少儿编程之父Mitchel Resnick给所有家长的一封信（附英文原版）

米切尔·雷斯尼克（Mitchel Resnick）

创新教育领域开拓者，麻省理工学院媒体实验室学习研究教授。致力于用现代科技为孩子和成人提供创造性学习体验，撬动全世界孩子创造性思维的百宝箱。毕生梦想是让世界充满会玩又有创造力的人。少儿编程之父，领导“终身幼儿园”团队开发了风靡世界的Scratch编程语言及在线社区平台。Scratch平台已被全世界数百万孩子和成年人用来制作和分享动画、故事、游戏和互动艺术，成为创新思维教育的范本。乐高教育全球董事，主导乐高机器人背后的科技巨人，创造了积木与科技相连的奇迹。与乐高公司密切合作长达30年，是乐高教育理念奠基人之一。2011年获麦格劳教育奖（McGraw Prize），并被《快公司》（Fast Company）评为100位世界极具创意的商业人物之一。Mitchel Resnick给所有家长的一封信，来自麻省理工大学官网

学习编码，学习代码

学习写作对所有的孩子都很重要吗？很少有孩子长大后会成为记者、小说家或专业作家。那么，为什么每个人都要学会写作呢？

当然，这样的问题似乎很愚蠢。人们在生活的各个方面都使用写作：向朋友发送生日信息，记下购物清单，在日记中记录个人感受。写作的行为也使人们有了新的思维方式。当人们写作时，他们学会组织、提炼和思考自己的想法。显然，每个人都有学习写作的强大理由。

我认为编码(计算机编程)是写作的延伸。编写代码的能力允许您“编写”新类型的东西--交互式故事、游戏、动画和模拟。而且，和传统的写作一样，每个人都有强大的理由去学习代码。

最近，人们对学习编码产生了浓厚的兴趣，特别是对职业机会的关注。这很容易理解为什么：程序员和计算机科学家的工作数量正在迅速增长，需求远远超过供应。

但是我看到了学习代码的更深更广的原因。在学习代码的过程中，人们学到了很多其他的东西。他们不仅仅是在学习编码，他们是为了学习而编码。除了学习数学和计算思想(例如变量和条件)之外，他们还学习解决问题、设计项目和交流想法的策略。这些技能不仅对计算机科学家有用，而且对每个人都有用，无论年龄、兴趣或职业如何。

2007年5月，我在麻省理工学院媒体实验室的研究小组推出了Scratch编程语言和在线社区，目的是让每个人都可以使用编码并吸引他们。从那时起，年轻人(8岁及8岁以上)在Scratch网站上分享了超过450万个项目，每天新增数千个新项目。Scratch用于许多场合(家庭、学校、图书馆、社区中心)，在小学到大学的许多年龄层次上使用，并且跨越许多学科(从数学、计算机科学、语言艺术、社会研究)。

我们对这些项目的多样性和创造性感到惊讶。看看Scratch网站，你会发现动画故事、虚拟旅游、科学模拟、公共服务公告、多媒体艺术项目、在线通讯、互动教程等等。

举个例子，让我来描述一下一个年轻的Scratcher创建的一些项目，我将他称为蓝土星。当蓝土星12岁开始使用Scratch时，她的首批项目之一是一张圣诞贺卡，上面有圣诞老人和他的驯鹿的卡通形象。每只驯鹿都拿着一件乐器，当点击时，播放了一首不同的歌曲“我们祝你圣诞快乐”。蓝土星给她的朋友们发了一个链接，作为节日问候。

当她正在制作圣诞卡时，蓝土星意识到她最喜欢的是创作动画人物。因此，她开发了一个项目，其中包括一系列不同的动画人物：恐龙、龙、飞马。在“项目笔记”中，她鼓励社区其他成员在自己的项目中使用自己的角色，并主动提出根据要求制作定制字符。实际上，蓝土星正在建立一个咨询服务。我们从来没有想到过，Scratch网站会以这种方式使用。

一位社区成员想要一只猎豹为他的划痕项目，所以蓝土星做了一个动画猎豹，根据她在国家地理网站上看到的视频。对于另一位社区成员来说，蓝土星创造了一只翅膀拍打的鸟，然后她发布了一个循序渐进的教程，展示了她是如何制作动画的。

蓝土星在社区中广为人知，她开始收到加入协作团队的请求，也就是在Scratch社区中经常被称为“拼贴画”(Colabs)。在一个科拉布里，蓝土星与来自三个不同国家的另外四个年轻人合作制作了一款复杂的冒险游戏。蓝土星创造动画人物，而其他成员科拉布开发游戏场景，创造音乐和声音效果，并绘制背景。

