ScratchJr

Wired reporter Elizabeth notes how the ScratchJr programming language, which was developed to help teach children how to code, is being used as part of an effort to teach young children the basics of computer programming.

Google celebrated the 50^th anniversary of Logo, the first programming language designed by the late Prof. Emeritus Seymour Papert, with an interactive Doodle called “Coding for Carrots,” writes Joseph Hincks of Time. “My hope is that people will find this first experience appealing and engaging, and they’ll be encouraged to go further,” says Champika Fernando, director of communications at Scratch.

Brett Molina writes for USA Today about the Dec. 4th Google doodle, which celebrates 50 years of kids coding. The interactive doodle “honors the creation of Logo, a programming language developed in the 1960s by professor Seymour Papert and MIT researchers to teach kids how to code,” notes Molina.

Rodrique Ngowi writes for the Associated Press about ScratchJr, an app co-developed by MIT researchers to help young children think creatively and develop skills in math and science. “Children as young as 5 can use the app to craft their own interactive stories and games,” writes Ngowi. 

“The MIT Media Lab recently released ScratchJr, a free iPad app that helps children 5-8 learn how to code,” writes Jordan Shapiro for Forbes. The ScratchJr language is a redesign of the original Scratch programming to simplify it for use by younger children.

Marcus Wohlsen of Wired reports on ScratchJr, a new iPad application created by MIT researchers to teach kids how to code. “We wanted to make sure young people aren’t just using tablet for browsing and consuming,” says Prof. Mitchel Resnick. 

“The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has released a new iPad app that aims to help 5-7 year-old children take their first steps in programming,” writes Stuart Dredge for The Guardian. “ScratchJr is a free app based on MIT’s existing Scratch programming language.”