As a tinkerer, Mitch Resnick’s lab at MIT is the ultimate playpen. He has the bits and tools to create just about anything. The lab is just packed, with the physical manifestations of imaginations hanging from the ceiling, packed into corners and stuffed under desks. Forget neatness. This is a working space for hand-on creativity. It’s quite a tight fit but works quite well to get the create juices flowing. I could have spend days investigating the innovations being worked on. If only I could create a similar environment back home!

Dr. Resnick is the professor many of us conjure up in our minds as whimsical, slightly aloof, bearded and scraggly, and always very excited to talk about his work (with the occasional inexplicable pause in his demonstration as his mind wanders off to pursue a facet of his invention he hasn’t considered before).

Scratch is a computer program created for kids of all ages to teach the basics of programming. The program is inherently scalable to allow kids with different experiences to create simple to complex programs. With mastery of this program, students could quickly move onto more complex languages, such as C++ and Java. The interface is very well thought out to make it easy to begin. In fact, the program is downright amazing. There is an external USB controller available. At $25, it is worth the investment to enhance your creations.

I had a blast creating a Pac-Man type game, and will be showing my six-year old daughter the game at home (she, like any six-year old, is capable of understanding the concepts, but I’ll have to find a way to make it relevant to her play). I’ll post updates on her progress!

Apart from the great application, his team has put together a website reminiscent of YouTube as a way to share creations. This truly is the icing on an already wonderful cake. The site allows comments, downloading the “code” of each project, and featured projects. As your audience becomes global, your creations take on a new meaning. An excellent educational tool!