Scratch

I might come.

Thanks for the invitation!  While I would love to see the old campus once more (got my MSME there in 1985!) it's not too likely that I can pry myself loose from Maine in the summer.  It's a really active season here.  But please keep me posted as the event becomes more solid, because you never know how things are going to work out.

Will there be any events for young Scratchers?

i'm too young to work anyway.

HOW OLD DO YOU NEED TO BE TO COME BECAUSE I'M 11 BUT I'LL BE VERY NEARLY 12 IN THE SUMMER???

Toasty wrote:

HOW OLD DO YOU NEED TO BE TO COME BECAUSE I'M 11 BUT I'LL BE VERY NEARLY 12 IN THE SUMMER???

That's a great question! I've posted an answer to this question in another thread, but I'll post it here too:

There are no age restrictions for the Scratch@MIT conference. But the conference is intended primarily for people (such as teachers and researchers) who are interested in discussing ways to help other people learn with Scratch. For example, the conference will include presentations on new ways to introduce Scratch in school classrooms, and discussions of what people learn when they create with Scratch.

If you are interested in discussing these types of issues, then we encourage you to register for and come to the conference (regardless of your age). But if you're mostly interested in creating and playing with Scratch (not discussing Scratch), you probably won't enjoy this conference. We look forward to offering other ways to participate in the future, and welcome your suggestions. Scratch on!

I hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any other questions!

I LOVE SCRATCH ITS SO AWESOME IM AM ADDICTED IM ON 24/7 ONCE I WAKE UP I CHECK MY MESSAGES AND EVERY TIME I GET IM ON SCRATCH IM GONNA TRY TO GET TO THE CONFERENCE

Im gonna try to get there

cool! an actual chance to meet the scratchers you met on this site. (If they come anyway) I will have to talk to my parents for this one but STELLAR!

Don't you have to pay to get into the meeting . . . That's what I see at least (?).

Robin7 wrote:

Why don't you have a kids' track at the conference? Many of us kids have worked together virtually and it would be great to meet in person, and the Scratch staff would be able to observe and talk with kids who use the program. You could have a room with several computers set up so people could use Scratch and work together. You could invite some of the best (kid) scratchers to give 15 minute talks on how they solved a programming problem or invented a new Scratch technique.

What do you think?

Thank you for your question and suggestion! A similar suggestion/question was proposed in another thread, and our response was:

It's wonderful to read the ideas on how young people could participate in the conference. We are excited for Scratchers of all ages to share their ideas, stories, and experiences with one another, and we encourage people to submit proposals for youth-led and mixed-age sessions.

Please note that we will not provide any type of special supervision for young people at the conference. So young people should be accompanied by parents, teachers, or other adult guardians.

Does that answer your question?

kevin_karplus wrote:

No, I don't think it does answer the question.  People weren't asking for supervision, but for a place to gather and share scratch excitement with other kids.  There's a big difference between presenting your ideas to other kids and having to do a presentation to a roomful of unknown adults.  The kids were asking for a place (preferably with scratch-equipped computers), where they could show things to each other.

I don't know if you've had a chance to look at the conference proposals page, but we are inviting proposals for several different types of sessions, not just presentations. We welcome everyone, including young people, to submit proposals for all three types of sessions. In particular, the workshop-type session could be appropriate for the type of activity Robin7 proposes. In addition to official sessions at Scratch@MIT, there will be spaces where conference participants can get together and show Scratch projects to one another, or work on projects together. But we do not plan to set up spaces specifically for youth participants; rather, the spaces will be for all conference participants.

The point regarding supervision was meant to clarify that there will be no explicit supervision provided by the conference. We invite proposals from conference attendees who are interested in organizing sessions for young people (like you suggested in the other thread). Of course, we love the idea of members of the Scratch community sharing their excitement and enthusiasm, and we hope to provide more opportunities for this in the future.