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国家科学基金会（ITR-0325828）为期四年的资助，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，并在网上彼此分享他们的创作。2007年5月推出的Scratch网站（http://scratch.mit.edu）已经成为一个充满活力的在线社区，有50万注册会员分享、讨论和混音彼此的项目。今年夏天，Scratch小组举办了一个会议，名为Scratch@MIT，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，这样他们就可以相互分享最佳实践（参见http://scratch.mit.edu/conference）。2008年7月，PI曾在麻省理工学院举办过一次类似的Scratch会议。会议引起了极大的兴趣：在会议开始前整整一个月，注册人数达到了300人。Scratch团队正在将今年夏天会议的最大参与者人数增加到350人，他们预计将再次达到满负荷。知识价值。当年轻人编程和分享Scratch项目时，他们学会了创造性地思考，系统地推理，以及协同工作——这是21世纪成功的基本技能。参加Scratch@MIT会议的教育工作者将有机会参加实践研讨会，分享经验和想法，并学习新的技术和策略，以便他们能够更好地支持和促进学生在自己的教育环境中使用Scratch学习。更广泛的影响。由于Scratch软件是免费的，它吸引了广泛而多样的用户社区。研究人员希望确保Scratch@MIT会议的参与者同样广泛而多样。他们意识到注册费和交通费可能会使一些人难以参加会议。有了这种支持，他们将免除50名与会者的注册费，否则他们将无法参加会议。他们期望这将允许更多来自公立学校和社区中心的教育工作者（他们通常比来自私立学校的研究人员或教师更难获得资金）参与其中。通过使那些负担不起注册费的人能够参加会议，他们期望会议参与者的总体多样性得到增加。

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.