Share Paper: ScratchLabs: A Novel Professional Development Program for Technology Integration

  1. Alia Carter, g8four, United States
  2. Shaundra Daily, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
  3. Julian Daily, g8four, United States
Thursday, April 1 10:15 AM-11:15 AM Nautilus 5

Abstract: In 2008, Birmingham, Alabama became the first city in the United States to purchase XO laptops for it's entire elementary school population. We present a three-part professional development, called ScratchLabs, utilizing the Scratch programming language developed at the MIT Media Laboratory. ScratchLabs includes both technological and instructional support for teachers on the XO through in-service teacher workshops and in-class modeling in preparation for a science competition. The components of this model provided a sustainable way to support teachers in learning more about the laptop and to gain concrete strategies for utilizing it in their classrooms. The use of Scratch provided ...