WEBVTT 00:00:00.651 --> 00:00:03.830 It was a Saturday afternoon in May, 00:00:03.830 --> 00:00:06.344 and I suddenly realized 00:00:06.344 --> 00:00:09.798 that the next day was Mother's Day, 00:00:09.798 --> 00:00:11.644 and I hadn't gotten anything for my mom, 00:00:11.644 --> 00:00:13.045 so I started thinking about 00:00:13.045 --> 00:00:15.382 what should I get my mom for Mother's Day? 00:00:15.382 --> 00:00:17.226 I thought, why don't I make her 00:00:17.226 --> 00:00:20.275 an interactive Mother's Day card 00:00:20.275 --> 00:00:22.983 using the Scratch software that I'd been developing 00:00:22.983 --> 00:00:26.800 with my research group at the MIT Media Lab? 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:30.180 We developed it so that people could easily create 00:00:30.180 --> 00:00:34.424 their own interactive stories and games and animations, 00:00:34.424 --> 00:00:38.193 and then share their creations with one another. 00:00:38.193 --> 00:00:42.061 So I thought, this would be an opportunity to use Scratch 00:00:42.061 --> 00:00:44.961 to make an interactive card for my mom. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:44.961 --> 00:00:47.137 Before making my own Mother's Day card, 00:00:47.137 --> 00:00:49.122 I thought I would take a look 00:00:49.122 --> 00:00:50.695 at the Scratch website. 00:00:50.695 --> 00:00:54.053 So over the last several years, kids around the world 00:00:54.053 --> 00:00:57.247 ages 8 and up, have shared their projects, 00:00:57.247 --> 00:01:00.682 and I thought, I wonder if, of those three million projects, 00:01:00.682 --> 00:01:04.067 whether anyone else has thought to put up Mother's Day cards. 00:01:04.067 --> 00:01:07.061 So in the search box I typed in 00:01:07.061 --> 00:01:08.606 "Mother's Day," 00:01:08.606 --> 00:01:11.609 and I was surprised and delighted to see a list 00:01:11.609 --> 00:01:14.313 of dozens and dozens of Mother's Day cards 00:01:14.313 --> 00:01:16.827 that showed up on the Scratch website, 00:01:16.827 --> 00:01:19.145 many of them just in the past 24 hours 00:01:19.145 --> 00:01:22.351 by procrastinators just like myself. 00:01:22.351 --> 00:01:25.473 So I started taking a look at them. (Music) 00:01:25.473 --> 00:01:27.929 I saw one of them that featured a kitten 00:01:27.929 --> 00:01:34.800 and her mom and wishing her mom a happy Mother's Day. 00:01:34.800 --> 00:01:37.331 And the creator very considerately 00:01:37.331 --> 00:01:40.835 offered a replay for her mom. 00:01:40.835 --> 00:01:43.219 Another one was an interactive project where, 00:01:43.219 --> 00:01:46.417 when you moved the mouse over the letters of "Happy Mom Day," 00:01:46.417 --> 00:01:51.337 it reveals a special happy Mother's Day slogan. 00:01:51.337 --> 00:01:55.320 (Music) In this one, the creator told a narrative 00:01:55.320 --> 00:01:57.979 about how she had Googled to find out 00:01:57.979 --> 00:02:01.096 when Mother's Day was happening. 00:02:01.096 --> 00:02:05.239 (Typing) And then once she found out when Mother's Day was happening, 00:02:05.239 --> 00:02:07.717 she delivered a special Mother's Day greeting 00:02:07.717 --> 00:02:11.344 of how much she loved her mom. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:11.344 --> 00:02:13.569 So I really enjoyed looking at these projects 00:02:13.569 --> 00:02:15.221 and interacting with these projects. 00:02:15.221 --> 00:02:19.062 In fact, I liked it so much that, instead of making my own project, 00:02:19.062 --> 00:02:23.816 I sent my mom links to about a dozen of these projects. (Laughter) 00:02:23.816 --> 00:02:27.396 And actually, she reacted exactly the way that I hoped that she would. 00:02:27.396 --> 00:02:28.781 She wrote back to me and she said, 00:02:28.781 --> 00:02:32.048 "I'm so proud to have a son that created the software 00:02:32.048 --> 00:02:36.160 that allowed these kids to make Mother's Day cards for their mothers." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:36.160 --> 00:02:39.960 So my mom was happy, and that made me happy, 00:02:39.960 --> 00:02:44.584 but actually I was even happier for another reason. 00:02:44.584 --> 00:02:48.543 I was happy because these kids were using Scratch 00:02:48.543 --> 00:02:51.344 just in the way that we had hoped that they would. 00:02:51.344 --> 00:02:54.155 As they created their interactive Mother's Day cards, 00:02:54.155 --> 00:02:56.436 you could see that they were really 00:02:56.436 --> 00:02:59.748 becoming fluent with new technologies. 00:02:59.748 --> 00:03:01.211 What do I mean by fluent? 00:03:01.211 --> 00:03:05.243 I mean that they were able to start expressing themselves 00:03:05.243 --> 00:03:08.020 and to start expressing their ideas. 00:03:08.020 --> 00:03:10.674 When you become fluent with language, 00:03:10.674 --> 00:03:14.211 it means you can write an entry in your journal 00:03:14.211 --> 00:03:18.264 or tell a joke to someone or write a letter to a friend. 00:03:18.264 --> 00:03:21.421 And it's similar with new technologies. 00:03:21.421 --> 00:03:25.603 By writing, be creating these interactive Mother's Day cards, 00:03:25.603 --> 00:03:28.133 these kids were showing that they were really fluent 00:03:28.133 --> 00:03:29.806 with new technologies. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:29.806 --> 00:03:32.571 Now maybe you won't be so surprised by this, 00:03:32.571 --> 00:03:35.267 because a lot of times people feel that 00:03:35.267 --> 00:03:38.667 young people today can do all sorts of things with technology. 