Mike Badger

I just installed the Linux Scratch 1.4 version on my Ubuntu 8.10 system and all looks well so far. The download page calls it an alpha version and makes these claims: sound recording crashes Scratch No web cam or Wedo support Other sound issues  What's a little experimental soft... (more)

In this two-part article, we will get comfortable working with Scratch by covering some basic concepts. Each Scratch project contains sprites with costumes, scripts, blocks, and a stage with backgrounds. In the first part, we built a couple of sample scripts to demonstrate how we... (more)

The Virtual Staffroom podcast has an introductory Scratch podcast. Chris Betcher interviews two South Australian teachers about how they use Scratch in their classrooms. The show notes have a few links to projects and challenges, such as Bill Kerr's Scratch challenges and Scratc... (more)

The anticipation of learning a new programming language can sometimes leave us frozen on the starting line, not knowing what to expect or where to start. In this two-part article by Michael Badger, we will: Take a tour of the Scratch interface Create a couple of sample projects Le... (more)

Writing is an outwardly solitary adventure; however bringing a book from concept to print takes a team of people. Now that the book's out, I want to make some public acknowledgments. I owe many people a thanks, and even though the front of the book mentions some people, the list... (more)

Scratch 1.4 Beginner's Guide Cover Packt Publishing announced that Scratch 1.4 Beginner's Guide is now available for purchase. This hands-on tutorial teaches you the basics of computer programming using Scratch, a drag-and-drop language, so you can teach your students how to thi... (more)

A co-worker, who doesn't have a web site or I'd link to him, wanted to know how he could teach his son how to program.  I recommended Scratch. Naturally, the boy wanted to know how to do shoot-em up games. Well that turned to discussions about keeping score which required variab... (more)

It has probably occurred to you that that not all kids will want to learn how to program. So don't teach them how to program. Instead, let them explore "mundane" topics with the help of Scratch. For example, you can: Inspire the Scratch cat to create a Haiku as it gazes upon a la... (more)

Sample Scratch script. This post is kicking off a series of five posts that provide some practical reasons why you could learn Scratch, so you can then use it as a teaching  tool. One of the most obvious uses for Scratch is as a first programming language, whether you are a teac... (more)

The Scratch Team announced Scratch 1.4 today. From the release notes:  We are happy to announce the release of Scratch 1.4.  With this new version, you can ask users to input text from the keyboard, snap photos directly from built-in or USB webcams, and control robotics with LEGO... (more)

Hélène Martin posts several Scratch assignments that she created for her high school computer science class. According to Hélène: Scratch lends itself very well to ad-hoc experimentation and open ended projects.  When the goal in using it is to teach programming concepts, though... (more)

In Scratch it's easy to create projects that incorporate dynamic information using variables. However, variables have a limitation; they store only one value at a time. Sometimes, we want a variable to store multiple values. Welcome to lists. In Scratch, a list allows us to associ... (more)

I originally presented this workshop at Scratch Day Pennsylvania at Abington Friends School on May 16, 2009. Collect five, ten, or more digital photos to use as the destinations on the tour. You'll use these photos to build a walking tour with the following components: Create a s... (more)

Animate your imagination by creating interactive stories, games, and multimedia, and share it with the world. This hands-on tutorial teaches you the basics of computer programming using Scratch, a drag-and-drop language, so you can teach your students, your kids, and yourself how... (more)

I set this site up to complement my book Scratch Beginner's Guide from Packt Publishing. I'm updating the book to reflect Scratch 1.4, which is due out the end of June 2009. The book will be available in July 2009. One of the things you're really going to love is that, as you begi... (more)

(SYS-CON Media) - Whether you're a company of one or 100, managing knowledge is a core concern and implementing a knowledge base is a sensible way to capture your content. Dokuwiki is a practical open source Web application for creating a knowledge base that's easy for novice Web... (more)

Effective problem solving in Linux has nothing to do with knowing what the right answer is; it's about asking the right questions to find the right answers. You can efficiently solve problems and enhance your Linux experience by using a series of five questions to resolve configu... (more)