Mitchel Resnick is excited to learn about creative use of Scratch in Belarus

30 August 2017

At the Scratch Conference 2017 in Budapest, Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research, Director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, highly valued the work of Belarusian Scratch teachers.

"I was excited to learn about your creative use of Scratch in Belarus. Thank you for helping to introduce the students of Belarus to the creative possibilities of coding with Scratch," addressed Mitchel Resnick Scratch community of Belarus.

Mitchel Resnick is a prominent figure in education, director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab who developed the Scratch programming software and online community, the world's leading coding platform for children.

When meeting with the Belarus team, Mitchel Resnick learned about the educational project on teaching students in grades 2-6 programming in Scratch implemented in Belarus by the Hi-Tech Park and the Ministry of Education.







HTP Deputy Director Alexander Martinkevich and Mitchel Resnick talked about future plans and discussed cooperation prospects.

This year, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Scratch. To celebrate, international conferences on Scratch are organized in France, Costa Rica, Chile, Brazil, China, and Hungary. The Scratch Conference 2017 in Budapest was organized by the HTP resident EPAM Systems.







For reference:

The joint educational project of the Hi-Tech Park and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus "Programming in Scratch" was launched in 2016.

The project was designed to develop students' algorithmic and logical thinking and basic programming skills.

In the 2016/2017 academic year, the project was piloted in 15 schools in the Grodno and Vitebsk regions.

The Educational Center of the Hi-Tech Park helped to train 48 teachers for the project, including 23 elementary school teachers. Over 600 students attended elective classes in Scratch.

More details at scratch.by.