Scratch 2.0 beta release
Sean Rattigan
Here is the Scratch update for February 2013
1. Scratch 2.0 beta is available
The next generation of Scratch, Scratch 2.0 is available in beta at http://beta.scratch.mit.edu/. You can check out the new features such as creating your own blocks, cloud data, cloning sprites and using the webcam like MS Kinect. This is very exciting and definitely worth checking out. Scratch 1.4 will also continue to be supported.
2. Irish Scratch Competition
The submission process for the Scratch competition 2013 entries will be available shortly. We hope you are busy and having fun working on your 2013 Scratch projects submissions.
3. Scratch Training
We
are delighted to announce that another series of Scratch training
courses are being organised in education centres around the country. The
course is titled “An Introduction to Scratch in the classroom
(NCTE/Lero)”. Training has been scheduled in Navan (18/02, 23/02),
Limerick (18/02, 04/03), Kildare (09/02, 16/02), Blackrock (23/02,
02/03), Galway (23/02, 02/03), Mayo (23/02, 02/03), Drumcondra (02/02,
09/02), West Cork (02/03, 09/03), Clare (11/03, 01/04) and Laois (09/03,
23/03) Education Centres. To reserve your place please contact the
education centre today.If you do not see your education centre listed
and you are interested in a course, please get in touch with your local
education centre.
For more details on this course see: http://www.ncte.ie/courses/PrimaryPostPrimary/AnIntroductiontoScratchintheClassroomNCTELero/Name,22229,en.html
4. European Scratch Conference in Barcelona
The first European conference on Scratch is in July (25th to 27th) 2013 in Barcelona. Educators, researchers, developers and other members of the worldwide Scratch community are gathering to celebrate and share the creative possibilities of Scratch. The theme for this conference is Connecting Worlds and it is an opportunity for the different communities that share an interest in Scratch to interact.
Proposals are due Feb 28th. For information on submitting proposals see http://www.scratch2013bcn.org/proposals.
5. CESI
The Annual CESI Conference is taking place in Galway next week Feb 22nd and 23rd. See http://www.cesi.ie/conference-2013. This is a great opportunity to meet with people working/interested in ICT in Education. Hope to see some of you there!
6. Junior Cycle Short Course on “programming/coding”
Our work on the Junior Cycle Short course on “programming/coding” is ongoing. We hope to be able to share something with you once it gets the final approval in March/April timeframe.
Regards,
Clare.
Please let us know if you do not wish to receive Scratch updates
Clare McInerney
Education and Outreach Officer
Lero – The Irish Software Engineering Research Centre
University of Limerick, Ireland
Tel: +353 61 202434