Scratch [1] is a free programming tool developed at MIT in the USA and
aimed at children / young people with the view to teaching basic
programming skills and ideas.
The software is available for Linux, Apple Macs and Windows. It also
comes with the Raspberry Pi computer [2] which I wrote about a while back.
The software is simple to use, a drag and drop interface is provided so
you can drag script components (a script is a set of instructions) from
various categories on to the central are and upon pressing a green flag,
you can see the results straight away.
You can create games, animations, story boards etc. Scratch is great as
it is aimed at children so is simple to use, user friendly but more
importantly does teach the basic skills required for programming, for
example sequences of instructions and logic.
There several books available for learning scratch. As well as an
excellent forum on the scratch website where you can ask for help. You
can also share your work with the community and link up with friends so
they can download and look at what you have done and even modify and
re-upload.
Scratch is also used as the primary teaching tool for Codeclub which is
an after school club scheme to teach programming to children. Scratch is
also used in Primary schools, so please ask your teacher if your school
has this.
References
[2] http://www.raspberrypi.org/.
[3] http://www.codeclub.org.uk/
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