Research Group Projects and Descriptions

The Lifelong Kindergarten group is sowing the seeds for a more creative society. We develop new technologies that, in the spirit of the blocks and fingerpaint of kindergarten, expand the range of what people design, create, and invent—and what they learn in the process. Our ultimate goal is a world full of playfully creative people, who are constantly inventing new possibilities for themselves and their communities.

At Computer Clubhouse after-school centers, young people (ages 10-18) from low-income commmunities learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies. Clubhouse members work on projects based on their own interests, with support from adult mentors. By creating their own animations, interactive stories, music videos, and robotic constructions, Clubhouse members become more capable, confident, and creative learners. The first Computer Clubhouse was established in 1993, as a collaboration between the Lifelong Kindergarten group and The Computer Museum (now part of the Boston Museum of Science). With financial support from Intel Corporation, the network has expanded to more than 100 Clubhouses in 21 countries, serving more than 20,000 young people. The Lifelong Kindergarten group continues to develop new technologies, introduce new educational approaches, and lead professional-development workshops for Clubhouses around the world.

Alumni Contributor(s): Leo Burd, Robbin Chapman, Rachel Garber, Tim Gorton and Michelle Hlubinka

We are creating an online community, called the Computer Clubhouse Village, to connect people at Computer Clubhouse after-school centers around the world. Through the Village, Clubhouse members and staff (at more than 100 Clubhouses in 21 countries) can share ideas with one another, get feedback and advice on their projects, and work together on collaborative design activities.

Alumni Contributor(s): Elisabeth Sylvan

Drawdio is a pencil that draws music. You can sketch musical instruments on paper and play them with your finger. Touch your drawings to bring them to life—or collaborate through skin-to-skin contact. Drawdio works by creating electrical circuits with graphite and the human body.

This project's tools and activities help young people learn as they design and construct physical objects for controlling games, animations, and other computer programs that they create. The constructions, called Hook-Ups, can be modified versions of traditional computer interfaces (e.g., joysticks) or entirely new types of interfaces (e.g., a spaceship steering wheel). In creating Hook-Ups, young people learn to integrate virtual media with familiar materials from the world around them. In the process, they gain confidence and motivation to explore topics within fields such as interface design, programming, and physics.

We are developing the next generation of invention kits for kids, expanding the range of what kids can design, create, and invent. This project builds on our previous work on programmable-brick technologies, which led to the LEGO MindStorms and PicoCricket products.

How can we help people reflect on their own learning process? The goal of this project is to develop new technological tools and pedagogical strategies to cultivate reflection. Jots are brief updates that people write as they use our Scratch programming environment, to describe their thoughts, frustrations, and excitement. Users' Jots are displayed on their Scratch user pages, so they can explore their own processes and share them with others.

We are developing a special version of our Scratch programming language to enable people to create, play, and share interactive media on mobile devices. Mobile Scratch is designed especially for interacting with the outside world, taking inputs from microphone, camera, and external sensors, and communicating with other mobile devices. We are running an initial pilot project at an innovative school serving children in low-income communities in India.

This project explores the relationship between empathy and civic engagement. We have designed and implemented a seven-part workshop to foster mutual understanding, collaborative problem-solving, and self-expression. The curriculum—which employs Scratch as a central tool—builds capacities in three areas: programming, storytelling, and perspective-taking. Throughout the workshop, participants use a variety of tools and techniques to engage in acts of personal expression by creating rich, interactive, multi-threaded narratives.

Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art—and share your creations on the Web. Scratch is designed to enhance the technological fluency of young people, helping them learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, and they gain a deeper understanding of the process of design.

Alumni Contributor(s): Margarita Dekoli and Tamara Stern

With the Scratch Board, people can use sensors to control interactive stories and games that they create with the Scratch programming language. By connecting the physical and virtual, the Scratch Board extends the range of what people can design—and extends what they learn in the process. The Scratch Board comes with several built-in sensors: a light sensor, sound sensor, touch sensor, and slider. It also has four ports where you can plug in your own resistance-based sensors. For example, you can create a Scratch program that controls music and animation on the computer based on your interactions with sensors connected to the Scratch Board.

Scratch Day is a network of face-to-face local gatherings, on the same day in all parts of the world, where people can meet, share, and learn more about Scratch, a new programming environment that enables people to create their own interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations. We believe that these types of face-to-face interactions remain essential for ensuring the accessibility and sustainability of initiatives such as Scratch. In-person interactions enable richer forms of communication among individuals, more rapid iteration of ideas, and a deeper sense of belonging and participation in a community. The first Scratch Day will take place on May 16, 2009. Already, Scratch Day events are being planned in more than 20 countries, including Colombia, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Palestine, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Uruguay, as well as the United States.

What if everyone could create their own interactive content in virtual worlds? We are putting the playful and intuitive features of Scratch into a new programming language for Second Life. We hope to make it easier for everyone to create their own interactive virtual pets, dancefloors, games, clothing, houses, and whatever else they can imagine.

As Scratch proliferates through the world, there is a growing need to support learners. But for teachers, educators, and others who are primarily concerned with enabling Scratch learning, there is a disconnect between their needs and the resources that are presently available through the Scratch Web site. In this work, we propose Scratch-Ed, an environment for Scratch educators to share stories, exchange resources, ask questions, and find people.

ScratchR is the engine behind the Scratch online community, enabling people to publish and share the interactive stories, games, and animations that they create with the Scratch programming language. Unlike other user-generated content communities, ScratchR makes it easy to reuse, remix, and build upon other people's creations—a process we call creative appropriation. ScratchR is to programming what YouTube is to video production. Although ScratchR was developed with Scratch in mind, it could be reconfigured to share videos, images, or any other type of media.