Welcome to ScratchEd
With Scratch, people can easily construct a wide variety of interactive projects. From community narratives to role-playing games to mathematical simulations to consciousness-raising presentations, the potential for creative production with Scratch is boundless. However, for those who are primarily concerned with assisting others' Scratch learning, there is a disconnect between what individuals want to be able to do and the tools that are presently available to them.
Since joining the Lifelong Kindergarten group, I have had the opportunity to meet some of these people. They occupy a range of roles as teachers, researchers, parents, and hobbyists. Their interests in supporting Scratch learning are similarly diverse: a teacher who wants to share stories about Scratch and cross-curricular integration; a researcher who wants feedback on materials developed for exploring Scratch as participatory literacy; a parent who wants advice on how to introduce Scratch at a local all-girls high school; a hobbyist who wants to connect with others who have started Scratch groups for adults.
To better support the activities of these educators, I designed ScratchEd - a companion site for Scratch educators to share their stories, exchange resources, ask questions, and find other educators. This work started almost two years ago, by imagining possibilities for a separate space, creating initial drafts, playing with the design, sharing it with educators for feedback, reflecting on the strengths and weakness of the design, and iterating with new possibilities.
To the numerous educators who are working with Scratch and to the numerous educators at workshops and conferences that have helped get ScratchEd to this point: thank you. I hope that we can work together to make ScratchEd a place that is useful to our practices as educators and that provides a sense of what is possible with Scratch.
Hi Karen,
Here is the link to our gallery with some of the students projects. We have having a little Exhibit of these projects as well as some made with PicoCrickets for friends and parents on December 17 from 9am-10am. I know it is quite a distance from Cambridge, but if you should be in the neighborhood, please join us.
Kathy Frizzie
Silver Hill Horace Mann Charter School
Haverhill, Ma
http://scratch.mit.edu/galleries/view/62967
Hi Karen,
I have been using Crickets with my 4th and 5th grade students for the past 7 or 8 years in my robotics class. I just started using the PICOCRICKETS this year. I like both but the pico crickets are a bit easier.
My SCRATCH students are doing really well. We spent the first few times together getting to know the language and they are now working on projects to present at our PTO meeting later this month. Each pair of students chose their own topic and had to research 5 facts to be included in their project. Topics range from monkeys to space to bats. Some students have already added their own voices to the projects and are working on including the scratch board too! We'll be sharing them as soon as they are ready.
I enjoyed the workshop in Foxboro last week.
Kathy
I'm glad you were able to join us for the workshop. I love getting together with people in workshops to see the different ways they interact with Scratch (and also in this case, the Scratch board).
Please let me know when your Scratch group finishes their projects. I'd love to see what cool monkey-space-bat projects they make and what they do with the Scratch board. :)
Thanks,
K
Hi Karen,
I've downloaded Scratch, copied the cards and am just waiting for a dozen 4th and 5th graders to show up for my first Scratch class. I'm going to try a 6 week, one 40 minute period a week course and see what happens. The goal for each student will be to complete at least one project and share it with the class. I will keep you posted on how it goes. I would love to hear from other elementary teachers who are using Scratch. Thanks for ScratchEd, I am sure it will be helpful.
Kathy
I can't wait to hear about your experiences -- and to see what your participants create!
I see from your bio that you're involved in robotics. Have you been working with Mindstorms or WeDo?
Thanks,
K
it is such a wonderful experience for all kids. Now programming is no longer a pain, instead it is fun and enjoyment!!
Well done! Scratch Team!!
Jackson
Hi Karen,
I really wish to thank the Scratch Team for their fantastic vision in releasing Scratch to the world. ScratchEd is truly a great idea and I find it very useful to be able to learn and share with others in the Scratch community. May I know if you know of anyone who has used Scratch to engage younger adults suffering from early dementia by introducing it to them as a hobby? I am very keen to find out what type of Scratch projects to start them to enable such persons to boost their memory skills. Thanks very much and may God bless you and your colleagues with more creative energy in all you do.
Best regards,
Ai Boon
Karen, thanks for ScratchEd. It looks great, and I expect to find it very useful. I want to meet other educators, and find excellent Scratch materials to use with my students as examples. One shortcoming of scratch.mit.edu is that because of the open nature of it, there’s a lot of noise and low-quality work (there’s also plenty of great stuff, of course).