Scratch At Home

Scratch is a great programming language to start learning how to program for children. It fills roughly the same spot as Logo did a generation or two ago.

Actually, there hasn't been anything similar for a number of years, and it feels like we've all missed a fantastic opportunity in changing how traditional education is done. Pioneers like Seymour Papert imagined learning as a discovery activity, performed by students who would use information they already know to acquire more knowledge*. And the computer could be a big part in helping the exploration of the world. This learning by creating/inventing/discovering is what some call constructionsim, by the way.

To be useful to students, computers would have to interact with them in a way that allows for that exploration and creativity to take place. And that's where the idea of Logo in its day, and Scratch nowadays, enters the scene.

I was reminded of all this when I saw today the #ScratchAtHome challenge that the creators of Scratch have started. It “provides children, families, and educators with ideas for engaging in creative learning activities using the free Scratch coding environment”. It's a really cool thing to do among the other “at home” things during these days of coronavirus confinement.

Maybe you wanna try?

#education #foss #programming