Homework 11.2. Scratching (Not Itching).

At the start of this project, I had no idea what I was doing. I had effectively zero experience with Scratch, and when I first logged on, I spent a solid few minutes clicking on the Scratch Cat and wondering why he wasn't doing anything. To say that I was a beginner may have even been giving me too much credit.

Thankfully, the Scratch interface is extremely intuitive, and with the help of a few tutorials, I was able to figure out the basics fairly quickly! I saw one game where a colorful series of sprites would follow your mouse across the page, and I was inspired to create something where users could similarly mark up the canvas of Scratch. 

However, because I was so new to the program, I really wanted to figure out how to do all of this on my own. I know that copying code is a significant aspect of the coding process and community, both within this and other systems, and I think in the future I will utilize and explore this further, but for now I really wanted to just dive in and play around. I also wanted to create my own sprite, which was really fun! 

Once I got going, I found the whole process to be pretty straightforward, and was essentially able to "discover" everything that I wanted to do by playing around with the different options and controls. Even when I was trying to figure out certain things that I wanted to do, like give users the option to clear the screen, and ran into some snags, I was able to eventually figure out that I was using the wrong control, because I was trying to affect an action of the "Pen" tool, always color-coded in green, and had been using actions that were purple. 

The only thing I really really struggled with was figuring out how to get the music to loop- it took me forever! When I had it within the same string of code, it was messing up all of my other actions, and I was completely at a loss for what else to do! Eventually, I figured out that I just needed to create a separate string of code specifically for that command. Finally getting it to work was possibly the most satisfying moment of my week. I cheered. Literally. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this process, and would love to continue to explore Scratch! I would definitely utilize this program within the classroom, and think that it is an extremely accessible and user-friendly way to approach coding for the first time. I think I would start out by giving kids simple prompts, just to get them thinking about the system; I like the idea of asking them to create a game! 

Initially, as I did with myself, I might ask them to not directly copy other people's code, but to build it themselves, just because I know this process, while sometimes frustrating, really did help me learn a lot! Eventually I would of course talk to them about how people often build on other people's code, which I think could also lead in to an interesting conversation about plagiarism and the appropriation of other's ideas in a way that continues to build upon them and push them forward. 

I think, especially as we continue to move forward in an increasingly digital age, it is really important to teach young children about coding and other new technologies, so that they have a sense of control over these emerging technologies. I think that a big aspect of considering oneself a digital native is not only the ability to utilize digital technology, but also having an understanding of how it works, how it is created, and how you yourself might continue to develop it.

Below: Screenshots from the process of creating my Scratch Program!