Dr. Inés Friss de Kereki, Professor of Programming in the School of Engineering, presented the paper "Scratch in Computer Science 1" at the "Scratch@MIT" conference organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from July 24 to 26, 2008, in Massachusetts, United States.
Interview with Dr. Inés Friss de Kereki, Professor of Programming in the School of Engineering:
The MIT website defines the term " Scratch" as follows: "It is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art to share on the web."
In 2007, the Department of Programming incorporated Scratch instruction for students in the faculty’s technical and university degree programs. “This application and the analysis of the results were the central themes of the presentation at the Scratch@MIT conference, which took place in July at MIT. In particular, we emphasized a detailed description of how the application works in each class and opportunities for improving Scratch,” noted Dr. Friss de Kereki.
She explained that “in contrast to, and as a complement to,” an experiment conducted at Harvard University, “a set of specific exercises was designed, detailed guides were created that included selected elements of Scratch, and the motivational aspects and final outcomes of the courses were studied.”
- What topics did the conference cover?
- The Scratch@MIT conference covered a variety of topics; in particular, presentations were given on diverse experiences with Scratch, both at the school level and at more advanced levels. Among other activities, there were also discussion sessions on new features to be included in future versions of Scratch, offering a valuable opportunity tospeak one-on-one with the product’s development team. Specific applications were demonstrated, such as Scratch for OLPC (“One Laptop Per Child”), on computers similar to those used in the Ceibal Plan.
The research opportunities arising from the use of Scratch were also analyzed, focusing on aspects such as creativity, algorithmic thinking, cooperation, collaboration, and assessment, among others .
- What was the process that led to MIT accepting your article?
- At the end of last year, the call for papers was announced; I submitted my proposal, and it was accepted.
- What is the topic of the article you presented?
- The Programming Department is constantly focused on seeking out new tools and teaching methods, with the goal of developing alternatives and contributing to the improvement of teaching and learning processes in programming. Within this framework, in 2007, it was decided to evaluate the potential use of the Scratch programming language during the first few weeks of Programming I courses.
Various options for its implementation were analyzed.
In meetings with several teachers, a strategy was decided upon, and a specific implementation plan was designed, which was applied in several groups and systematically evaluated.
This application and the analysis of the results were the central themes of the presentation at the Scratch@MIT conference, which took place in July at MIT. In particular, we focused on providing a detailed description of how the application worked in each class and on opportunities for improving Scratch.
A full paper detailing the entire process and the experiment was accepted for the “Frontiers in Education” (FIE 2008) conference, which will take place in Saratoga Springs, New York, from October 22 to 25. This is one of the two largest international conferences on engineering education held annually. The conference is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE Education Society, the IEEE Computer Society, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and the Educational Research Methods Division (ERM).
- What new insights does the presented work offer?
- Scratch is primarily intended for children and young people. In this case, we are using it with first-semester students in university and technical degree programs, adapting and expanding on an experience developed at Harvard University for similar courses.
- What are the findings of the research?
- Although we did not find any statistically significant differences in the specific results of the students’ work, we did find that student motivation was higher in the groups that used Scratch. This motivation is related in particular to students’ understanding of what programming is and how they view their own learning process.
Starting in 2008, we began offering a Scratch workshop open to all students.
The results and the subsequent discussion with the teachers led to a redefinition of the implementation approach.
Interview published in August 2008.