Scratch@MIT Conference and my poster presentation, August 6-8, 2014

The Scratch@MIT Conference was tiring and encouraging. One of the reasons it was tiring was that it was information overload.  It was encouraging because  I met many people that were interested in using Scratch and the MIT Media lab had a buzzing energy that could not be avoided.  Robots and ideas were found in every part of the building.

Projects in the MIT Media Lab (Boston, MA),
August 7th

As far as my presentation- Many people showed interest in the programming course I designed for students in the State of Mexico.  Interestingly enough many of those that showed interest were Spanish speakers.  As a matter of fact, I probably spoke 80% Spanish during the 90 minutes we had to present our project.  Another reason the conference was exhausting was I stayed up late every night working on my zines, video and photos for the presentation.  In all I was happy that I presented because if the many people that I met.

My presentation "Scratch Curriculum for Mexico"
at the Scratch@MIT Conference (Boston, MA)
August 8th

I was hoping to meet more teaching artists that were combing design and programming but the majority of people were programmers or teachers that primarily focused on programming.  My course definitely focuses on programming but originality of drawings and story is a big part of the course as well.

I wish there was a conference that was for teaching artists where it combines technology and art.  Perhaps the NAEA will start incorporating more technology, art and design in the talks given in the conference.

I left the Scratch@MIT Conference with one great new idea on how to use Scratch for older kids.  The project idea was giving to me by a workshop I attended called "Sensing Me" and it was given by a group of people from The Warwick University from Coventry, England.  The workshop talked about how to hardware and software interact and it focused on sensors.  I'm looking foreword to the many possibilities that Picoboards allow me.

Picoboard project connected to Scratch,
by a group from The University of Warwick (Coventry, England),
The sensors can detect colors
and allows for a simon says type of game in Scratch,
Scratch@MIT Conference (Boston, MA),
August 8th

Also, they did handout the new curriculum book, Creative Computing, at the conference which was the best resource distributed at the event.