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 Ratings
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| Reviewed: |
Feb 22, 2009 by Teacher Education |
| Overview: |
Scratch is a one stop place for downloading free multimedia software that may be used to create stories, games and animations that include audio clips. Additionally, you can upload your completed projects to share on the Scratch website. The website is funded through a grant project by NSF.
Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create and share Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. |
| Learning Goals: |
The goal of the site is to encourage 21st century learning skills that support creativity, collaborative work efforts, and logical thinking and reasoning. |
| Target Student Population: |
Scratch can used in many different settings: schools, museums, community centers, and homes. It is intended especially for 8- to 16-year-olds, but younger children can work on Scratch projects with their parents or older siblings, and college students use Scratch in some introductory computer science classes. |
| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
Students should have knowledge of basic computer skills including input, drawing, typing and recording audio. However, the program has a good support forum and instructional/tutorial videos to help the user get started on a project. |
| Type of Material: |
Multimedia software that is available for a free download. The website supports projects, galleries, a forum for questions and answers, support page, and webspace where you can upload completed projects.
The software makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art and share these creations on the web. |
| Recommended Uses: |
Educators and student teachers can use Scratch with their students for creating media projects, digital art projects, etc. that can be shared online world wide with others. Opportunities for learning mathematical and computational ideas and demonstrating computer programming skills are clearly evident--and fun. Users are able to design and create on the computer, making it easier to combine graphics, photos, music, and sound into interactive creations. |
| Technical Requirements: |
Scratch runs on Mac OSX 10.4 or later (MacScratch1.3.1 dmg) and Windows 2000, XP, or Vista (ScratchInstaller1.3.1.exe). There is an experimental Linux version available. And if you have an older computer (running Windows 98), try Scratch 1.2.1. |
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| Strengths: |
This software comes to us from MIT and it has been consistently updated and improved as the technology has been updated and improved. The appeal of creating multimedia content that is interactive and then can be posted online for sharing offers opportunities for all subject areas and for third graders through college students to approach their needs in a variety of ways. There are over 32,846 pages of examples of how Scratch has been used in its online gallery. You can sort by newest, featured, top viewed, top loved, top remixed, and a surprise category. There is also a search feature so you can immediately target examples in your subject area for ideas, uses, and ways to apply Scratch in your teaching. |
| Concerns: |
A rating system would be useful within the gallery. Some of the examples are minimal and do not represent the wide range of resources available within the software. |
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Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool |
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| Strengths: |
The Scratch software lives up to the descriptions on the website. The user is able to create multimedia products. This software would enable elementary, middle and high school students to create a multimedia product and then showcase their project on the Scratch website. Teachers will appreciate this software as well as the support materials available on the website. Learning assignments can easily be written to provide students with opportunities to express themselves creatively using the Scratch software. Once the software is installed on your computer, it takes only minutes to visually understand how the process works. Students will catch on to this quickly. |
| Concerns: |
None. |
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Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty |
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| Strengths: |
The online site is clearly labeled and easy to navigate. Downloading the software is easy and is clearly marked. The support materials and tutorials available on the website permit the user to learn the software and begin projects with ease. The software interface is very clean, color-coded and available in many, many languages. Information is clearly labeled and easy to see. The help link on the software takes you directly to the online site, but a Scratch reference manual is also available as a pdf. Within the software you can easily drag and drop jpgs, and gifs from your desktop so content can really be customized to your particular teaching situation or project. |
| Concerns: |
None. |
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