I'm interested to find out how to get a whole class of kids to use Scratch with Cloud. ie as scratchers.

If I wanted to demonstrate the use of the cloud using scratch, do I need to have the whole class constantly posting messages and waiting for a couple of weeks?

I can't see this as being viable as some kids would be more interested than others.

I'd appreciate any feedback…

Thanks

What specifically are you trying to use Scratch for that requires your students to have the Scratcher status? Most of the site's functions, including posting projects, are available without it.

It would be nice to be able to demonstrate to a class how to use a cloud variable.

Specifically, if we could show them how one computer can talk to another, and then let them try it out themselves.

I was looking at Mesh, and got really excited, then realized it wasn't available.

gleachman wrote:

It would be nice to be able to demonstrate to a class how to use a cloud variable.

Specifically, if we could show them how one computer can talk to another, and then let them try it out themselves.

I was looking at Mesh, and got really excited, then realized it wasn't available.

Perhaps you could demonstrate cloud variables with a couple of Scratcher accounts and then your students could explore it further when they get full Scratcher status with their own accounts?

Currently, cloud variable usage is restricted to full Scratcher accounts as we are still exploring the moderation aspects of shared variable spaces - it presents some interesting and difficult challenges. I'm not making any promises, but it's possible that that decision could be revisited as we gain more experience and develop better moderation tools. It's helpful to hear about your particular situation - thanks for bringing it up

Even if we had just a few say 5 accounts, we could put kids in groups to work on, and they could see the results.

Unfortunately that still means we have to have 5 accounts that become Scratcher accounts.

Apart from creating 5 new accounts stmStudent01 .. stmStudent05 and me daily having to post comments here, and make apps for each one, it doesn't make planning a class very easy for the teacher when you have to rely on all students having been given Scratcher status.

I appreciate your taking an interest in this post.

A teacher/pupil setup might be useful. A category of member who could only login when the class teacher had approved them. A bit of a pain in coming up with a way to have teachers identify themselves for this on a system. Not sure how that would work.

My thanks.

gleachman wrote:

Even if we had just a few say 5 accounts, we could put kids in groups to work on, and they could see the results.

Unfortunately that still means we have to have 5 accounts that become Scratcher accounts.

Apart from creating 5 new accounts stmStudent01 .. stmStudent05 and me daily having to post comments here, and make apps for each one, it doesn't make planning a class very easy for the teacher when you have to rely on all students having been given Scratcher status.

I appreciate your taking an interest in this post.

A teacher/pupil setup might be useful. A category of member who could only login when the class teacher had approved them. A bit of a pain in coming up with a way to have teachers identify themselves for this on a system. Not sure how that would work.

My thanks.

You can always contact the Scratch Team about it.

@turkey3_test; One of the ScratchTeam have already shown an interest in this thread.

Perhaps if enough teachers spot this thread, they might highlight it

You might want to try asking the folks over at ScratchEd for advice. It's likely that someone there has already found a way to deal with this issue.