Scratch

[Espada]

Awesome, I found this through the BBC news site. It simplifies programming/control for kids. Perfect for KS3. Show this to your Head of ICT, they will love it because the kids will love it.

It is called Scratch and it allows the user to make people dance etc... Oh and most importantly, it is free.

http://scratch.mit.edu/

[Geoff]

Also consider:

Alice
Hacketyhack

[DSapseid]

thanks espada i spent about 1/2 hour yesterday searching for that after seeing it on bbc news and couldnt find it.

[jumpinjamez]

The site crashes after being seen on the news websites.

going to have an envaluate (play) with this in the afternoon.

[TechMonkey]

Just a warning. Packaged this up and it uses a proprietry file dialogue box so lots of drives are available (including C: even though they can't see C: normally) and the default save path is to a projects folder in Program Files!

[mark]

Just a warning. Packaged this up and it uses a proprietry file dialogue box so lots of drives are available (including C: even though they can't see C: normally) and the default save path is to a projects folder in Program Files!

Nooooooooo

[Halfmad]

Just a warning. Packaged this up and it uses a proprietry file dialogue box so lots of drives are available (including C: even though they can't see C: normally) and the default save path is to a projects folder in Program Files!

I won't be installing it anytime soon then !

[Geoff]

Or, you could file a bug report/feature request...

[Espada]

Just a warning. Packaged this up and it uses a proprietry file dialogue box so lots of drives are available (including C: even though they can't see C: normally) and the default save path is to a projects folder in Program Files!

I noticed this as well and had concerns there but the students cannot open any files using it other than ones the program handles. Also whilst a few of my students tried saving to C: they never succeeded.

I did this today with my bottom set year 10s who would mess around if they were on Internet games (which they don't get to do) and they were 100% on task for the entire lesson. They even required very little input from me as it is so easy to pick up. Just a bit of praise saying how good their work was.

[mighty.grey.eagle]

One of my colleagues started using this program with a Year 9 group a couple of months back as a one lesson "filler". Now they are continually asking to go back to it! Gave the group their own course on our Moodle where they could add programs of their own, add to a WIKI with ideas, etc. The ultimate in learning through play.

[TechMonkey]

Just a warning. Packaged this up and it uses a proprietry file dialogue box so lots of drives are available (including C: even though they can't see C: normally) and the default save path is to a projects folder in Program Files!

I noticed this as well and had concerns there but the students cannot open any files using it other than ones the program handles. Also whilst a few of my students tried saving to C: they never succeeded.

I did this today with my bottom set year 10s who would mess around if they were on Internet games (which they don't get to do) and they were 100% on task for the entire lesson. They even required very little input from me as it is so easy to pick up. Just a bit of praise saying how good their work was.

Have to say I saw a list of every drive and could get in to folders and stopped right there. Doesn't sound as bad as it could be but I'm still not sure I want them wandering around drives we have restricted access to. On the Scratch forum someone else has found that hidden folders aren't hidden in the Scratch interface so there is something really screwy with the file interaction. Also I would really like the default to be able to be changed to the My Documents for saving rather than the Program Files folder. You just know there will be a hardcore that will always save there without realising it and lose their work every week!

[TechMonkey]

Could someone with a Mac or LInux setup try out Scratch and see if it access locked down or hidden network drives on those platforms?

It could be that OSX and Linux don't do it this way but on our Windows set up we have only a: and a shared network drive available for users to see, but there is actually various other drives there (such as c: ) they just can't see them. I would love to know whether if either of these platforms do anything similar and if Scratch bypasses this mechanism.

Banging my head against a brick wall on the Scratch forums trying to sort this problem. Apparently it's all the systems admins fault for having rubbish security and we are all clueless. Close to losing my rag and just dumping the software which would be a shame.

[CyberNerd]

Have just tried this. Scratch does *not* see hidden directories in linux. ( I ran scratch using squeak and then wine ). In another thread, Geoff suggested prefixing windows 'hidden' folders with a "dot" so that gtk apps don't see the hidden bits. Would mean re-nameing c:\winnt c:\.winnt etc. (I not tried this)

[TechMonkey]

Have just tried this. Scratch does *not* see hidden directories in linux. ( I ran scratch using squeak and then wine ). In another thread, Geoff suggested prefixing windows 'hidden' folders with a "dot" so that gtk apps don't see the hidden bits. Would mean re-nameing c:\winnt c:\.winnt etc. (I not tried this)

Thanks for that.

Surely that woudl kill windows though as every reference to winnt would be wrong!

How about any security set up to stop users seeing whole drives? Is that possible to test or even do?

[OutToLunch]

If your file permissions are set up right, surely it doesn't matter what they can see? Regardless of what magic dialogue it provides for viewing things, it's still running under their user and Windows will still hold the app and any file handles it opens to their permissions...