Scratch is a visual programming language that is mainly used by children, all over the globe. This visual language it is in the shape of blocks, and it allows its users to create online projects, games, apps, and many other things.
One of the most interesting facts of this visual programming language is the involvement of the community. When someone finishes a project, or whenever a specific user wants to, they share and can discuss their creations with other members of the community. Do you remember when we discussed the importance of teamwork in coding?
Well, community building and initiatives like Scratch put a lot of emphasis on this matter, enabling kids to develop even more skills and abilities through the learning of coding.
MIT and friends working together to allow more kids to learn coding
Scratch was developed by the MIT Media Lab’s Lifelong Kindergarten group, and in partnership with the Playful Invention Company. These organizations, together with Paula Bonta and Brian Silverman developed the first version of Scratch in the early 200’s. This version was only available for desktop usage.
Since the very beginning, Scratch’s purpose was to help children to learn how to code. Joining the same mindset and goal of big starts like Seymour Papert and Hadi Partovi.
The benefits of learning with a visual language and within a community of programmers
We all know that coding will open the doors to a successful future for our kids and that if they don’t learn how to code today it will be even harder and more challenging to join the workforce of the years to come.
Therefore, initiatives like Scratch, that were created in a friendly and colorful way are an amazing way for our kids to start developing important skills such as computational thinking, algorithmic logic, problem-solving and creativity.
You might be interested in: Scratch programming course for kids
The benefits don’t stop there, there’s much more to add. By being part of a community of makers and creators, our kids will be able to receive all of the feedback they need to strengthen their developments, to listen to others who might have faced similar issues in the past and to work hard on another important ability for the 21st Century: Teamwork.
Work with blocks to surprise the world!
You’d be surprised to learn how easy it is to program by using Scratch’s blocks. With a very user-friendly interface, and with attractive colors, Scratch’s founders created the ideal platform to begin the process of learning how to code.
Then, passing to a programming language like Java, C++, or even Python will be a way more natural process for our beloved little pupils.
We must mention the amazing kind of projects kids (and anyone who uses Scratch) can build within the community. It will be easy to create breathtaking effects in our technophobic grandparents with the outstanding creations our kids can do only by putting a few colorful blocks together in Scratch.
The time is now. Our kids can change the world: Give them the chance to do so through coding!
We incorporate many of the amazing elements the MIT and the Playful Invention Company found when first developing Scratch back in the early 2000s. Like us, many companies have been inspired by this amazing way to approach the learning of code: Snap, Tynker, and even Google, among others, have implemented this sort of visual programming language to encourage more kids to learn how to code.
The invitation is to join this positive and amusing revolution. Our kids have an amazing possibility to lead tomorrow’s world, and this can be possible only by giving them the tools they need to do so.
Make them join one of our online and live coding classes, and prepare yourself to be surprised with the phenomenal things they will create. Check out our online courses today.
