Tag Archives: scratch

This is the first installment of a series featuring the winners of the 2013 National STEM Video Game Challenge. Stay tuned for a new profile of each of our student winners each week! We’re not sure if it was Brianna’s drive, clever strategizing, or keen shirt-designing skills that helped her clinch the title of Best Scratch High School game in the National STEM Video Game Challenge, but we’re happy to introduce you to Brianna Igbinosun and to share her game…

Scratch makes it easy to create games using programming blocks that snap together, in the spirit of LEGO bricks. You can customize your Scratch projects by drawing or importing your own images and sounds. Since Scratch was released in 2007, more than a million kids (age 8 and up) have used it to create games, animations, simulations, and many other kinds of programs. Here are a few examples of cool games that young people have created with Scratch — including…

Since my post a couple of weeks ago about Scratch, Meagan Bromley has contributed two really wonderful posts about her work with Gamestar Mechanic and their Online Learning Program where she is currently serving as a mentor/teacher.  Between Gamestar Mechanic, Scratch, Meagan’s posts and mine, one very clear throughline that I see emerging is the value being placed on connectivity within the world of creatively driven educational media. Technology has provided us with a level of connectivity that we have…

When it comes to digital media for kids, there is no lack of options in terms of what kids are consuming. From television, to computer games, to e-books, apps, and so much more, children are consuming media in constantly expanding ways. In such an increasingly crowded digital landscape, it’s important to consider the skills that kids need to successfully navigate and inhabit this world. Now what do I mean by skills? Some people refer to it as “digital literacy,” “21st…

At SCE, we aim to support and influence the emerging world of anywhere, anytime, any-device, access-for-all learning. Our vision, of course, relies heavily on high-quality digital media, and on aiding the people and organizations with the potential to create tomorrow’s innovative digital learning products. But we (and the field) have a problem: No one knows where digital learning’s killer apps will come from. Here is a quick take on potential sources of high-quality digital learning media—which I’ll define (for simplicity’s…