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Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

scratch.mit.edu

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Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#231

Post by brw12 »

thesausageking wrote: post #101

My 8 yo loves Scratch. She's made over 30 apps with it and has had a great time. However, now that she's reached the limits of what it can do, I have been frustrated that there isn't a natural place for her to graduate to. And Scratch does get really limited quickly. There are unofficial forks like SheepTester's one which let you drop JavaScript into Scratch projects, but they're not easy to use. We've failed a few t…

[I was an engineer at Scratch for 4 years]

The "what do we do after Scratch" question is tricky! There's no super clear answer (and a big market opportunity!)

It is important for people getting deeper into programming to learn a text-based language. But I do want to say that you don't need to stop using Scratch -- lots of adults use it, and it's really great for many things... e.g., this memory portrait of my mother sewing when I was young https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/646805603

Several comments here have hit on the visual UI as an element of Scratch that other languages don't have as readily.

Another element is the sharable context: you can make a Scratch project with others' enjoyment in mind; your project doesn't have to have another purpose besides being fun to play with.

So for moving on to other programming languages, I think the key is to identify compelling projects and to find (or build) small communities which will use those projects.

E.g.:

* sites like replit and Glitch and Github Pages and val.town where the whole idea is to make a small program (or piece of a program), publish it instantly, share it with others and remix others' programs

* making a choose your own adventure-style or Zork-style text game

* Advent of Code https://adventofcode.com provides a massive multiplayer experience where you know you're solving the same project as thousands of other people

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#232

Post by nrjames »

As a parent who used Scratch with their kids... it all started out great and then veered into being an unregulated social media network lacking any ability to create a space where they could build and learn to code in private. It wasn't long before they were doing it only for the likes and, without constant supervision, trying to figure out how to join various groups and challenges simply for the attention they would receive.

I really like the idea of Scratch, but I feel like parents and teachers who use it in the classroom should have a way to create for their kids accounts that are not part of the community aspects of the tool. Kids don't need to be doing anything online for "likes" at the age of 8 or 9.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#233

Post by brw12 »

plttn wrote: post #218
cgk wrote: post #83

Full disclosure: Principal Software Engineer here on the Scratch backend... Scratch is not built to be a "teach your kid programming languages" system, it is based on the work and ideas of the Life Long Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab (the director of this group is Professor Mitch Resnick, the LEGO, Papert Professor of Learning Research). The Papert part is where the term Mindstorms comes from ( https://www.a…

Remembering back to when I was a kid, Scratch was absolutely fantastic, and definitely helped me put me on the path I am today. Fantastic work. With that said (and apologies on using the power of HN here), I've been trying to get in touch with Scratch support to have an old account of mine deleted, but I can't ever seem to get a reply. Would you happen to know who to get in touch with, other than the contact form?

[I was an engineer at Scratch for 4 years]

My suggestion is to try using the contact form again. Sorry that isn't more helpful.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#234

Post by askvictor »

yalogin wrote: post #50

Folks here who used scratch with their kids, what is the next step after scratch? How did you introduce a language/platform to your kid? I have introduced python and my kid is able to pick it up, but am unable to come up with projects that sustain interest. It feels dry without UI and one shouldn't be doing web dev with python too. So what is the progression for python and kids?

MakeCode is pretty amazing. Options for it are the micro:bit, an 8-bit arcade system, or Minecraft. Switches between block-programming and Python or Javascript, so you have an easy path to text programming.

For 'real' programming, once they have their python chops, have a look at https://anvil.works

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#235

Post by askvictor »

teucris wrote: post #45
cyrialize wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other platforms similar to Scratch actually teach Python! They start off with drag and drop coding and then Python. The Python is actually pretty fun, you write code to make animals move around and get stars.

Which platforms are you referring to?

Not OP, but Makecode does this.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#236

Post by insane_dreamer »

ptd wrote: post #216
insane_dreamer wrote: post #212

My favorite language for teaching kids to code and which I taught my daughter starting around 9 or 10, is Ruby. Expressive syntax, easy to read, good introduction to objects. Her first real program was a treasure hunt game in the terminal, using classes, inheritance, methods, and conditionals, etc. It didn't have the cute graphics side of things, but she learned all the concepts well (she now has a degree in engineer…

Does she like her job? I only ask because you specified comp in a way that suggested that is what is most important to you(and her).

Good question. She actually got a degree in chemical engineering not CS, but then switched over to fulltime software dev at her company a couple of years out of school as she liked that more -- so yeah, I would say so.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#237

Post by keithjl »

thesausageking wrote: post #101

My 8 yo loves Scratch. She's made over 30 apps with it and has had a great time. However, now that she's reached the limits of what it can do, I have been frustrated that there isn't a natural place for her to graduate to. And Scratch does get really limited quickly. There are unofficial forks like SheepTester's one which let you drop JavaScript into Scratch projects, but they're not easy to use. We've failed a few t…

I'd make a case for any node-based scripting language in 3D modeling software. Blender or Grasshopper for Rhino comes to mind. Benefit of Grasshopper is that there are convenient Python or C# nodes for you to write scripts that can't be expressed through nodes (IE loops); downside is that it is paid software (although not subscription based!!).

For architecture/design students, Grasshopper is usual their first introduction to programming and algorithmic thinking, and many students become fantastic programmers by extension.

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#238

Post by 123pie123 »

cgk wrote: post #83

Full disclosure: Principal Software Engineer here on the Scratch backend... Scratch is not built to be a "teach your kid programming languages" system, it is based on the work and ideas of the Life Long Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab (the director of this group is Professor Mitch Resnick, the LEGO, Papert Professor of Learning Research). The Papert part is where the term Mindstorms comes from ( https://www.a…

>"Scratch is not built to be a "teach your kid programming languages"

You might want to change the wikipedia page that describes you to the whole world

(from the first line of wikipedia)> Scratch is a high-level block-based visual programming language and website aimed primarily at children as an educational tool for programming, with a target audience of ages 8 to 16.

I would say scratch is a brilliant first language for children

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#239

Post by zem »

cgk wrote: post #83

Full disclosure: Principal Software Engineer here on the Scratch backend... Scratch is not built to be a "teach your kid programming languages" system, it is based on the work and ideas of the Life Long Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab (the director of this group is Professor Mitch Resnick, the LEGO, Papert Professor of Learning Research). The Papert part is where the term Mindstorms comes from ( https://www.a…

scratch seems like a good candidate to be the next flash, in the sense of an authoring tool that makes it easy to create and share little games. do you have any theories as to why scratch games haven't taken off the way flash games did back in the day?

Re: Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children

#240

Post by nwinter »

123pie123 wrote: post #153
thesausageking wrote: post #101

My 8 yo loves Scratch. She's made over 30 apps with it and has had a great time. However, now that she's reached the limits of what it can do, I have been frustrated that there isn't a natural place for her to graduate to. And Scratch does get really limited quickly. There are unofficial forks like SheepTester's one which let you drop JavaScript into Scratch projects, but they're not easy to use. We've failed a few t…

my kids really like CodeCombat https://codecombat.com/

Thanks for the mention! We are working on a side-by-side blocks-and-code mode with two-way sync that should be pretty good for this.
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