Episode 28: All this Scratchin’
Scratch is an easy to learn programming tool developed by MIT and is finding enthusiastic users all over the world. In this episode we have a chat to two experienced Scratchers, Bill Kerr and Peter Ruwoldt. Peter and Bill both teach in South Australia and have been using Scratch extensively with their students for quite a while, so they were the ideal people to chat to in order to find out more.
Peter was also very involved in Scratch Day, an annual event to promote Scratch, and he shares some of his insights about this.
Links from this episode:
- The official Scratch website - http://scratch.mit.edu
- The Scratch Day website - http://day.scratch.mit.edu
- Bill’s Blog - http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/
- Bill’s website - http://www.users.on.net/~billkerr/
- Peter’s Stuff - http://www.watiwara.org/mdl3/mod/resource/view.php?id=54
- Peter’s Scratch Day story - http://day.scratch.mit.edu/event/56
- Scratch cards - http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/Scratch_Cards
- Challenges - http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2009/02/scratch-challenges-update.html
- Introductory projects - http://nebomusic.net/scratch.html
Enjoy your Scratchin’!
Popularity: 37% [?]
July 14th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Well done Chris!
This is the first episode I’ve tuned into. I’ll definately be returning.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
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July 15th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
There is also a 5 minute video here http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/Videos called “How to use Scratch intro” that is worth playing to students when introducing Scratch. Follow that up with the Scratch Cards works well.
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:36 am
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August 27th, 2009 at 12:16 am
I was glad to hear about Peter and Bill using Scratch with their students. I have been teaching Scratch for 3 years for Year 8 students in my IT classes. I heard about it at a weekend IT conference. Downloaded it that weekend and introduced it to my classes within the next week. It was a learning experience for all of us as I certainly was no expert the first year I introduced it. I taught the scratch cards using a data projector then the students had the chance to design their own projects. That was when the real problem solving started and this is when the best learning occurred. I now also use it for assessment by setting a test day when they are required to animate the letters of their name and show me at least 4 different animation techniques and try to incorporate techniques that they have discovered themselves beyong the level of the scratch cards.
I have also used Scratch as an introduction to Python programming unit with Yr 9 & 10 IT students. I got them to play a project which is a numbers race and then they had to analyse the script and explain how it worked. These students had not previously learnt scratch so this was a bit of a challenge. I found getting outside ont he playground and acting out the numbers race was the best way for them to understand the program and visualise what was happening (especially for those who struggled to analyse the script).
The last thing I wanted to mention was that when I first started teaching scratch I showed it to a friend who is a programmer and he thought it was an excellent way to teach the fundamentals of programming. My son is 9 yrs old and he has learnt scratch at school and confidently writes scripts. He helps me assess the scratch projects my students make which is a good learning experience for him as well.
Keep up the good work and thanks for the great resources.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
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