Exploring Multimedia: Scratch Studio
Click the green flag to begin! Then, click on each state to hear its name and see its corresponding abbreviation.
Project Title: States and Abbreviations: An interactive map
Purpose and audience: After using this interactive map, my second grade students will be able to identify the states we have studied up to this point in the year. Students will also be able to give the abbreviation for each state.
Exploring my topic: For starters, I fell into the category of being completely uncomfortable with not being told specifically what to do. My tendency was to therefore explore the suggestions in the instructions for this project. My initial thoughts after playing with Scratch were that it was really neat but just too much to learn in such a short time. However, as I truly enjoyed raw HTML coding and want to further familiarize myself with that language, I knew that learning the programming language of Scratch would be quite interesting. After all, if Scratch can make an interface for students as young as Kindergarteners, as is shown in the Associated Press video (2014), surely I could figure out how to program something simple. It was truly fascinating to watch Kindergarten students of multiple ability levels all succeed in programming a character and changing a background.
To further develop my understanding of Scratch, I located an eBook through GALILEO that claimed to be geared towards teens (Ford, 2008). It helped solidify my understanding that Scratch really is its own programming language. Scratch projects "follow[...] a complex set of syntax rules" but are built "by selecting and snapping together graphical programming blocks" (Ford, 2008, p. 4). While only marginally familiar with what a sprite was, I knew it was an object that could be manipulated with script. Once I read on to find that I could "configure script execution to occur when a sprite is clicked," the project ideas began to formulate (Ford, 2008, p. 8). While I have not read Ford's book in its entirety, I hope to eventually. In the meantime, I turned to YouTube for tutorials; the tutorials at Scratch seemed more geared toward playing with the language (appropriate for a tutorial) and less geared toward guiding me to complete the projects I was mulling. I found Kevin Briggs' tutorial (2013) to be quite useful. In it, he showed how to make the character write. In my initial playing with the program, I knew that I could insert snippets of my voice. I could see myself animating a pencil to write letters of the alphabet with my voice guiding each pencil stroke. That was a mess! The pen line came from the center of the pencil, and I could not make it come from the tip. I then remembered my fruitless search a few weeks back for an interactive map that would teach my second grade social studies students the states and their abbreviations. I decided to create such with Scratch to cover the states we have learned up to this point in the year. With some familiarization with the program, I could see my students creating their own Scratch projects like mine, adding states to them as we learn them in class.
Learning goals: I want to explore image mapping while coding with Scratch. I want to create an interactive US map that reinforces state identification and corresponding abbreviations.
Purpose and audience: After using this interactive map, my second grade students will be able to identify the states we have studied up to this point in the year. Students will also be able to give the abbreviation for each state.
Exploring my topic: For starters, I fell into the category of being completely uncomfortable with not being told specifically what to do. My tendency was to therefore explore the suggestions in the instructions for this project. My initial thoughts after playing with Scratch were that it was really neat but just too much to learn in such a short time. However, as I truly enjoyed raw HTML coding and want to further familiarize myself with that language, I knew that learning the programming language of Scratch would be quite interesting. After all, if Scratch can make an interface for students as young as Kindergarteners, as is shown in the Associated Press video (2014), surely I could figure out how to program something simple. It was truly fascinating to watch Kindergarten students of multiple ability levels all succeed in programming a character and changing a background.
To further develop my understanding of Scratch, I located an eBook through GALILEO that claimed to be geared towards teens (Ford, 2008). It helped solidify my understanding that Scratch really is its own programming language. Scratch projects "follow[...] a complex set of syntax rules" but are built "by selecting and snapping together graphical programming blocks" (Ford, 2008, p. 4). While only marginally familiar with what a sprite was, I knew it was an object that could be manipulated with script. Once I read on to find that I could "configure script execution to occur when a sprite is clicked," the project ideas began to formulate (Ford, 2008, p. 8). While I have not read Ford's book in its entirety, I hope to eventually. In the meantime, I turned to YouTube for tutorials; the tutorials at Scratch seemed more geared toward playing with the language (appropriate for a tutorial) and less geared toward guiding me to complete the projects I was mulling. I found Kevin Briggs' tutorial (2013) to be quite useful. In it, he showed how to make the character write. In my initial playing with the program, I knew that I could insert snippets of my voice. I could see myself animating a pencil to write letters of the alphabet with my voice guiding each pencil stroke. That was a mess! The pen line came from the center of the pencil, and I could not make it come from the tip. I then remembered my fruitless search a few weeks back for an interactive map that would teach my second grade social studies students the states and their abbreviations. I decided to create such with Scratch to cover the states we have learned up to this point in the year. With some familiarization with the program, I could see my students creating their own Scratch projects like mine, adding states to them as we learn them in class.
