Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The Benefits of Scratch

Ideas borrowed from "Design Principles for Tools to Support Creative Thinking" by Mitchel Resnick of MIT`s Media Lab.

Our exercises with the Scratch software are beneficial to creating a productive learning environment because it provides a low threshold, high ceilings, and wide walls.

What does this mean?

A learning tool that has a low threshold makes it easy for novices to get started.

Likewise, a learning tool that has a high ceiling allows more advanced users to create elegant, sophisticated, and powerful projects.

"The low threshold means that the interface should not be intimidating, and should give users immediate confidence that they can succeed. The high ceiling means that the tools are powerful and can create sophisticated, complete solutions."

Additionally, software that has wide walls presents tools that support and suggest a wide range of explorations. In other words, the software should allow the user to create projects from their own imaginations, not hindered or grossly influenced by the software itself.

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