Perhaps a more modest request would be to allow data I/O through a serial/parallel port, but I could also see network communication as something interesting for Scratch projects.
The #1 problem would be in regards to hyper paranoid (for a good reason) school network administrators that don't want unsecure network communication occurring within their labs. While I don't see (at the moment) how you could possibly write a computer virus in Scratch, and a DNS attack would seem futile and much better done in other software development environments, any sort of network communication seems to be a potential vector for problems.
Even so, I think this paranoia about computer networks is ultimately harmful to the education of computer programming concepts, and that even children ought to be able to learn, in a controlled and simplified manner, the concepts of both a "server" and a "client". For district network admins (and others) who want to make sure the packets "stay within the school", the district firewalls could certainly keep a clearly defined Scratch comm port for networking within just the classroom, and not allow communication with outside computers. This certainly is a topic for continued discussion.
An additional set of blocks that deal with networking properties, such as "set network ip to <url>" and "when network connection requested" as a start block.
Such a server script could end and disconnect after the last block, with perhaps an explicit "close connection" block that could be used within an if block that would also stop the server script.
I/O could happen with a block such as "transmit <variable> to network" or "set <variable> from network"
Just some thoughts on this... and it would be a very educational experience for kids to get some "hands-on" experience with network topologies. As Potato mentioned, there are some fun ideas such as distributed computing, sharing resources, multi-player games, and other fun ideas that many kids would really have a fun time exploring if this were available.
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Good points. I think some of the network abuse concerns could be mitigated with very low packet time-to-live(ttl) values or keeping message destinations limited to the sender's subnet. The goal to keep broadcasts relatively constrained within a classroom, lab, school or household. For ease of network troubleshooting for users, the Scratch IDE ought to automatically detect and report status on all the other locally connectable Scratch environments it can see. This would enable a simple MazeWar-type game, a great Scratch project and a fine throwback to a MIT legacy.
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Hi Potato and Roberth,
Thanks for the suggestions. We are actually already thinking about a networked version of Scratch. You can read more about it here: http://web.media.mit.edu/~tstern/netscratch/
Please let us know if you have any other ideas for how to make networked programming accessible to kids through Scratch.
Thanks!
-Tammy
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In going over your proposal here for "Netscratch", I don't see to many things that have to be added to the current Scratch implementation (v. 1.1). The primary extentions to make most of your screen proposals would involve string manipulation and variables... which is something that has not been implemented into Scratch yet. Transmitting strings and numbers across a network is a trivial exercise in comparison.
What ever you do... keep it simple. Very simple. This does not have to be a radical change for Scratch, and it can fit within the current paradigm that scratch uses. The most advanced concepts that most kids would have to deal with is the concept of an IP address or computer network name.
The idea that you can have some data servers which a Scratch app could also pull up is an interesting idea as well. These could be also written in Scratch, and even include information from your sensor boards, but they could also be data repackagers aimed toward Scratch users, but written in more conventional software environments like C++. Make sure that if you have some network data standard for Scratch (even if simple), that you make that available for those who might want to create some of these datafeeds.
BTW, if you need some "free" weather data, I do have some contacts that might be able to help there as well. A local (to me) business that I've worked with in the past is a major manufacturer of weather monitoring equipment, and they will be very receptive to working with an educational learning group like the MIT-LLK. At least they could get me in touch with other meteorological groups that may have some real time data for you to use. NOAA may also have some data feeds you could use as well.
I wrote a "chat" program in 9th grade very similar to an IRC client/server using nothing but a modified version of Dartmouth BASIC. About 100 lines for the client and a similar amount for a server (but not as full-featured as IRC). I don't see why something like that can't also be done in Scratch with a little bit of work.
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Quite frankly, network apps are far down on my list of features to add to Scratch.
Comments, arrays, string variables and ops, creating your own blocks, dynamic creation of sprites, pull-down lists for variables, movable backgrounds, ... are all far more important than network I/O.
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I'm 7 years old and I'm creating a scratch program and I want it to communicate with other computers so you can play with your friends and stuff on it. I want to make something like runescape so you can walk off the screen and the background shifts the opposite way you're walking. You walk over to the edge and then you can keep on going and you can move backwards and you can go off the screen sideways and forwards.
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What you are looking for is called a "scrolling background" and there has been a thread (or more) about them.
Graham wrote a nice one in
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Graham/4758
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tammy wrote:
Hi Potato and Roberth,
Thanks for the suggestions. We are actually already thinking about a networked version of Scratch. You can read more about it here: http://web.media.mit.edu/~tstern/netscratch/
Please let us know if you have any other ideas for how to make networked programming accessible to kids through Scratch.
Thanks!
-Tammy
Hi Tammy,
do you have a beta ready?
I would be joyed to test one!
Thanks
Milan
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Hi geek94 & xyxzergames,
Thanks so much for offering to beta-test NetScratch! Right now it is still in its very preliminary/research stages, and we are still thinking about the right ways to network the Scratch environment. If we do create a networked version of Scratch that's ready for some users, we will keep you both in mind for beta-testing.
Thanks again!
-Tammy
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