Learning goals: I want to explore image mapping while coding with Scratch. I want to create an interactive US map that reinforces state identification and corresponding abbreviations.
Steps to Creation
Step 1: Locate images of the needed states. I started my search in the Scratch library. However, I couldn't even find a US map there, much less individual states! I remembered using Clker.com, a collection of public domain, user-submitted images, when constructing my logo previously. I found every state there that I needed for the states we have studied this year.
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Step 3: Prepare responses for each state. As I mentioned in my topic exploration, sprites (objects) can be scripted to trigger certain responses upon clicking. Likely intended for character interaction, I used the speech bubbles to make each state "say" its abbreviation after I said the full name of the state. I need to play with Scratch a bit more to see if I can make speech balloons appear closer to their actual state or if I can otherwise have text appear as a response to clicking. Shown at right is the Scratch sound editing interface for preparing to encode my voice.
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Step 4: Finalize the background. I had set the background earlier in the project to be an x,y grid per the recommendation of Briggs. I thought this might come in useful depending on how exactly I programmed the states to respond. After completing this region of states, I decided I wanted a background to resemble the water of the globe that surrounds a completed US map.
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Tools story: I started by playing with the Scratch programming interface and getting an idea for what the scripts could do. Before completely settling on using Scratch to achieve my goal of exploring image mapping, I turned to W3schools.com to practice image mapping with an entire US map. I then realized this would be difficult to embed in my course Weebly site, so I used GALILEO and YouTube to locate my reading material and videos. After not finding what I needed in the Scratch image library, I located all the states I needed at Clker.com. South Carolina had a white background I erased with Photoshop 10. I also used Photoshop 10 to edit out the name of the state of Tennessee as well as to correct its angle. I think some of these edits are possible within Scratch, but I had difficulty making it happen. My blue background is from the Scratch library.
Skillset needed: This project required a knowledge of the location of states and of the corresponding abbreviations. I felt that my previous experience with raw HTML coding, and with using WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver, made it somewhat easier to wrap my mind around the interfaces in the Scratch project workspace. To comply with copyright law, someone doing a project like this in Scratch that would need a very specific set of sprites would need to be aware of Clker and other similar collections of public domain clipart sharable under Creative Commons Licensing. While not necessarily a skill, an open mind ready to learn is necessary in order to succeed with coding. My initial response was to look for something easier. However, many young people are conditioned to see technology as a way of life, making the idea of coding more easily accessible to them than those their senior.
Next steps for my learning: Clearly Scratch has endless possibilities for projects. It is a digital makerspace with most any programming script you could want! I definitely want to continue to familiarize myself with Scratch. In my readings I noticed that because it relies on Adobe Flash, Scratch cannot be used to program on iPads nor iPods. However, in the Associated Press video I watched, the students were reported as using iPads to program in Scratch Jr. Being that my school is part of a Chromebooks initiative, I need to check and see which versions of Scratch can be used to what extent on Chromebooks before planning programming lessons.
Skillset needed: This project required a knowledge of the location of states and of the corresponding abbreviations. I felt that my previous experience with raw HTML coding, and with using WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver, made it somewhat easier to wrap my mind around the interfaces in the Scratch project workspace. To comply with copyright law, someone doing a project like this in Scratch that would need a very specific set of sprites would need to be aware of Clker and other similar collections of public domain clipart sharable under Creative Commons Licensing. While not necessarily a skill, an open mind ready to learn is necessary in order to succeed with coding. My initial response was to look for something easier. However, many young people are conditioned to see technology as a way of life, making the idea of coding more easily accessible to them than those their senior.
Next steps for my learning: Clearly Scratch has endless possibilities for projects. It is a digital makerspace with most any programming script you could want! I definitely want to continue to familiarize myself with Scratch. In my readings I noticed that because it relies on Adobe Flash, Scratch cannot be used to program on iPads nor iPods. However, in the Associated Press video I watched, the students were reported as using iPads to program in Scratch Jr. Being that my school is part of a Chromebooks initiative, I need to check and see which versions of Scratch can be used to what extent on Chromebooks before planning programming lessons.
References
Associated Press (Producer). (2014). App teaches 7 year olds to write computer code [Streaming video]. Retrieved from Associated Press Video Collection database.
Briggs, K. (2013 December 28). Scratch tutorial 1: Make your first program. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIpmkeqJhmQ
Ford, J. (2008). Scratch programming for teens. Available from http://articles.westga.edu:2055/lib/westga/detail.action?docID=10240576