![]() ![]() ![]() “We recognize how children learn is important, and it is not equitable,” Young says, noting that teachers tend to focus on the “what” - the reading, writing and arithmetic - rather than on how that impacts children’s enthusiasm, interest areas and potential career paths. Scratch also did a recent outreach to kids with an American Sign Language tutorial to expand creative opportunities in coding for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. From 40 organizations the first year, there are now 91, with representation from over 20 countries. The nonprofit also partners with community organizations around the world in the Scratch Education Collaborative, to make learning available to students in traditionally underrepresented communities. Scratch is free, supported by funders including the LEGO Foundation, AT&T and Google. “If you want to address inequity, start by not having barriers that are financial.” “We want kids to have this learning experience that is highly accessible and engaging and not limited to certain socioeconomic backgrounds,” says Young. The nonprofit foundation operates the online platform with the goal of opening coding opportunities to a more diverse demographic. It is based on this idea of yes, you are learning, developing computational skills, but at the heart of the work you are really having fun and creating something you care about.” “Kids just enjoy it, it is fun,” says Shawna Young, the Scratch Foundation’s executive director. With simple-to-use block-style coding, users - dubbed Scratchers - can create their own projects, whether digital stories, games or animations, and share that within the community. For ages 5 to 7, Scratch Junior can be used even by children who may not be able to read. The original program, designed for kids 8 to 16, was intended for use outside of school, but the software - which teaches coding but has plenty of academic skills built in - has been heavily adopted by schools and educators. So, it follows that Scratch’s approach to summer learning loss is a multi-week online camp in July and August that invites all students to build interaction, with both coding and one another.Ĭreated 15 years ago as part of a MIT project to introduce less clunky software for kids to learn coding, Scratch has over 42 million active users across 200 countries, with an average age of 12. The MIT-born nonprofit makes it easy for students to understand the backbone behind coding, but the users also become part of an online community designed to inspire others with a wide-reaching audience. Scratch, the world’s largest coding platform for children, takes a peer-focused approach to engaging young people of all backgrounds. Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. ![]()
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