Broadening Participation at the Scratch@MIT Conference

2003年，PI在麻省理工学院媒体实验室的研究小组获得了美国国家科学基金会(ITR-0325828)为期四年的拨款，用于开发一种名为Scratch的新编程环境，使年轻人能够创建自己的互动故事、游戏、动画和模拟-并在网上相互分享他们的创作。Scratch网站(http://scratch.mit.edu)，)于2007年5月推出，现已成为一个充满活力的在线社区，有500,000名注册成员相互分享、讨论和混合彼此的项目。今年夏天，Scratch组织将为教育工作者、研究人员、开发人员和其他支持使用Scratch的人举办一场名为Scratch@MIT的会议，以便他们可以相互分享最佳实践(请参阅http://scratch.mit.edu/conference).PI曾于2008年7月在麻省理工学院举办过一次类似的Scratch会议。大会吸引了人们的极大兴趣：大会前整整一个月，报名人数就达到了满员300人。Scratch小组将今年夏天会议的最高出席人数增加到350人，他们再次预计将达到满员。随着年轻人规划和分享临时项目，他们学会了创造性思维、系统推理和合作--这些都是在21世纪取得成功的基本技能。参加Scratch@MIT会议的教育工作者将有机会参加动手研讨会，分享经验和想法，了解新的技术和策略，以便他们能够在自己的教育环境中更好地支持和促进学生使用Scratch进行学习。由于Scratch软件是免费提供的，它吸引了广泛和多样化的用户社区。调查人员希望确保Scratch@MIT会议的参与同样广泛和多样化。他们意识到，注册费和旅行费用可能会让一些人很难参加会议。有了这项支持，他们将免除50名原本无法出席的与会者的注册费。他们预计，这将允许更多来自公立学校和社区中心的教育工作者(他们通常比私立学校的研究人员或教师更少获得资金)参与进来。通过向那些无法支付注册费的人开放会议，他们预计会议参与者的总体多样性将会增加。

In 2003, the PI's research group at the MIT Media Lab was awarded a four-year grant from the National Science Foundation (ITR-0325828) to develop a new programming environment, called Scratch, that enables young people to create their own interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations - and share their creations with one another online. The Scratch website (http://scratch.mit.edu), launched in May 2007, has become a vibrant online community, with 500,000 registered members sharing, discussing, and remixing one another's projects.This summer, the Scratch group is hosting a conference, called Scratch@MIT, for educators, researchers, developers, and others who support the use of Scratch, so that they can share best practices with one another (see http://scratch.mit.edu/conference). The PI previously hosted one similar Scratch conference, in July 2008 at MIT. The conference attracted great interest: registration reached full capacity of 300 people a full month before the conference. The Scratch group is increasing the maximum number of participants for this summer's conference to 350 people, and they again expect to reach full capacity.Intellectual Merit. As young people program and share Scratch projects, they learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively - essential skills for success in the 21st century. Educators attending the Scratch@MIT conference will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on workshops, share experiences and ideas, and learn about new techniques and strategies, so that they are better able to support and facilitate student learning with Scratch in their own educational contexts.Broader Impact. Since Scratch software is available free of charge, it has attracted a broad and diverse community of users. The investigators want to make sure that participation at the Scratch@MIT conference is similarly broad and diverse. They realize that registration fees and travel costs could make it difficult for some people to participate in the conference. With this support they will waive registration fees for 50 conference participants who would not otherwise be able to attend. They expect that this will allow participation by more educators from public schools and community centers (who typically have less access to funding than researchers or teachers from private schools). By making the conference accessible to those who could not otherwise afford the registration fees, they expect an increase in the overall diversity of participants at the conference.