You’ve seen it installed on our lab computers and you may even have clicked to see what it does – the happy cat running from one side of the screen to the other.

It’s Scratch (from MIT). I went to a session this afternoon to explore it and built a calculator as well as a digital story. It’s like coding with LEGO blocks. You can make a simple program or a complex one, your imagination determines the complexity. The nice part is you don’t have to learn a new language (although you will be tempted to once you start this program) to use Scratch because MIT has already done that for you.

I’m going to be offering an iLearn session on it but you don’t have to wait until then to check it out. Challenge yourself and see what you can create. Note: you must be 13 years of age to sign up for the online creator.