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A Networked, Media-Rich Programming Environment...

Mitchel Resnick, BLC05, Jul 21, 2005
Commentary by Stephen Downes

There's a lot here, but follow this line of thinking: imagine that there is a language, but instead of words, this language is made up of small computer programs called 'blocks'. Imagine that these blocks can be combined to express thoughts. And that they don't just have to be organized in a sequence, but can be set up in patterns, inserted into common appliances, used, indeed, anywhere we might use a word today. Imagine a network that allows people to automatically send and receive blocks in predefined configurations and places.

CRLF

OK, this, or at least part of this, is the world of Scratch, a concept advanced by Mitchel Resnick and his colleagues. The blocks are available ready-made for kids, who in turn can arrange them (visually) to create larger functioning wholes. It is also the way I have always thought of learning objects, at least, before the publishing industry got a hold of them and made them like bits of a textbook. Scratch will be written in Squeak, an open-source implementation of the Smalltalk-80 language. I had always thought (and still think) they should be written in a form of XML (and to that end have been following developments in o:XML for the last year or so.

CRLF

Still. Scratch is what I've always looked for in learning objects. Building-block programming. Programmable manipulation of rich media. Deep shareability. Seamless integration with the physical world. Support for multiple languages. And not a learning outcome or multiple-choice test in sight. And I have alwaqys thought of RSS and similar formats - aqnd the RSS content network, with associated formats, as being the medium in which a Scratch-type language would be spoken. By students to students.

CRLF

Via Will Richardson, who offers more discussion and links.

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