if he could solve a problem with a particular Mesh Inc. project: “I can’t make characters jump so you’re up.” A day later Hobbit fixed the game and posted: “This is the new updated version, so now he can jump on the snow.” MusicalMoon replied “gr8 job, Hobbit! I’ll take this and carry on from here.” Meanwhile, Hobbit decided to put his blogging skills to use and created a blog for Mesh Inc. where each of Mesh Inc.’s members is listed with their corresponding positions. MusicalMoon was selected as the “chairlady.” Later, an 11-year-old boy from Ireland calling himself Marty was added to the Mesh staff as the expert in “scrolling backgrounds.”

As others witnessed these interactions happening, Mesh Inc. got a lot of recognition in the community and many people started to “audition” for Mesh Inc. BlueRiver, a 12-year- old girl from Russia, now leads the “character design” and “sound operations” along with GreenDinosaur, a 10-year-old boy from the U.S., who holds the title of “story writer.” Other Scratch community members, inspired by Mesh Inc, have created their own similar companies.

and Chris Spence for their contributions to the Scratch website and online community. Yasmin Kafai, Kylie Peppler, Grace Chiu, and others at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies collaborated on the development of Scratch. All screen names in this article are pseudonyms. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ITR-0325828. The Scratch project has also received financial support from the Intel Foundation, the LEGO Company, and MIT Media Lab consortia.

 

Acknowledgements Scratch and the Scratch website have been developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. The core development team includes: John Maloney, Natalie Rusk, Evelyn Eastmond, Tammy Stern, Amon Millner, Jay Silver, Han Xu, Eric Rosenbaum, Karen Brennan, Brian Silverman, and the authors. Special thanks to Ubong Ukoh, Kemie Guaida, Lis Sylvan, Chris Garrity, Lance Vikaros,

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Ph.D. student and Samsung Fellow at the MIT Media Lab, has conceptualized and led the development of the Scratch online community. Andrés is interested in the development of social software that fosters creative and collaborative learning experiences. He has worked in the software industry and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received a B.S. in electronic systems engineering from the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. Mitchel Resnick, professor of learning research at the MIT Media Lab, explores how new technologies can engage children and teens in creative learning experiences. His Lifelong Kindergarten research group has developed many innovative educational technologies, including Scratch and the “programmable bricks” that were the basis for the LEGO MindStorms and PicoCricket robotics kits. Resnick cofound-ed the Computer Clubhouse project, an international network of after-school learning centers for youth from low-income communities, with more than 100 sites in 20 countries. Resnick earned a B.S. in physics from Princeton and an M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from MIT. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams.

Usage Statistics

The Scratch Online Community was beta released on March 4, 2007. The community started with only the 20 participants who were involved in a Scratch workshop. On the morning of May 14, 2007, the website was officially launched. Several news outlets and social news websites featured the Scratch website on their front pages. In a matter of hours the server and the website could not handle the traffic and the website went down several times.

As of December 9, 2007: t UIF TJUF IBT SFDFJWFE QBHF WJFXT t UIFSF IBWF CFFO TFTTJPOT t UIF TJUF XB T WJ TJUFE CZ VOJRVF WJ TJUPS T t QSPKFDUT IBWF CFFO TIBSFE t TDSJQUT IBWF CFFO DSFBUFE t TQSJUF T IB WF CFFO DSFBUFE t NFNCFST IBWF SFHJTUFSFE t JOEJWJEVBMT IBWF DPOUSJCVUFE DPOUFOU

t DPNNFOUT IBWF CFFO QP TUFE PO projects, galleries, and forums

While the majority of the users come from the United States, London is the city that generates the most number of visits. Visitors to the site come GSPN EJGGFSFOU DPVOUSJFT NBJOMZ GSPN UIF 6 4 U.K., Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany, Brazil, Spain, France, and India.

An analysis of usage data during the first five NPOUIT TIPXFE UIBU VTFST BSF QSJNBSJMZ BHF to 17, with a peak at age 12. A good number of users are adult computer hobbyists and educators that create projects in Scratch, even though a lot of them know other professional programming languages. Some members of the community have emerged as mentors that help the beginners and provide advice.

Data also shows that age is not indicative of engagement. No correlation was found between BHF BOE OVNCFS PG QSPKFDUT S Q Also, surprisingly, no correlation was found between the number of posts on the text-based GPSVNT BOE BHF FJUIFS S Q

Even starting new threads on the forums is not DPSSFMBUFE UP BHF S Q "HF XBT BMTP OPU BO JOEJDBUPS PG UIF OVNCFS PG GSJFOET S Q

While 70 percent of users are male, no correlation was found between gender and the number of QSPKFDUT S Q 5IJT JOEJDBUF T UIBU even though the majority of users are male, the females are as engaged in creating projects as the males. As we continue our work on Scratch, one main goal is to achieve broader participation across gender.

March + April 2008