在进行这些项目的过程中，Blue土星当然学会了编码技巧，但她也学到了许多其他的东西。她学会了如何将复杂的问题分成更简单的部分，如何迭代地改进她的设计，如何识别和修复bug，如何与他人共享和协作，以及如何在面临挑战时坚持不懈。

我们发现，Scratch社区的活跃成员开始以不同的方式看待自己。他们开始把自己看作是创造者和设计师，他们可以用数字媒体制作东西和表达自己，而不仅仅是浏览、聊天和玩游戏。虽然许多人可以阅读数字媒体，但斯克拉特人可以写数字媒体，因此他们准备成为当今数字社会的充分参与者。

米切尔·雷尼克

麻省理工学院媒体实验室学习研究教授

2013年5月在EdSurge发表

英文原版

Learn to Code, Code to Learn

Is it important for all children to learn how to write? Very few children grow up to be journalists, novelists, or professional writers. So why should everyone learn to write?

Of course, such questions seem silly. People use writing in all parts of their lives: to send birthday messages to friends, to jot down shopping lists, to record personal feelings in diaries. The act of writing also engages people in new ways of thinking. As people write, they learn to organize, refine, and reflect on their ideas. Clearly, there are powerful reasons for everyone to learn to write.

I see coding (computer programming) as an extension of writing. The ability to code allows you to “write” new types of things – interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations. And, as with traditional writing, there are powerful reasons for everyone to learn to code.

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in learning to code, focusing especially on career opportunities. It is easy to understand why: the number of jobs for programmers and computer scientists is growing rapidly, with demand far outpacing supply.

But I see much deeper and broader reasons for learning to code. In the process of learning to code, people learn many other things. They are not just learning to code, they are coding to learn. In addition to learning mathematical and computational ideas (such as variables and conditionals), they are also learning strategies for solving problems, designing projects, and communicating ideas. These skills useful not just for computer scientists but for everyone, regardless of age, interests, or occupation.

In May 2007, my research group at the MIT Media Lab launched the Scratch programming language and online community in an effort to make coding accessible and appealing to everyone. Since then, young people (ages 8 and up) have shared more than 4.5 million projects on the Scratch website, with thousands of new projects added every day. Scratch is used in many contexts (homes, schools, libraries, community centers), at many age levels elementary school to college), and across many (from disciplines (math, computer science, language arts, social studies).

We’ve been amazed with the diversity and creativity of the projects. Take a look at the Scratch website and you’ll find animated stories, virtual tours, science simulations, public-service announcements, multimedia art projects, online newsletters, interactive tutorials, and much more.

As an example, let me describe some of the projects created by a young Scratcher who I’ll call BlueSaturn. When BlueSaturn started using Scratch at age 12, one of her first projects was a Christmas card with cartoon images of Santa and his reindeer. Each reindeer was holding a musical instrument and, when clicked, played a different part of the song “We wish you a merry Christmas.” BlueSaturn sent her friends a link to the project as holiday greeting.

As she worked on the Christmas card, BlueSaturn realized that what she enjoyed most was creating animated characters. So she developed a project that featured a series of different animated characters: dinosaurs, dragons, flying horses. In the Project Notes, she encouraged other members of the community to make use of her characters in their own projects – and she offered to make custom characters upon request. In effect, BlueSaturn was setting up a consulting service. We had never imagined that the Scratch website would be used this way.

One community member wanted a cheetah for his Scratch project, so BlueSaturn made an animated cheetah, based on a video that she saw on a National Geographic site. For another community member, BlueSaturn created a bird with flapping wings – and then she posted a step-by-step tutorial showing how she had created the animation.

BlueSaturn became well-known in the community, and she began to receive requests to join collaborative teams, or “collabs” as they are often known in the Scratch community. In one collab, BlueSaturn worked with four other young people from three different countries to produce an elaborate adventure game. BlueSaturn created animated characters while other members of the collab developed game scenarios, created music and sound effects, and drew backgrounds.

In the process of working on these projects, BlueSaturn certainly learned coding skills, but she also learned many other things. She learned how to divide complex problems into simpler parts, how to iteratively refine her designs, how to identify and fix bugs, how to share and collaborate with others, how to persevere in the face of challenges.

We find that active members of the Scratch community start to think of themselves differently. They begin to see themselves as creators and designers, as people who can make things and express themselves with digital media, not just browse, chat, and play games. While many people can read digital media, Scratchers can write digital media – and are thus prepared to become full participants in today’s digital society.

Mitchel Resnick

Professor of Learning Research MIT Media Lab

Published in EdSurge May 2013