The Many Facets of Scratch

This paper describes different Scratch activities proposed in different learning situations: for primary school-children aged about 9-10 years old; for in-service teachers active in various levels and types of schools, but with very low or without computing competences; for teachers and pupils in middle schools; for students in their beginning two years of technical secondary school (not necessarily specialized in informatics); and for future informatics teachers having a good knowledge of computer science. In all of these situations, Scratch has been introduced as a system for producing original stories, rather than as a programming system. For beginners, this choice proves to be success-ful in inspiring and motivating their intent to carry on with new activities. This success is mostly due to the possibility of producing, in a relatively short time, artifacts that teachers can immediately use in school; and the students feel they have created a complete product to show to other students (or to the family and to friends). Informatics experts, in particular informatics teachers, discover a pedagogical methodology they are not used to for introducing to programming. All the while, by using Scratch, we can introduce a number of fundamental el-ements of computer science such as algorithmic complexity. Also, students go through an introductory programming experience, making a faster and smoother change to other programming languages and other environments. In general, the use of Scratch supports and facilitates a process toward achieving competences that many consider necessary to our future young people.