Scratch is a user-friendly, drag-and-drop programming language for creating animations and games. It’s ideal for novices because it helps them comprehend programming principles without requiring any prior experience! Scratch knowledge can subsequently be transferred to real-world programming languages.

 

Pros:

 

Easy to use interface:

 

The UI, as previously stated, is incredibly user-friendly. You may drag and drop different blocks, such as motion, looks, sound, and so on. It’s simple enough for a 10-year-old to use.

 

Online version available:

 

Scratch may be used without having to download it. Furthermore, students do not need to create an account to keep their work because they can download and upload it from and to the website. Again, this is valuable in a school setting where installing software may be impossible, and eliminating the need to create an account is beneficial to children because they don’t have to remember passwords, etc.

 

Entertaining:

 

Scratch may be used to create engaging projects, particularly when teaching children. The best way to learn is to have fun.

 

Cons:

 

Flash:

 

Flash is required for Scratch. Now I understand that Flash is a pretty simple technique to create cross-platform applications. The greatest issue is that Adobe Air no longer supports Linux, hence the native program can no longer be used on Linux. Of course, the web version will continue to work as long as the flash is installed. This is a challenge for folks who want to utilize a Raspberry Pi for teaching and learning purposes. Because Raspberry Pis are inexpensive computers, they are easy to break and can be used to create a variety of intriguing projects. However, due to a lack of resources, running the web version on a Pi may be challenging.

 

Colour scheme:

 

Colour-coding the blocks is an excellent idea since children can tell which category a block belongs to just by looking at it.
A few colours appear to be extremely similar: Data, Events, and Control are substantially the same, as are Motion and Looks, and to a lesser extent, sound. If you’re colourblind, the problem gets even worse. Worse, when viewed from a distance on an interactive board, these colours appear to be nearly similar. My kids are perplexed by this since they keep looking in the wrong categories. This could be a problem with the interactive board, but since interactive boards are so ubiquitous in classrooms, they should have made more of an effort to make the colours look distinct.

 

Closed source:

 

Last but not least, Scratch is a closed source program. Given that it’s supposed to be about learning and sharing, it’s a shame that its authors appear to have no interest in assisting others in learning from their work. People could customize it to their needs, contribute features, and learn from the code if it was open-source!

 

Interested in some of our courses?

You can learn Block Coding With Scratch.