CREATIVE COMPUTING IS ABOUT CREATIVITY :
Computer science and computing-related fields have long been introduced to young people in a way that is disconnected from their interests and values – emphasizing technical detail over creative potential. Creative computing supports the development of personal connections to computing, by drawing upon creativity, imagination, and interests.
CREATIVE COMPUTING IS ABOUT EMPOWERMENT :
Many young people with access to computers participate as consumers, rather than designers or creators. Creative computing emphasizes the knowledge, practices, and fundamental literacies that young people need to create the types of dynamic and interactive computational media that they enjoy in their daily lives.
WHAT IS SCRATCH
There are many different tools that can be used for creative computing. In this course, we use Scratch, which is a free computer programming language developed by researchers at the MIT Media Lab. With Scratch, people can create a wide variety of interactive media projects – animations, stories, games, and more – and share those projects with others in an online community. Since Scratch’s launch in May 2007, hundreds of thousands of people all around the world have created and shared more than 6 million projects.
WHAT IS THIS COURSE
This course is a collection of ideas, strategies, and activities for an introductory creative computing experience using the Scratch programming language. The activities are designed to support familiarity and increasing fluency with computational creativity and computational thinking. In particular, the activities encourage exploration of key computational thinking concepts (sequence, loops, parallelism, events, conditionals, operators, data) and key computational thinking practices (experimenting and iterating, testing and debugging, reusing and remixing, abstracting and modularizing).
WHO IS THIS COURSE FOR
No matter your current context or prior experience, this guide was designed with a wide range of learners and educators in mind. Here are a few examples of who might use the guide and how they might use it:
- Scratch is being used in thousands of elementary, middle-school, and high-school classrooms around the world. The guide can be used in its entirety as a semester-long computing course, or selectively as part of other curricular areas. Many educators introduce creative computing as an after-school or lunch-time program, using the activities as inspiration and scaffolding for students’ open-ended explorations.
- Parents can use the guide in a wide range of ways. From supporting homeschooling activities, to starting creative computing clubs at school, to hosting workshops at local community centers, parents are encouraged to think about how to use the guide to support the creative computing experiences of young learners.
- Scratch can serve as an introduction to fundamental computational concepts and practices, often followed by a transition to more traditional text-based programming languages in computer science courses. For example, the CS50 course at Harvard University uses Scratch as an introductory programming experience before transitioning to the C programming language. The activities have also been used as part of education, art, and media literacy courses at the college level.
- Over the past seven years since Scratch’s launch, young learners have been passionate advocates for creative computing in a variety of settings. From introducing their parents and teachers to programming, to creating learning opportunities for their peers, creative computing can be something that is done with them or by them, rather than just for them.
WHAT DO YOU LEARN IN THIS COURSE
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GETTING STARTED
Prepare for the culture of creative computing by exploring possibilities and setting up technical infrastructure (e.g., creating Scratch accounts, starting design journals) and social infrastructure (e.g., establishing critique groups). Dive into an initial creative experience by making something “surprising” happen to a Scratch character.
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EXPLORING
Get comfortable with the key computational concept of sequence through a series of activities that provide varying levels of structure – from a step-by-step tutorial, to a creative challenge using a limited number of blocks, to open-ended explorations through making a project about yourself.
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ANIMATIONS
Play with visuals and audio in these activities focused on animation, art, and music. Explore Scratch’s focus on media – and the key computational concepts of loops, events, and parallelism – by building your own band, designing animated creatures, and creating a music video for a favorite song.
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STORIES
Create new interactive worlds through collaborative storytelling. Begin by developing characters, learning to code conversations, and then situating those characters and conversations in shifting scenes. Combine characters, conversations, and scenes in a larger story project that is passed along to other creators to further develop – and possibly reimagine entirely!
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GAMES
Connect fundamental game mechanics such as score and levels to key computational concepts, such as variables, operators, and conditionals. Analyze your favorite games, imagine new ones, and practice game design by implementing (and extending) classic games, like Pong.