Music/Lyrics on so-called Scratch projects.
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When my students saw some of the really good music videos, such as http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Wjc0906/670515 and http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/muffinninja/2054234, they were inspired, a few were inspired to create their own animated videos. Others were inspired to search out music on Scratch and found users like AustinMahonelover16 who has no projects, but has favored other's "projects" that consist of just a background and the music, most of which contains lyrics NSFS, (not suitable for school).
I am not sure what the Scratch team can do, but I wasted a lot of time going around telling my students that the music they were listening to did not fit the district's AUP. I have been flagging them as I come upon such, but what a lot of junk that has nothing to do with programming.
Hi Carl,
I feel a bit conflicted, as there are several tensions that play out with this.
Certainly some songs that appear on the Scratch website are way over the line of appropriateness and are taken down. Other songs, which are somewhat risqué (particularly for a school setting), are significant parts of popular culture. This music is important to many young creators and inspires their creative work in all sorts of interesting ways.
It's further complicated by the fact, as you point out, that some of these projects are very simple. For some Scratchers, this is a starting point -- a starting point that leads to amazing project development and wouldn't have been possible without those simple, humble beginnings. What seems like a lot of junk could be the first step along a creative pathway with programming. So, as you can imagine, we're disinclined to actively seek out simple projects and remove them, even though some people might not progress past these initial interactions.
As it seems like you've already started to do, this is a great opportunity for conversations with your students -- about appropriate content, about what constitutes a substantive Scratch project, about how to build a productive and respectful learning community.
That's a little about how I (and some of my colleagues) are thinking about it. I hope that helps...
K
I am a not really conflicted, most of the songs i have run into that would not fit our school's AUP I have flagged as inappropriate, these are users that have just a background and music - usually many many projects uploaded. One Scratch user is running a request line for posting songs through a Google form. Another asks for requests in their program notes.
These are not rank beginners, (like member 984403), these other users are gaming Scratch to get and share music. Unfortunately, this will hurt Scratch in the end IMHO.