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Project

OctoStudio

Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Lifelong Kindergarten

Groups

OctoStudio is a free coding app available at octostudio.org

OctoStudio transforms how young people use mobile phones and tablets, enabling them to create their own stories and games anytime, anywhere. Children can take photos and record sounds, bring them to life with coding blocks, and send their projects to friends and family. 

OctoStudio is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at the MIT Media Lab; the same group who created Scratch, the world’s most popular coding language for kids. OctoStudio is available for free for on iOS and Android in more than 30 languages. Now available on Chromebooks!

Expanding creative opportunities

Designed especially for children and families in communities with limited or no access to computers and internet connectivity, OctoStudio greatly expands who has opportunities to engage in creative activities with digital technologies. Children can create OctoStudio projects offline, without any data charges.

Interacting with the world
As children create with OctoStudio, the world is their palette, full of creative possibilities. They can bring images and sounds from their neighborhood into their projects, and also integrate their creations into the physical world. For example, a child can place a phone in their pocket and program it to play sounds when they jump or dance. 

Learning through creating
In the process of creating OctoStudio projects, children develop important problem-solving and creative-thinking skills, while learning computational ideas in a meaningful and motivating context.  

Global collaboration
The Lifelong Kindergarten group is collaborating with educators in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, South Africa, India, Korea, and other countries around the world so that OctoStudio engages and supports creative expression for learners across diverse cultural contexts.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How can I get OctoStudio?
  2. What do I need to use OctoStudio?
  3. Is OctoStudio free?
  4. How is OctoStudio different from Scratch?
  5. How does OctoStudio protect my privacy?
  6. Do I need an internet connection and data to use OctoStudio?
  7. FAQ on the OctoStudio website

  1. How can I get OctoStudio?

    You can download and install OctoStudio for free from the Google Play Store (Android) or from Apple's App Store  (iPhone and iPad). To learn more, please visit the OctoStudio website at octostudio.org 

  2. What do I need to use OctoStudio?

    OctoStudio is available on mobile devices, including Android and Apple phones and tablets, and Chromebooks. You can go to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store to download and install for free.

    OctoStudio can run on the following devices:

    - On an iPhone or iPad, iOS version 15 or above.
    - On an Android phone or tablet, Android version 8 or above.
    - On Chromebooks that support Android apps.

    OctoStudio is not yet supported on other laptops or desktop computers. If you are using a computer, we recommend trying Scratch!

  3. Is OctoStudio free?

    OctoStudio is available completely free of charge. There are no advertisements or in-app purchases, and no user data is collected. 

  4. How is OctoStudio different from Scratch?

    OctoStudio is a good complement to Scratch.

    While Scratch was designed for use on laptops and desktop computers, OctoStudio is designed especially for use on mobile phones. Children can create projects with OctoStudio anytime anywhere on mobile phones or tablets, and they can take advantage of the sensors built into these devices to build new types of projects that you can interact with. 

    Scratch has additional features that enable young people to create bigger, more complex projects. Scratch also has an online community where young people can share their Scratch projects. 

  5. How does OctoStudio protect my privacy?

    As explained in our App Privacy Policy, we do not collect any personal or other data through the OctoStudio app or display any advertising; your projects and other data are only stored locally on your own device. To learn about our website policy, please see our Web Privacy Policy. 

  6. Do I need an internet connection and data to use OctoStudio?

    You will need an internet connection to download the app. The download is under 30MB in size. 

    Once installed, the app is offline, no internet or network data is needed! 

  7. FAQ on the OctoStudio website

    Read more FAQ information on the OctoStudio website. 

Research Topics
#robotics #design #artificial intelligence #learning + teaching #neurobiology #social robotics #computer science #creativity #code #civic action #neural interfacing and control #marginalized communities #women