For this week’s reading, I downloaded Scratch and spent at least an hour playing around with it. I thought that it was a great way to start ‘programming,’ particularly for beginners. I was intimidated when I first read that we would be covering programming this week, as just learning the basics of HTML felt like a huge undertaking for me. I grew up in a place that received donated Mac computers in early 2004, and no one on my reservation owned a personal computer until 2006. I must admit that I barely knew the basics of Microsoft Word until I went to college, and even then, I basically winged it until my Sophomore year.

I enjoyed playing around with Scratch. I added numerous motions and color changes to my Sprite. I intended to include a screenshot, but for some reason my laptop is not complying. What I found most interesting is that Scratch was created (according to it’s Wikipedia page) as a tool that would be easily usable for children. I love that the next generation will be so computer-savvy. I struggled in the first ten minutes of using the program, trying to find a way to make the Sprite move (until I added the move on green flag tool to the instructions). I love that Scratch was made to be easily used by children, though I’m also a little embarrassed by my initial struggle with the program given that I’m 23.