Scratch is an educational programming language, created by MIT, that is designed to allow those who don’t have much experience with programming to be able to develop the concepts of a full programming language. It allows you to create stories, music, art, animations, games, and more via a very easy to use visual interface. This is especially popular and useful among educators for use in the classroom with young children. It can help them learn more about mathematical and computational ideas while learning to think more creatively, reason more effectively, and work collaboratively.

I’ve been hearing a lot about this and similar programming languages lately. It seems like an extremely good idea which could get children involved with practical tools and building things at a young age – while allowing them to have fun while doing it. Actually, it may not be just for young children; I recently came across an article where young people were teaching older people how to program with scratch. Check out the article here: Easy Blend of old and new (harvard.edu).

Scratch seems like a really interesting concept which can have really interesting educational benefits. There could be other practical benefits to the concept behind Scratch, such as the idea of a visual programming language designed to create full-featured applications. Such a thing actually exists in the form of Google App Inventor for the Android platform! It seems like an extremely cool idea, because it provides everyone with the ability to create their own software. It seems that Google App Inventor is invite only… If I get accepted into the program, I’ll be posting an informal review on here!