Scratch

The educational technology and digital learning wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Definition

Scratch is an authoring tool for creating games, interactive stories, animations combining multimedia (sound, graphics, text). Scratch was developed in 2006[1] by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab and supported by various foundations.

Description

Scratch is an object oriented programming language that is rendered in a visual graphic interface allowing non-programmers to create animations, interactive games, visualizations without having to write code. Scratch targets children and educators who wish to include ICT and introduce programming concepts into their curriculum. Intended for children aged 10 and above, it has been used in classroom settings with younger children who can already read simple words (See example below).

Uses

For students

Using the Scratch interface an programming language, children can build projects and learn the underlying concepts of programming. since these projects can in and of themselves be built around a particular subject being explored and investigated, the use of Scratch can support multiple learning objectives in a project-based learning approach.

For teachers

Due to the accessibility of its interface, educators have also adopted Scratch to build interactive animations and visualizations to present complex concepts to students.

Download and installation

Scratch is free for download and installation on Mac, Windows and Ubuntu (Linux).

Examples

Scratch in use in preschool (in French)

Tutorials

Community

Scratch has and increasingly large community composed of developers, educators and students.

Student community

From within the Scratch interface, students can share their projects projects through the Scratch website galleries and projects pages. Projects can be downloaded and 'remixed' by other members of the community.

Educator community

ScratchEd is an online community for educators to share their experiences using Scratch and any lesson plans, resources, projects or tutorials they have created.

Links

References