K. Peppler, A. Diazgranados, D. Fields, Y. Kafai
2nd Graders and students taking part in an after-school club utilized Scratch to design games and then engaged in critical evaluation of theirs and others’ games.
By using Scratch and game design as a context, students created video games and then engaged in evaluation of each others’ work. Students created their own rubric for evaluation that utilized language specific to Scratch and game design in general. Students eventually learned how to not only provide an evaluation (with the rubric as a guide) but also began to offer support for their position. The 2nd grade math was integrated in the use of classroom response systems and and interactive white boards.
Another group of students utilized Scratch’s social-network-oriented project sharing feature that allows people to share their projects in a YouTube-stye format. The evaluation in this instance provided by the social network. “Friending, commenting, and browsing” of Scratch projects on Scratchr developed. Students in this group also utilized “remixing,” or taking others’ projects and re-designing or modifying them. Ultimately, students began expanding beyond their own network to find projects and contacts.
Scratch is available for free download at: http://scratch.mit.edu
Quotes:
“Students are creative and always giving you data. As a teacher, I am both educator and researcher.” – Alicia Diazgranados
“Students like to have fun. Did you notice that?” – Alicia Diazgranados
-Lucas