Scratch

I took a computer training course (week long) offered by UVIC and IBM last week, the instructors were very nice, very smart, and really just awesome. One of the instuctors, Sarah, showed me a program called Scratch.

There are two reasons I really enjoyed this program. Firstly, I found that it a good introduction to programming, and makes the processes that one goes through while programming easier to understand. I find the visuals aid in learning, and the program itself is very interactive. Secondly, I work with students and I am rather excited to show them this program. I think they will love it, and am hoping that it will get a few of them hooked and that they may find something they might want to consider going into after highschool (ie a computer science program).

Currently, I am going to write a short tutorial on how to develop a pong game and then I plan on sharing it with the kids at work first, and then the students at FRES.

I am hoping that after they develop their own pong games that they will go on to develop different games and projects with scratch.