15th July 2007

Podcast172: A 9 Year Old Discusses Programming in Scratch (Initial Impressions)

posted in creativity, design, games, podcasts |

This podcast features a recording of 9 year old Alexander Fryer, discussing his formative impressions after using the software programming environment “Scratch” to create some basic animations. According to the official Scratch website: 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 is available free of charge.

mp3 podcastClick here to listen to this podcast in your web browser!

SHOWNOTES:

  1. The official Scratch programming language website from MIT

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 15th, 2007 at 4:18 pm and is filed under creativity, design, games, podcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 6 responses to “Podcast172: A 9 Year Old Discusses Programming in Scratch (Initial Impressions)”

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  1. 1 On July 16th, 2007, kathy shields said:

    Alexander, it sounds like you figured it out and felt a sense a wonderful sense of being in control of creativity. What I wonder is, do you consider your self an average kid for your age? What skills or interests do you think other kids would need to really love this game? Is it more of a boys game in your opinion? Or is it for kids who like puzzles? I plan to play this podcast for a small group of aftercare students in 4th and 5th grades. Just hearing someone their age explain the program might give them inspiration to experiment.You don’t mind reading instructions and some of the instructions seemed complex and you didn’t let it stop you. I for one, can’t wait to try it. Thanks for the tips! Wes, what a great job you’re doing getting your son develop metacognition.

  2. 2 On July 16th, 2007, Wesley Fryer said:

    Kathy: Thanks for the feedback. I’ll ask these questions to Alexander this week and if he’s willing share his answers as another podcast. He’s attending an aviation camp this week but we’ll be talking on the phone in the evenings. I think it’s great you’re going to use this with some 4th and 5th grade students in an aftercare program. I would definitely encourage you to show them Sketch and invite them to play/explore in the environment. I think we are going to start with Sketch in our after-school computer club this fall when school begins again.

  3. 3 On July 19th, 2007, Bob Cotter said:

    I enjoyed the podcast. I will be working with some students on Thursday afternoon at our tech centre to introduce this software to them.

    Should Alexander wish to iChat, on such late notice, I can be reached at my AIM account, bobsd46.

    We are on the West Coast of British Columbia and the kids are meeting me in the lab at or about 1 pm.

    Cheers…

  4. 4 On July 19th, 2007, Wesley Fryer said:

    Bob, I wish we could make this connection! Alexander is attending a camp this week out of town, however, so we can’t make the connection today. This would be great fun to do later sometime, however. I would love to hear more about what the students you’re working with think of Scratch and are able to make with it!

  5. 5 On July 19th, 2007, Bob Cotter said:

    Great fun. I had 9 children come and five parents accompanying them. Within 15 minutes, three of the five parents picked up the last three laptops and started to explore.

    The two youngest students were 7 and 8 years old. One of them had more ‘difficulty’ with the program and chose to tinker with the sprite editor. I know she had fun.

    The oldest was a girl going into grade 8 and she had a lot of fun working on a project and helping her younger brother and some of the others.

    A group of three boys, each with their own laptops, worked independently for about a half hour and then got in to the swing of cooperative learning, helping each other problem solve how to make things happen.

    Two and a half hours later the last two left the room … after we had figured out how to explode a rock sprite when another sprite touched it.

    For me it was a bit of deja vu as I taught a course in LOGO to some kids in he early 1980s.

    I’ve invited the kids and their parents back tomorrow morning to explore some more and them promised them to have another session in the week of August 13.

    I spent a bit of time showing the parents the website, showing them how to download the app at home, talking about the benefits of signing up and encouraging them to support their kids at home if they want to move along there.

    Thanks to Alexander for spurring me on with this project and to you for supporting your son and sharing with your audience.

    Cheers… Bob

  6. 6 On July 20th, 2007, Wesley Fryer said:

    Wow, thanks for that update, Bob! I will pass this along to Alexander. I’m eager to share the Scratch program with students and parents at our own elementary school once it begins. I”m thinking we could call our every-other week computer club “Invent the Future,” to quote Alan Kay! :-)