[prog] Programming for kids & learning how to program

[Jacinta Richardson]

I learned a little about Scratch yesterday and it looks way cool.  However there
are other tools like it you might find more fun.  If you'd like to learn to
program in a fun, graphical way; or teach your kids programming (even if you
don't really know yourself), have a look at one or all of these tools.


Scratch - http://scratch.mit.edu/

Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own
interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your
creations on the web.

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century
learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important
mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding
of the process of design.

Alice - http://www.alice.org/

Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create
an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to
share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses
3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less
frustrating first programming experience.

Squeak and Etoys -  http://www.squeakland.org/

Squeak is a "media authoring tool"-- software that you can download to your
computer and then use to create your own media or share and play with others. It
is free and downloadable here.

Squeakland has been developed to offer a variety of fun experiences to people of
all ages who use their computers to create. Squeakland is meant to be a
playground for developing a community of people who want to work together to
invent new media types.


All the best,

	Jacinta

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