Tech & Learning - August 2008 - (Page 28)

Q&A Using Scratch, students make their own games, share projects with other kids from around the world, even start virtual companies. PHOTO: L. BARRY HETHERINGTON their games, and then they put their games online. Another kid offered his skills in making new features that could be added to a game. In several cases, kids would start their own online companies, the first one being a company called “Crank Inc.,” which was a group of kids—one in England, one in Ireland, one in Russia, and one in the United States. They started this company making games together where each member made different parts of the game. Another great thing we saw was a project called the Scratch News Network, which was modeled after the Cable News Network. This project had a newscaster giving news about what was new on the Scratch Web site. As part of our own efforts running the Scratch Web site, we would feature certain projects on the Scratch home page. However, here was somebody who was giving a newscast of what, in her opinion, were the most important projects to be aware of on the Web site. The first time I saw this, my reaction was “Oh, that’s cute. Here’s a simulation of a newscast.” Then I stopped and realized that this was not a simulation of a newscast, this was a real newscast. The level of collaboration with the Scratch community has also been exciting to see. Right now we’re up to about 130,000 projects on the Scratch Web site. Out of those 130,000 projects, more than 20,000 projects are what we call “remixes,” meaning that someone took someone else’s project, added things to it, and then uploaded it to the site as their own version. T&L: What are the best ways teachers can start using Scratch in classrooms this fall? MR: There are a few ways that I do see Scratch getting into schools. The easiest fit for Scratch is in programming-related studies, which can be an important part of any middle school technology or high school computer science curriculum. Another way that Scratch is being used is in a similar manner to Powerpoint. Powerpoint is used as a general presentation tool. Whether students are doing a report on the rainforest of Costa Rica or on the presidents of the United States, they might make a presentation using Powerpoint. Scratch can also be used as a presentation tool, and I think its abilities go beyond Powerpoint. First of all, you can make richer dynamic projects. It can be expanded beyond the standard image displays and bullet points of text often found in a typical Powerpoint presentation. I also think Scratch allows users to be more expressive with a richer learning experience. Teachers appreciate that, and once they become familiar with Scratch, they’ll start to use it as a tool with students for a wide range of activities. From the early-adopter teachers using Scratch, there are great things happening in their classrooms. Scott Traylor is the founder of 360KID (www.360KID.com), a content and technology company developing learning products for publishers, broadcasters, and toy companies. 360KID specializes in the creation of animated, gaming, and social media learning products for clients such as Pearson, McGrawHill, PBS, Sesame Workshop, Girl Scouts, LeapFrog, National Geographic, and many others. 28 | TECH & LEARNING http://www.360KID.com

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Tech & Learning - August 2008 Contents Editor's Desk News & Trends Q&A: Scratch That Best of NECC 2008 How to Build Better ePortfolios Focus on Digital Cameras Leader of the Year

Tech & Learning - August 2008

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