At the ECAWA 2010 State Conference

Dr Barnard Clarkson
Honorary Senior Research Fellow, ECU

Scratch: Multimedia software satisfying the itch to learn

Scratch was developed by the Media Lab at MIT as a free, simple-to-learn but powerful programming software. By moving blocks of coded directions, students build scripts that tell sprites how to act, creating games, animations and graphics projects.

Barney says:

I met Scratch at the ECAWA conference last year thanks to Paul Fuller (“Create a Game in 60 minutes: Scratch for Absolute Beginners”), and was so inspired I decided to use it when teaching in a school for untouchable children in India (ShantiBhavanOnline.org ) a few months later.

I’ve now used it or seen it used three different ways to engage students, viz. a games approach, a quiz approach and a real-life projects approach.

Each method has advantages and disadvantages, and with the wealth of support materials now online (and the network installer which your network manager will like) it is very easy to make progress with students.

I’ll introduce Scratch to novices, and if you already know what to do, please come along and tutor!

 

This is a hands on workshop in a computer  lab, but you are welcome to install Scratch on your own notebook computer and bring it along to use at the workshop.

 

 

Scratch may be downloaded from http://scratch.mit.edu/ 

More information about the ECAWA 2010 State Conference is at http://bit.ly/dAvZKZ

Register now! Download the registration form from http://bit.ly/bPStEl