real power of online learning.
You can learn more about Scratch and download it here: http://scratch.mit.edu/
ScratchEd is an online community created for specifically for educators. It includes articles, resources, and a discussion forum. You can find it here: http://scratched.media.mit.edu/stories
The following site includes several demonstration and instructional videos to help a novice get started with Scratch: http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/Videos
Silver, J. (n.d.). Media Lab Video [Interview] Retrieved from http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/Videos
Annie,
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting! I hate that it is not more widely known, but I am eager to have my children try it. My 4th grader is having problems with providing details in storytelling, or identifying details in stories that she reads. Although emerged, I think that this would be a good tech application that would promote more creative thinking!
Thanks for sharing this!
Regina,
Scratch is a great tool for the educator and students alike. Having the ability to create an interactive exercise would be beneficial in nearly any discipline. In my field, math, I see great opportunity for using it to illustrate real life applications giving the students the ability to try different options to obtain a working solution.
ReplyDeleteScratch allows for the creation of avatars and the use of avatars in education is an up and coming teaching technique. Another similar tool available online for using a speaking Avatar or Voki for teaching is described in the site below.
http://www.squidoo.com/voki
Ginger Harper
Anne,
ReplyDeleteScratch is an interesting programming language. Children need to understand problem-solving it terms of the concepts of a) problem definition, b) methodologies to a solution, and c) the descriptive component that underscores the need to record, display, and communicate results.
What sort of training would it take for, say, a home-school Mom to use Scratch efficiently and effectively? Has the product gone through various stages of evolution to reach the current level of adoption?
Just thinking!
David Abraham
Regina and David, I recommend that you download it and go through the tutorials. Also, be sure to view some of the previously created programs to help you get started. It is engaging, it is challenging, it is user-friendly, and there are unlimited programming possibilities. In education, I recommend that you set some content parameters and then let your students creatively address the problem. You do not have to be an authority in Scratch; you will learn more from them as they experiment with the programming blocks. Since Scratch allows you to manipulate and change the program as it is running you can immediately see the effects of minor and major adjustments - quick to try, quick to understand, quick to implement.
ReplyDeleteGinger, thank you for sharing the speaking Avatar site on Squido. I was aware of the site, but have never integrated it into a lesson. Perhaps I will have to try it out. Sometimes I think that our only limitations are time and our own creativity. Thanks for lighting a spark for me!
ReplyDeleteAnne, I had never heard of Scratch. Are your students able to access it at school? I can't wait to do the tutorial and find out how it can be used. You just know students will be excited to create their own games. I remember when my son desperately wanted to do just that, and we couldn't help him. We didn't have the resources available and DOS was not fun to work with.
ReplyDeleteRebecca, You are right, DOS just doesn't quite communicate "user-friendly," does it? Yes, Scratch is approved by DoDEA so give it a whirl. I think you (and your students) will really like it.
ReplyDelete