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Scratch Review

editors choice horizontal
4.5
Outstanding

The Bottom Line

Scratch makes teaching kids programming as easy as putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The coding elements are presented as blocks that snap together, and it helps teach kids to think like coders.

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Pros

  • Gets kids started with programming.
  • Easy and fun introduction to coding.
  • Allows saving and sharing projects with friends.
  • Can download for offline projects.

Cons

  • No mobile access.
  • No bridge to real programming.

Scratch (free) is a Web application that teaches basic programming concepts in a visual way. Designed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is designed for kids from eight to 16 years old, but its easy-to-use interface means anyone can use it to learn how to program. If you are interested in getting your kids to program—or if you are ready to dip your own toe in the coding waters—Scratch is the intro-to-coding Editors' Choice you need to check out.

One caveat is necessary: Scratch will teach you programming concepts—variables, conditionals, and loops—but it won't teach real programming. You won't be able to create Minecraft plugins in Java or single-player JavaScript games after mastering Scratch. What the platform does, and does well, is get you to the point where you can confidently pick up languages such as Python, Java, C, and Objective-C, to build real programs.

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Getting started is as simple as loading the Scratch website using a recent browser (Internet Explorer 7 and later, and most versions of Chrome and Firefox). The site requires Adobe Flash Player version 10.2 or later, as well. Scratch is hard to use on smaller monitors, as it is optimized for 1,024-by-768 screens or larger. If your hardware is too old, or your screen too small, consider using Scratch in offline mode (more on this later).

Learn to Program
When you load the Scratch website, you see galleries of programs created by other users. Click a thumbnail to see a description page, which provides coder-provided information about each program. You can play them, share them, or—best of all—"see inside." This lets you see how the coder created the program. It's a great way to learn how other people program and to pick up tips on how to build things.

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If you're ready to get started, you click the Create link at the top of the screen to enter your own studio or workspace, a gray box to the right. Here you build your programs using coding pieces, each one shaped like a jigsaw puzzle piece and representing a coding element, such as move 10 steps, show, and say "hello!" The pieces are color-coded by type (motion, looks, sound, pen, data, events, control, sensing, operators, and more blocks) and organized by menu. You can connect the pieces in whatever order you want to build your program.

The execution window is a white area, where Scratch, a cat sprite, performs the actions specified by the program. Clicking on a green flag makes the program run, and the cat reacts accordingly. In the screenshot below, the program had the sprite move 10 steps, say "hello," move another 10 steps, and then think "hmm."

Scratch: Coding a Program

Once you've saved the project (for which you need to create an account), you can either keep it private in your account or share it publicly on the Scratch library. There are also options for sharing the project on Facebook and Twitter, as well as embedding it on a website. It would have been nice to have a link that would automatically email the project—but that's a minor quibble, since it's just a matter of copy-pasting the URL into an email.

I really like the fact that you don't have to create an account or log in to create projects in Scratch or play programs other visitors have shared publicly. The only reason you need to create an account is to save your projects. Even then, the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab just wants a username, birth month and year, and a contact email address. If the user is younger than 13, the email address should be the parent's, but, in any case, it's only used for password resets. The birth month and year are not displayed anywhere on the site and are only used by MIT to understand "how people learn with Scratch," according to the site's easy-to-understand privacy policy. The only thing anyone ever sees is your username, as well as whatever information the child enters in the project's description field. (Parents, teach your kids not to post personally identifying information online!)

Plenty of Help
Scratch teaches you programming concepts such as loops and conditionals without getting bogged down by programming terms. There's a built-in tutorial that walks you through the basic concepts, as well as an active discussion forum. There are also PDF cards you can print out with example programs you can use to figure out how to make things.

Scratch is amazingly open-ended and powerful: You're really only limited by your imagination. I've seen projects that took input from a Webcam to let kids wave their hands to move the sprites, and even a fully functional version of the classic arcade game Frogger.

The one thing Scratch doesn't offer, which I wish it did, is a way to make that transition from puzzle-pieces to real programming. Right now, the switchover happens only if you make the effort to find introductory material. Even if it were a series of links to tutorials, encouraging people to take the next step would be nice.

Other Ways to Scratch the Programming Itch
The Scratch website doesn't really work well on iPads, so, if you'd prefer your kids to work on a tablet, I recommend Hopscotch (free), our Editors' Choice for iPad kid-coding apps or Move the Turtle (free), instead. Hopscotch's interface is very similar to Scratch's (with a few limitations, such as the inability to set variables), so it's definitely a viable (and fun) alternative. I have yet to find an Android equivalent, but I am on the lookout for one.

Personally, I would rather have the kids use a laptop or a desktop than a tablet, but everyone has different comfort levels and preferences. If you are concerned about the kids potentially messing up something on your computer, you can always look into Doudou Linux (free) to create a live USB image that they can use to get online.

If you don't want your kids to be online so much, you can also download Scratch Offline Editor (version 2.0 is the latest, but older machines may need to use version 1.4). The version works on Macs, Windows, and some versions of 32-bit Linux. Scratch uses Adobe AIR, so make sure you download and install that first before installing the software. The offline editor looks and acts just like Scratch on the Web, and you can even upload your projects to the online gallery for other people to play.

Demystifying Programming
Like Daisy the Dinosaur for iPad (free) and Move the Turtle, the entire concept behind Scratch is to make programming, fun, approachable, and not intimidating. Whether it's kids or adults who never learned to code, Scratch offers a lot to play with and experiment. At the very least, it will make you think, "I can program! This isn't so hard!" And you might get bitten by the coding bug and want to learn more. With Scratch, you are fully in control of what you want to make and how to build it. So go forth and program!

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About Fahmida Y. Rashid

Fahmida Y. Rashid

Fahmida Y. Rashid is a senior analyst for business at PCMag.com. She focuses on ways businesses can use technology to work efficiently and easily. She is paranoid about security and privacy, and considers security implications when evaluating business technology. She has written for eWEEK, Dark Reading, and SecurityWeek covering security, core Internet infrastructure, and open source. Follow me on Twitter: zdfyrashid

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