Discuss Scratch

StuartMaher
Scratcher
1 post

Scratch in teaching

Hi All,

I am loving the some of the new features, especially the custom blocks (although why can't I create global ones?).

  • With the move to an online system, which is a move I like, Can I make some suggestions to allow this to become an even more excellent teaching tool. It would be good if we could register as teachers and then create “pupil” accounts. Then have some back end magicery that links the student/teacher accounts so I can push out scratch projects to them, and see in their “stuff” to mark their work.
  • An even better idea would be to go a step further and have a “Classroom” where common projects and resources can be saved.
  • Lastly, something I suggested in the 1.4 forums is the ability to limit what blocks can be used for a given task and create read only code blocks (so they can still read and learn from the script) so in challenges I can set obstacles to their solutions they have to design around (and not just delete!).

Thank you for everything you have put in scratch. I still count it by far the best first point teaching tool in programming.

Stu

Last edited by StuartMaher (Feb. 25, 2013 14:23:29)

Lightnin
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Scratch in teaching

StuartMaher wrote:

Hi All,

I am loving the some of the new features, especially the custom blocks (although why can't I create global ones?).

  • With the move to an online system, which is a move I like, Can I make some suggestions to allow this to become an even more excellent teaching tool. It would be good if we could register as teachers and then create “pupil” accounts. Then have some back end magicery that links the student/teacher accounts so I can push out scratch projects to them, and see in their “stuff” to mark their work.
  • An even better idea would be to go a step further and have a “Classroom” where common projects and resources can be saved.
  • Lastly, something I suggested in the 1.4 forums is the ability to limit what blocks can be used for a given task and create read only code blocks (so they can still read and learn from the script) so in challenges I can set obstacles to their solutions they have to design around (and not just delete!).

Thank you for everything you have put in scratch. I still count it by far the best first point teaching tool in programming.

Stu

Thanks for this feedback! I can tell you that your first point is in the planning stage. It probably won't be ready by the time 2.0 is released, but it'll be something that we hope to get a protoype for out in the months following the release. If you'd like to give feedback on it, keep an eye out on ScratchEd.
iTweak0r
Scratcher
100+ posts

Scratch in teaching

StuartMaher wrote:

Hi All,

I am loving the some of the new features, especially the custom blocks (although why can't I create global ones?).

  • With the move to an online system, which is a move I like, Can I make some suggestions to allow this to become an even more excellent teaching tool. It would be good if we could register as teachers and then create “pupil” accounts. Then have some back end magicery that links the student/teacher accounts so I can push out scratch projects to them, and see in their “stuff” to mark their work.
  • An even better idea would be to go a step further and have a “Classroom” where common projects and resources can be saved.
  • Lastly, something I suggested in the 1.4 forums is the ability to limit what blocks can be used for a given task and create read only code blocks (so they can still read and learn from the script) so in challenges I can set obstacles to their solutions they have to design around (and not just delete!).

Thank you for everything you have put in scratch. I still count it by far the best first point teaching tool in programming.

Stu

I am actually Alpha-testing a website just like that, more news when the new app is finished!

Specs 1 (main): Safari on MacBook Pro; Late 2008; Core 2 Duo @2.4GHz; 8GB 1067MHz DDR3 RAM; Mac OS X 10.10;

Specs 2: Firefox on Lenovo Yoga 13; Core i7 @2.0GHz; 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM;
tri-boots Windows 10 Pro, Mac OS X 10.10, and Ubuntu 14.01 LTS;

All have the latest version of Flash.

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