SOFTWARE & TOOLS: Alice!
Out of curiousity (and relative impatience with Scratch) I installed the Alice download. Watched a tutorial (I’m learning to learn!) and it really drew me in with its screen setup and professional looking production. The tutorial is wonderfully set up to encourage learning by allowing the user to interact–Try moving the order around, it says, and you can actually do it, overcoming the fear and getting the immediate satisfaction of working the program without having to just watch and try to remember what you saw.
Guilt alone will encourage me to finish up in Scratch with something presentable at least–but anticipation of playing in Alice will encourage me to finish up in Scratch without bothering to make it something I need to be proud of producing.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology