An MIT Alumni Association Publication
slice Topics

Search | Slice of MIT

Recommended

Dr. Mitchel Resnick SM '88, PhD '92
Dr. Mitchel Resnick SM '88, PhD '92

Dr. Mitchel Resnick SM '88, PhD '92, who worked with the MIT Media Lab to create Scratch, a simple computer programming language designed to "democratize digital expression" by helping children learn to create short games and animations, seems someone who would advocate for MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). However, in a recent interview at The Hechinger Report, Resnick expressed some hesitations.

"A lot of the conventional MOOCs, for my taste, are focused too much on information delivery," he explained. "My concern [is] it’s only easy to give feedback on certain types of knowledge and certain types of activity."

Resnick does concede that online learning has its perks. "Students are filling out answers to problem sets and exams ... and they can get feedback right away, which can influence what they do next," said Resnick, describing a phenomenon cited by MIT LINC 2013 conference speakers as one of the primary advantages of MOOCs.

Ultimately, Resnick believes that "two of the most important aspects of any learning experience are creating and collaborating," and Scratch's most recent update reflects those goals. Scratch 2.0, released this past May, allows users to create projects inside a web browser so they can more easily share work with one another. Scratch is still free (just like edX's MOOCs), and traffic through Scratch pages accounts for nearly 10 percent of visits to MIT webpages.

In spite of his reservations, Resnick did designed and teach a MOOC of his own last spring called Learning Creative Learning. "I figured rather than complaining about [MOOCs], I should try it and see what I would do," Resnick said. Although he admits his course was not "perfect," he felt satisfied to see his students interacting with one another online even after the course had ended.

"Although it started as a course, it became a community," he said. "In my mind, that’s exactly what I think is best about online interactions – being part of a community."

Next spring, Resnick will teach Learning Creative Learning once more; for more information, check out the course's website.

Filed Under

Comments

Jen

Mon, 11/04/2013 5:23pm

I agree that being part of a community to collaborate is so very important when learning or discussing just about anything. I also feel that kids and teens gain more when they have hands-on, in-person experiences and receive immediate encouragement and feedback. My recommendation for kids who are looking to take learning to the next level would be to seek out these opportunities which are often through technology summer camps. iD Tech offers two courses <a href="http://www.idtech.com/kids/tech-camps/courses/adventures-in-programming-with-scratch/" rel="nofollow">Adventures in Programming with Scratch</a> for ages 7-9 and <a>Intro to Programming with Scratch &amp; Java</a> for ages 10-12. No matter how you learn it, learning to code is something everyone should be doing!

Sankar Srivatsa

Thu, 08/15/2013 5:43pm

Scratch is a great tool to learn programming language, it is a perfect tool for MOOC kind of information delivery and gaining hands on experience in doing projects.

Related Articles