NetScr
tch is a programming environment that enables children to make dynamic digital creations that interact across networks. The work is developed as an extension to
Scratch, a multi-media programming environment designed for children to create interactive animations, art, games, and other dynamic creations. Particularly, NetScratch adds
websensors, a tool to bring information from the web into a Scratch project, and
shariables, a way to share information among projects. These features provide children with the tools to create their own web mashups, experiment with real-time changing data, and connect projects to each other. Using NetScratch, children can create personally meaningful networked projects, while learning important computational and design concepts. And, in designing these creations, children can think about how they want to interact across networks and how their creations affect their friends and their communities.
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This NetScratch project connects three NetScratch users across the country enabling them to dynamically update their feelings and chat with one another using shariables. Additionally, they are able to visualize where each friend is located and the current weather conditions in each location using websensors. |
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Using shariables, this project enables multiple NetScratch users to collaboratively draw on this multi-user digital drawing board. |
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This dynamically-changing letter updates periodically to replace the words in blue with random synonyms pulled from an online thesaurus (using websensors). |
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This project uses shariables to create a personalized chat system. |
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This randomly-generated interactive map of the USA uses websensors to dynamically pull information about different cities from the web. |
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NetScratch users use shariables to dynamically update their mood in this shared project. |
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This project uses websensors to dynamically map the connectedness of a group of friends as detected from the Scratch website. |
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This project uses shariables to maintain a dynamically-updating high score list in NetScratch. |