Community reviews for Scratch

Great tool that requires students give attention to detail. Students love how they have so much input into the finshed product. Some additional actions and ability to interact with backgrounds would be great(I know you can but the programming knowledge level starts getting high).

Scratch is able to engage students in a way that typical school activities cannot. Students are proud of their creations. And this is a very good tool that develops critical thinking and problem solving.

A topic that every student want to learn is programming. Scratch makes that fun, self-paced, and within range of all curious minds.

The new Scratch 2.0 online has some really nice upgrades to the 1.4 download version. Students can create and/or customize their own game or animation assets. Assets ("sprites") are controlled through simple drag and drop blocks of code. All projects shared are shared with a Creative Commons share alike license and can be examined at at the code and asset level, remixing encouraged. A really creative and constructive way to explore copyright issues, especially "transformativeness."

Scratch is both a downloadable media-rich programming software and an active community of young gamers and game developers. Created and hosted by MIT's Lifelong Kindergarten Group, Scratch allows first-time programmers to create and share animation, games, and other interactive media. I know that Scratch was created for children ages 8 to 18 from disadvantaged communities, especially in urban settings. Thus, after trying it with my inner-city youth, I can say it is highly accessible and has a simple user interface, ability to mix different types of media. Also, I loved the fact that it is very appealing for all genders and ethnic backgrounds.

Scratch is a great way to introduce programming to kids. While I wouldn't say it's intuitive, with good instruction kids can be building animations in no time. It does take some time to install Scratch on each machine, but it's worth it!

Scratch is great as a creation tool for both teachers and kids. It gives kids the opportunity to learn the beginnings of the developer world of coding while seeing their success. It also teaches them the process of trial/error well because not everything they create will work exactly as they want it the first time.

Was not expecting the simplicity! We've come a long way since Logo programming. Actually, Scratch is fun and critical thinking is taking place effortlessly - trial and effort gets you going. Adding motion and sound is just the beginning. Scripts are numerous and the "programmable" sprite (characters and objects) choices are sufficient to get students fully engaged in introductory programming, logically choices, and problem-solving without having to learn a programming language. Whether you've been intimated with programming or you're a programming guru, this tool will help any teacher give serious consideration to including the concept of programming within his/her classroom.

Scratch is a great tool for students who are interested in being creators with technology. It allows students to learn some of the logic of programming and learn how to write programs and manipulate objects. Scratch also allows children to create animated stories and games, which can connect with their curriculum and provide another outlet for them to explore a topic or explain an idea. The program also provides a wonderful community where students can share work, get peer feedback, and learn to interact in a larger group of programmers and creators.

Now that version 2.0 has been released, it will be my "go to" application for introducing programming to students of all ages. The new version is completely web based, but operated on Flash (so no iPad). It's drag and drop style of putting together a project makes it simple enough for elementary learners, but also not intimidating to the older students who don't want to seem "dumb" when it comes to computers.