Saturday May 17 is Scratch Day around the world, as well as at the new Phyrtual Innovation Gym at the Rome Città Educativa (via del Quadraro 102). While children learn to programme at the Robotics Centre (4-5 pm), adults will be able to explore the Fab Lab, the first digital craftsmanship laboratory opened in Rome and based on MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms.
The Scratch lab will be held by Emanuele, a student at the Istituto comprensivo Viale dei Consoli, and young engineer Mohamed Haiba.
Scratch is a new programming language that allows users to create interactive stories, games and animations and share them on the web. Scratch is especially designed for learning and education. The youngest users, whilst creating and sharing projects, develop important design and problem-solving capabilities, creative thinking, systematic reasoning and collaborative work skills.
Scratch specifically addresses children aged 8-16, but can also be used by younger children – and in a variety of contexts: school, museums, computer courses, etc. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. The program is free.
Why is it important to learn how to programme? Here is what Mitchel Resnick, Director of the Lifelong Kindergarten at the MIT Media Lab and inventor of Scratch, has to say:
An analogy between reading and writing is useful. When we learn to read and write, new opportunities open up for us to learn many new things. When we learn to read, we can read to learn. Learning to programme is the same thing. [...]
We don’t only become fluent at reading and writing to become professional writers. Just a few people become professional writers, but knowing how to read and write is essential. Programming is the same thing. Most people will never become computer experts or programmers, but learning how to think creatively, logically and work with others [...] will help everyone in their lives and work.
For further information:
Tullio De Mauro: con il coding il computer diventa creativo (in Italian)
