Article 2 for Blog Submission 2: Term 2
Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6647011.stm
Review of Article:
The Ministry of Education has recently advocated the policy of "Teach Less Learn More". Apparently, Mitchel Resnick, creator of a kids programming software called "Scratch", thinks so too. In this new age of technology, I think that educating children about new technology such as programming is also very important. I think that "Scratch" is a very innovative software as it actually allows kids some freedom to create their very own characters and learn more about programming and intellectual property at the same time. They can then also improve their social skills by sharing their own work with other children around the World. This program also let kids learn independently on their own without external help to create their own video. This new technology has a very huge impact, no doubt, but is it always in a positive way? Even though this article seems very reliable and it makes us think that "Scratch" is actually a very good product, but there are a number of questions that this article fails to answer. Firstly, it fails to answer what are the implications of exposing kids to the Internet and programming at such a young age. Even though the article says that "Scratch" is "a useful tool for teaching children about computational thinking and enthusing "the next generation" of IT professionals", but then it fails to say that it can also generate "the next generation" of hackers and crackers through learning about programming at such a young age. Also, there are also other kids programming software out there such as "HacketyHack". What makes "Scratch" so special? Also, the article fails to mention that "Scratch" can also encourage failure and depression in children as their video may fail repeatedly just because of one small error in the programming. Also, is programming too advanced for children? The article did not delve into that. Of course, I know that my knowledge is limited, as I have never learnt programming, and that I haven't tried "Scratch" for myself to measure its effectiveness. Also, I have the mindset of a teenager, which may be different from the mindsets of young children or the creator's perspective, to name just a few. Thus, I may not understand the perspective of the author and thus I should try to take his views into account. However, I can use the knowledge garnered from this article to familiarize myself with programming software and their implications on young children, thus letting me discuss more about this interesting topic. Lastly, to really understand more about "Scratch" and its implications, I will have to modify my thought process by trying "Scratch" out for myself and learning more about programming and the psychology of young children to really understand the article and make a logical conclusion.
Word Count: 459 Words (Checked by Microsoft Word)
Review of Article:
The Ministry of Education has recently advocated the policy of "Teach Less Learn More". Apparently, Mitchel Resnick, creator of a kids programming software called "Scratch", thinks so too. In this new age of technology, I think that educating children about new technology such as programming is also very important. I think that "Scratch" is a very innovative software as it actually allows kids some freedom to create their very own characters and learn more about programming and intellectual property at the same time. They can then also improve their social skills by sharing their own work with other children around the World. This program also let kids learn independently on their own without external help to create their own video. This new technology has a very huge impact, no doubt, but is it always in a positive way? Even though this article seems very reliable and it makes us think that "Scratch" is actually a very good product, but there are a number of questions that this article fails to answer. Firstly, it fails to answer what are the implications of exposing kids to the Internet and programming at such a young age. Even though the article says that "Scratch" is "a useful tool for teaching children about computational thinking and enthusing "the next generation" of IT professionals", but then it fails to say that it can also generate "the next generation" of hackers and crackers through learning about programming at such a young age. Also, there are also other kids programming software out there such as "HacketyHack". What makes "Scratch" so special? Also, the article fails to mention that "Scratch" can also encourage failure and depression in children as their video may fail repeatedly just because of one small error in the programming. Also, is programming too advanced for children? The article did not delve into that. Of course, I know that my knowledge is limited, as I have never learnt programming, and that I haven't tried "Scratch" for myself to measure its effectiveness. Also, I have the mindset of a teenager, which may be different from the mindsets of young children or the creator's perspective, to name just a few. Thus, I may not understand the perspective of the author and thus I should try to take his views into account. However, I can use the knowledge garnered from this article to familiarize myself with programming software and their implications on young children, thus letting me discuss more about this interesting topic. Lastly, to really understand more about "Scratch" and its implications, I will have to modify my thought process by trying "Scratch" out for myself and learning more about programming and the psychology of young children to really understand the article and make a logical conclusion.
Word Count: 459 Words (Checked by Microsoft Word)
posted by the one at 6:45 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home