Computer Programming for Teens: A Teen Tech Week Report

Monday, 3/8/2010

Image Flickr/Zenobia_Joy


To state the obvious, teens use technology – A LOT. A recent Kaiser Foundation study made headlines when it revealed that the average teen consumes 7 hours and 38 minutes of technology per day. That’s over 53 hours per week!

What are they doing with that time?  Teens spend the majority of tech time on mobile devices and social networks like Facebook – they like to talk to each other. While technology use is now the norm, computer programming remains on the fringe. Teens are fluent in the language of technology, but barely contribute to its production.

Enter Scratch. Created by MIT, Scratch is a free crash-course in programming aimed squarely at teens.  The program employs simplified code in a user-friendly, cool setting. It allows kids to create their own projects, adjust and manipulate sample projects, and then share their work with a community of peers.

The video introduction below sums up the technology very well: it’s a place to create programs and share with the online world, like a social network to help teens enhance their tech knowledge.

The Teen Tech Week Connection

The recent Kaiser Foundation study makes ALA’s Teen Tech Week more relevant than ever. Each March, the American Library Association encourages libraries across the country to host events celebrating technology @ your library. Local libraries host game nights, encourage use of computers, movies and audio books, host blogging seminars and virtual battle of the bands.

This year, encourage your library to incorporate Scratch into its Teen Tech Week Celebration, or bring Teen Tech Week home and use Scratch as a family.

What are you doing for Teen Tech Week? Share your programming ideas in the comments.

Posted by » walden
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