Many of our teachers know I’m a big fan of the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten Group’s Scratch application for Mac and Windows. Today, I found a new article about the program and how it is transforming education in so many places.
We know students today live in a digital society, but it’s one where communities are forming online and millions of people enjoy the re-use or re-purposing of the content they find.
The Scratch Web site has become a vibrant online community, with people sharing, discussing, and remixing one another’s projects.
When students are working on Scratch projects, meaningful learning takes place. Scratch was designed so that student projects can diverse in nature and personable by the ability to add graphics and sounds students create. The latest version even takes advantage of the cameras built-in to everyone of our computers in Goochland County.
For Scratch to succeed, the language needs to be linked to a community where people can support, collaborate, and critique one another and build on one another’s work. Understanding how to interact within an online community taps into a number of 21st century skills. Scratch helps bring the concept of digital fluency into the lives of students where they can design, create, and remix content that’s ubiquitous and digital.