Hi all.
Does anyone out there use Scratch in UK Further and Higher Education?
I'm currently using it as an introduction to object-orientated programming for first/second year FdA Digital Media Design students. The students' work tends to centre around visuals for graphic user interfaces and games - essentially they are primarily concerned with the visuals, but need to be aware of the basic interactive/animnation properties of programming/scripting. Quite a few of them are dyslexic, so Scratch provides a non-threatening environment in which to explore basic programming.
Using Scratch allows the students to prototype interfaces, and provide demonstrations to programmers, showing what is wanted of them.
Also with it being free, everyone has a chance to participate as much (or as little) as they want. Once they have grasped the basic concepts of programming I then start introducing ActionScript/Lingo to them. This is all delivered in an Apple Macintosh environment.
Is there anyone else doing anything similar?
- Marion Tregartha
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Hi,
I am using Scratch in a secondary school in the UK, for a Key Stage 3 targetted after school club. Not the same at all, but hey I am in the UK! The non-threatening user interface is a big part of the reason why we are using Scratch.
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We are about to use Scratch to teach the "Developing Computer Games" Unit of the First Year of our BTEC National Diploma for ICT Practictioners course at Norwich. (An FE course).
We have crafted the whole unit around Scratch. It is being delivered to students in the second semester of their first year. They have not had any formal programming teaching on their course yet and we are hoping for the following outcomes:
* To teach students about computer games development
* To introduce students to computer programming
* To increase learner engagement (by stimulating their interest we hope to improve retention and success)
When developing the course we evaluated Scratch with a similar group. Students had two days to familiarise themselves with Scratch. Afterward their opinions were taken by questionnaire.
Several facts emerged, but we did notice one very interesting fact:
Learners remain engaged with Scratch even when they report that they do not fully understand what they are doing.
This is in stark contrast to programming languages we have previously used in teaching.
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Hello fractal, everyone,
I'm starting a primary school "scratch club" soon, so I'll let you know how that goes.
Meanwhile - I'm putting your names in my list of "friends" - follow it through if you like, so we can continue exchanging ideas.
Charles Boisvert
Norwich City College
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Anyone from UK considering going to the Scratch conference in July?
Fractal, your initiative deserves a presentation. Want to present, or co-present?
I am interested in how Scratch can cover the assessment criteria for introductory programming in AS/A2 Computing and IT Practitioners.
I use Scratch with 8-year olds, and I have been teaching BTEC Nationals IT Practitioners but not using Scratch.
I also teach international students on a pre-University Foundation Programme and I plan to use Scratch instead of LiveWires Python as an introduction to programming concepts before delivering C++ (the external examiner's choice!).
I may also use it in some software engineering/HCI research I plan to do.
Andrew
Avon area
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nicolsona wrote:
Anyone from UK considering going to the Scratch conference in July?
Fractal, your initiative deserves a presentation. Want to present, or co-present?
I am interested in how Scratch can cover the assessment criteria for introductory programming in AS/A2 Computing and IT Practitioners.
Unfortunately we both work in an FE college, and there's no such things as money to go to the U.S. for us.
In our experience, Scratch cover a good deal of a level 3 programming curriculum. Watch out for the lack of arrays and string handling.
For some typical computational problems, see Fractal's fractal and my examples of 3D and Bresenham's algorithm.
We're continuing the evaluation work that Fractal is talking about. There's going to be some exciting stuff. Rather than the Scratch conference, we'll present the work in the UK (maybe ALT-C) or in Europe (ITiCSE?). But it's early days. We should get a UK conference started!
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Hi mtregartha,
I'm a London based ESOL teacher/MA in ICT Education student and I'm struggling 2 learn how 2 use Scratch. All I want 2 do is 2 design a simple activity/game. But then again, "no pain no gain", right?
R u new 2 Scratch yourself?
Last edited by kpmichelsen (2008-02-22 06:25:36)
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nicolsona
Im in the same sitautionas yourself, Im a Secondary Computing Teacher in Scotalnd, and I am trying to use Scratch as a programming language to cover assessment criteria, and the lack of arrays (just now) is unfortunate, if this and string handling could be done in Scratch, I could use Scratch for pupils up to a pass at Standard Grade at General Level
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