Scratch+platform+as+a+pathway+to+math+and+programming

Recording
Full Elluminate recording (video, audio, chat).

**About the event**
Wednesday, September 9th we will meet in the LearnCentral public Elluminate room at 6pm Pacific / 9pm Eastern time:[] You can come some half an hour earlier to test the mike, doodle on the white board and otherwise explore the virtual meeting room.

Host: Karen Brennan, MIT Media Lab
 * Creating Interactive Media Content with Scratch to Support Mathematics Learning**

Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu) is a programming language – developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab – that makes it easy to create interactive stories, music, games, art, animations, and simulations. Creating with Scratch is easier than traditional programming languages: you simply snap together graphical blocks, much like LEGO bricks or puzzle pieces. Once you have created a Scratch project, you can then share it with the world on the Scratch website, just as you might share videos on YouTube. A wide range of projects have been shared on the Scratch website, from community narratives to role-playing games to scientific simulations. In the first two years since the website was made public, Scratch has been downloaded more than half a million times – more than 77,000 members have contributed over 520,000 projects, and more than 340,000 members have participated by commenting, tagging, bookmarking, joining galleries, and taking part in discussion forums.

Although Scratch is a powerful tool for learning and experimenting with programming concepts, learning with Scratch extends beyond the ICT classroom. With Scratch, young people have the opportunity to connect their personal interests with design processes, literacy practices, and new learning skills, as well as with specific curriculum content. Scratch has been used to construct a wide variety of mathematics content. I'll share the ways in which Scratch has been used to support mathematics learning through stories of classroom practices and collections of Scratch projects, and how teacher support is being established through ScratchEd (http://scratched.media.mit.edu) - a new online community for Scratch educators.

This event is a part of the ongoing Math 2.0 interest group conversation series. Always-discussed topics:
 * principles of Math 2.0 teaching and learning
 * networks and communities creating social math objects
 * platforms for remote communication of this interest group
 * our projects and collaboration
 * publishing efforts and bibliography

**Karen Brennan**
I am a PhD student in the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. My primary research interest is the development of technologies to support communities of practice, particularly the case of supporting educators working with Scratch. I am also interested in curriculum development, computer science education and gender equity. I came to the Media Lab in August 2007, after having explored music, computer science, mathematics, and education in my post-secondary studies. I have a BSc in computer science and mathematics, a BEd in the same areas, and an MA in curriculum studies - all from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.