Why Use Scratch

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Benefits of Scratch

Free open source software that can be installed on all major operating systems and all students can install it at home without breaking any copyright laws.

Alot of free resources and guides on how to use and teach with Scratch.

Students learn multiple skills in a fun and engaging ways.

User friendly interface.

Scratch is a "Low floor" programming language; meaning it is easy for novices to get started (Resnick & Silverman, 2005)

Negatives of Scratch

The ease of sharing files online creates for possible plagiarism however it does build upon some theory's that nothing is original and people share and build upon each others work in the real Information Technology market.

Because of the low ceilings there is only so far you can go with scratch, students will eventually need to learn other languages and skills or run the risk of doing the same thing over and over again

Sharing With The World

Scratch makes it incredibly easy to upload your projects to the Internet and share them with everyone else on the site. This is incredibly easy to do and all you have to do is sign up to the site http://scratch.mit.edu/ and upload your saved presentations or games. This is incredibly helpful for teachers as they can share programs they made and the forums on the same website provide a great collaboration tool with many teachers discussing possibilities and sharing ideas.

There is already large amounts of resources for teachers including half made games, language guides, maths games, spelling games and many tutorials all on the scratch website.

This is a link to an educators forum about scratch

http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewforum.php?id=7

Note: the Scratch website is heavily moderated to ensure that no inappropriate material lasts long on the site.

Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1993)

Scratch can enhance learning and teaching by tapping into the multiple intelligences in the classroom:

Recommendation

Peter Ruwoldt is a Teacher and a member of many different groups promoting the Information Technology and education this is what he says about Scratch

"We want to sow seeds that tackling the hard stuff like Computer Science can be fun and worth doing. Scratch is a great tool for this because it allows students to learn about programming and be creative without being burdened with syntax errors. The only errors they can make are logic errors."

Bill Kerr is a South Australian Secondary Teacher and Blogger, and has spoken at educational conferences on Alan Kay and Etoys, and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project. He uses Scratch in his classroom. He did an interview about Scratch that is now a year old but still very relevant. It can be found below and will inspire any teachers to use Scratch in the classroom.

Bill Kerr's interview about Scratch

Resnick, M. & Silverman, B. (2005). Some Reflections on Designing Construction Kits for Kids, Accessed at http://llk.media.mit.edu/papers/IDC-2005.pdf, 22 September 2009

Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books.