Hello Everyone!!
This article (like all of the articles for the week) talks about the computer based program "Scratch". We were introduced to this program in class this week and I have to say that it is probably the most entertaining website that we have visited so far. In the article it attempts to justify why "Scratch" would be a helpful tool for kids from anykind of background to learn about technology, and also give them a fun way to put together educational slides. For a majority of the article it went over the details that we learned in class, i.e. "What is a Sprite", where the background is located, and what kind of things the background can accomplish for the sprites. It also described the certain motions, and vocal entities that these sprites will be able to do when given certain commands.
As the title of the article suggests a majority of its focus consisted of data from after school programs who adopted the "Scratch" website, and gave their students a chance to explore the websites themselves. The pool that the data was taken out of was from a very urban school program where all of the kids were either African American or Latino. I am an after school alumnus, and currently am working at an after school program through the YMCA. I can honestly say that this idea of introducing "Scratch" to Urban youth is an amazing idea, because having worked with Urban youth for the last 5 years I can say that they lack an understanding of technological awareness in the school setting. It was also a good move to test this out with the Urban youth, because if these kids can understand and follow what "Scratch" has to offer than a majority of the other kids can also follow the website. If there is one thing that I have heard from my kids in the past is that they yearn for educational tools that is entertaining, and is in their entire control. This is essentially what "Scratch" is, because it allows kids to learn at a rate that is entertaining and caters to their educational preference. Sometimes the perfect way to educate kids is to let them learn from "unconventional ways" and this is a great example of that.
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI think this article brings up a pretty cool idea. I appreciate the fact that there data was taken from studies with urban after school programs. Rather than test "Scratch" with students that are not struggling, which would obviously skew the numbers, they went after the most real picture of how students would use the program. There are some interesting possibilities with this program and it's cool to see that kids are responding to it.
-Collin