What did ScratchEd ever do for you?

I ask this as I have been reflecting on the past 12-18 months and what ScratchEd has done for me in that time.

For me it involved learning about scratch,finding others with the same interest of educating children, helping others, sharing ideas and being asked to apply for a job!!!

In June 2009 I started my honours project at university.  This was how I got involved with Scratch in the first place.  My supervisor and I had discussed the idea of teaching children to program and make it enjoyable for them.  Scratch was something I then found and took back to him.   From then on I looked into ways of teaching children and came across the ScratchEd site, which became a favourite for me.   I posted my experiences on the site as well as my own blog of my classroom experience during my project.  It is from these postings I have also made some contacts who use Scratch across the globe and have given help (I hope) to with my lesson plans.  I am pleased that others can use the work I have done – it’s great to see others using work I have created. 

Two years on almost and I am still here on ScratchEd, why because I’m still interested in how children are taught about computers.  I’m still looking for other people who are interested in the same thing. I still want to help others with their Scratch lessons and I still want to share ideas with other people.

 I graduated in July 2010 with my honours degree and I’m now 6 months into my MPhil/PhD , looking at Games-based Learning in Schools.    Still looking at using Scratch and hopefully getting across the message that computing is fun and you can learn at the same time. 

Oh and as for that job , yes I was flattered that I was asked , even  given that I was not a teacher of any sort (Computing is my degree)  but  I also wanted to pursue the academic research that lay ahead at the time.