Really liking Scratch

I have students involved with some simple programming right now. We are using Scratch, the open source platform from MIT that traces its roots to LOGO-- Seymour Papert has been a hero of mine since I first became a student of education.

Students are programming Pong-like games, and they are finding interesting ways to solve problems. I create the basic functionality with them-- paddle controlled by the arrow keys, a ball to bounce around, and targets to hit and those to avoid. They are having new characters arrive as play continues, characters change based on actions... all sorts of fun!

It never fails to amaze me how those students who traditionally struggle with many school activities will quickly figure out how to write programs in Scratch and how they arrive at "work around" to do what is not obvious... and how students who traditionally do well in school struggle to find innovative solutions using the tools in Scratch and tools like it. (There has got to be a research project in there waiting to be done!)