How Can I “Scratch” on an iPad?

At my school, coding is done during classes in the Computer Lab which means it’s typically done on desktop computers. As I have mentioned in the past, my students often use Scratch to create games and to show what they know in other curricular areas. I do have a couple of iPads and a few Android tablets that I can and do use with students. For events like the Hour of Code, I will also sometimes borrow tablets from parents for student use. I am always on the lookout for coding apps on tablets and mostly on iPads because that’s what I can usually borrow.

I also do presentations and training sessions on coding at tech fairs and conferences. I always say that coding can be used across the curriculum to let students show what they know using code and I firmly believe this is true. In order to use coding across the curriculum, it is helpful for coding apps (and websites) to allow students to:

  • Tell stories which means sprites (characters) must be able to be customized and must be able to interact with other sprites (characters)
  • Create quizzes (and games) which means there should be a way to notify if a question is answered correctly or not or if a game is won or lost; often this means a way to keep score
  • Use math calculations
  • Draw pictures with code
  • Import custom images and sounds

Since many schools these days have 1:1 iPads, I am often asked about block-based coding on iPads. Okay, to be honest, the question I am usually asked is, “Can I run Scratch on the iPad?

Unfortunately, since Scratch is written in Flash, it doesn’t run on the iPad or most other tablets. There are other block-based coding options that run on the iPad (and some on Android tablets, as well) but none I have found have all of the capabilities that Scratch does for creating cross-curricular projects.

Here are some block-based coding apps that I use and recommend. These all let students create projects starting with a blank canvas:

Link to Spreadsheet

Do you have a block-based coding app or website (that runs on the Safari or Chrome browser on an iPad) that you feel is a perfect replacement for Scratch on the iPad? Please share!

Edmodo, Schoology, My Big Campus – OH MY!

I am currently using Edmodo with my 4th-8th grade classes but often wonder if another Social Learning platform might be a better choice. Is it a case of the grass is greener or might another platform better meet the needs of what I’m trying to do? Do I want to try something different just because it’s a newer, shinier option or is there something it offers that what I’m using doesn’t? I don’t know the answer. I haven’t tried the different platforms with my students and don’t know that I want to have them be guinea pigs on a lot of different platforms just to see if they might be better.

What to do? During #caedchat last night a suggestion was made to start a document to compare different social learning platforms so I’ve done just that! Why these platforms? They’re the ones I’ve heard about and they have a free option for educators.

Do you use Edmodo or Schoology or My Big Campus or Haiku or Collaborize Classroom? Feel free to edit this spreadsheet to help identify the strengths (and weaknesses) of each platform so that other educators can make more informed decisions about which to choose for their students. If you are going to edit the spreadsheet, it’s best to use Chrome; I’ve noticed there are some definite display issues in other browsers.

NOTE: The ability for anyone to edit this document has been disabled. There were obvious edits made by some vendors about their own products and edits and deletions made to other information that was not true or that removed valid information. This was not the purpose of this document therefore public editing has been removed.