Scratch (game creation and animation engine)

[LeeDale]

MIT never ceases to amaze me with some of the innovative things they come up with. This time, I'm amazed at something Kae mentioned quickly at the COLTT conference during a conversation. Scratch!
Here it is, from the web page, "Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design. "
scratch.mit.edu

What can this offer you? For Multimedia & CIS instructors, it gives us a way to introduce some very simple scripting/programming concepts such as if/then, iteration, variables, and the like. It also introduces the idea of sprites.

The program is simple enough (ages 8 and up, like they said) that simple presentations can be created, opening the way for student presentations, flash cards, and even simple games.

There are a couple of downsides. First of all, the final created Scratch activity is hosted on the Scratch site. You can download the files, but you must have Scratch to open it. Also, the interface feels a little young, which might turn off some students. However, if you're on a lab computer at school/work, there is a version of Scratch that you can download that runs all by itself and doesn't require full blown installation.

[Kae]

Cool video on how to use scratch for Second Life.http://web.mit.edu/~eric_r/Public/S4SL/

[Kae]

Most discussion coming out MIT and the University of Wisconsin about game literacy suggests/urges the instructor to have students develop the games. I've kind felt a little inferior thinking I'm not sure our students are ready for that woithout taking a MGD class. I'm going to keep looking at this to see where and in what class it can be implemented by next COLTT conference time of course.

P.S. Kate started messing around with it while in the game session at COLTT and had some people peering over her shoulder watching her.