Mitchel Resnick

Professional Title

Professor

Organization/Institution

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

About Me (Bio)

Mitchel Resnick, Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab, develops new technologies and activities to engage people (especially children) in creative learning experiences. His Lifelong Kindergarten research group helped develop the LEGO Mindstorms robotics kits, Scratch programming software, and the Computer Clubhouse network of after-school learning centers. Resnick earned a BS in physics from Princeton, and an MS and PhD in computer science from MIT. He has consulted and lectured around the world on innovative uses of new technologies in education.

Personal Website

http://www.media.mit.edu/~mres

http://llk.media.mit.edu

http://scratch.mit.edu

http://scratched.media.mit.edu

Keywords

Educational Technology

ScratchEd: Working with Teachers to Develop Design-Based Approaches to the Cultivation of Computational Thinking

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

08/15/2010

This project is designing, developing, and studying an innovative model for professional development (PD) of teachers who use the Scratch computer programming environment to help their students learn computational thinking. The fundamental hypothesis of the project is that engagement in workshops and on-line activities of the ScratchEd professional development community will enhance teacher knowledge about computational thinking, their practice of design-based instruction, and their students' learning of key computational thinking concepts and habits of mind.

ScratchJr: Computer Programming in Early Childhood Education as a Pathway to Academic Readiness and Success (Collaborative Research: Resnick)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Tufts University

08/01/2011

This project is researching and developing a new version of the Scratch programming language to be called ScratchJr, designed specifically for early childhood education (K-2). This work will provide research-based evidence regarding young children's abilities to use an object-oriented programming language and to study the impact this has on the children's learning of scientific concepts and procedures.