00:03:38.667 --> 00:03:43.128 I mean, all of us have heard young people referred to as "digital natives." 00:03:43.128 --> 00:03:46.925 But actually I'm sort of skeptical about this term. 00:03:46.925 --> 00:03:50.426 I'm not so sure we should be thinking of young people as digital natives. 00:03:50.426 --> 00:03:52.979 When you really look at it, how is it that young people 00:03:52.979 --> 00:03:56.515 spend most of their time using new technologies? 00:03:56.515 --> 00:04:00.038 You often see them in situations like this, 00:04:00.038 --> 00:04:02.232 or like this, 00:04:02.232 --> 00:04:03.750 and there's no doubt that young people 00:04:03.750 --> 00:04:07.066 are very comfortable and familiar browsing 00:04:07.066 --> 00:04:11.588 and chatting and texting and gaming. 00:04:11.588 --> 00:04:14.787 But that doesn't really make you fluent. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:14.787 --> 00:04:18.746 So young people today have lots of experience 00:04:18.746 --> 00:04:22.541 and lots of familiarity with interacting with new technologies, 00:04:22.541 --> 00:04:25.946 but a lot less so of creating with new technologies 00:04:25.946 --> 00:04:28.918 and expressing themselves with new technologies. 00:04:28.918 --> 00:04:31.310 It's almost as if they can read 00:04:31.310 --> 00:04:34.643 but not write with new technologies. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:34.643 --> 00:04:38.541 And I'm really interested in seeing, how can we help young people become fluent 00:04:38.541 --> 00:04:41.070 so they can write with new technologies? 00:04:41.070 --> 00:04:44.430 And that really means that they need to be able to 00:04:44.430 --> 00:04:48.942 write their own computer programs, or code. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:48.942 --> 00:04:51.654 So, increasingly, people are starting to recognize 00:04:51.654 --> 00:04:54.958 the importance of learning to code. 00:04:54.958 --> 00:04:57.560 You know, in recent years, there have been 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:00.452 hundreds of new organizations and websites 00:05:00.452 --> 00:05:03.746 that are helping young people learn to code. 00:05:03.746 --> 00:05:07.337 You look online, you'll see places like Codecademy 00:05:07.337 --> 00:05:09.708 and events like CoderDojo 00:05:09.708 --> 00:05:12.139 and sites like Girls Who Code, 00:05:12.139 --> 00:05:13.833 or Black Girls Code. 00:05:13.833 --> 00:05:16.941 It seems that everybody is getting into the act. 00:05:16.941 --> 00:05:19.524 You know, just at the beginning of this year, 00:05:19.524 --> 00:05:20.889 at the turn of the new year, 00:05:20.889 --> 00:05:23.549 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg 00:05:23.549 --> 00:05:25.809 made a New Year's resolution that he was going to learn 00:05:25.809 --> 00:05:28.588 to code in 2012. 00:05:28.588 --> 00:05:31.756 A few months later, the country of Estonia decided that 00:05:31.756 --> 00:05:35.412 all of its first graders should learn to code. 00:05:35.412 --> 00:05:38.204 And that triggered a debate in the U.K. 00:05:38.204 --> 00:05:42.513 about whether all the children there should learn to code. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:42.513 --> 00:05:45.356 Now, for some of you, when you hear about this, 00:05:45.356 --> 00:05:48.964 it might seem sort of strange about everybody learning to code. 00:05:48.964 --> 00:05:52.114 When many people think of coding, they think of it 00:05:52.114 --> 00:05:55.690 as something that only a very narrow sub-community 00:05:55.690 --> 00:05:58.348 of people are going to be doing, 00:05:58.348 --> 00:06:01.270 and they think of coding looking like this. 00:06:01.270 --> 00:06:03.436 And in fact, if this is what coding is like, 00:06:03.436 --> 00:06:05.931 it will only be a narrow sub-community of people 00:06:05.931 --> 00:06:09.003 with special mathematical skills and technological background 00:06:09.003 --> 00:06:11.269 that can code. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:11.269 --> 00:06:13.769 But coding doesn't have to be like this. 00:06:13.769 --> 00:06:17.748 Let me show you about what it's like to code in Scratch. 00:06:17.748 --> 00:06:22.027 So in Scratch, to code, you just snap blocks together. 00:06:22.027 --> 00:06:23.942 In this case, you take a move block, 00:06:23.942 --> 00:06:25.711 snap it into a stack, 00:06:25.711 --> 00:06:28.469 and the stacks of blocks control the behaviors 00:06:28.469 --> 00:06:31.987 of the different characters in your game or your story, 00:06:31.987 --> 00:06:34.288 in this case controlling the big fish. 00:06:34.288 --> 00:06:37.739 After you've created your program, you can click on "share," 00:06:37.739 --> 00:06:40.815 and then share your project with other people, 00:06:40.815 --> 00:06:42.638 so that they can use the project 00:06:42.638 --> 00:06:45.612 and start working on the project as well. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:45.612 --> 00:06:48.934 So, of course, making a fish game isn't the only thing 00:06:48.934 --> 00:06:50.579 you can do with Scratch. 00:06:50.579 --> 00:06:52.559 Of the millions of projects on the Scratch website, 00:06:52.559 --> 00:06:55.383 there's everything from animated stories 00:06:55.383 --> 00:06:57.799 to school science projects 00:06:57.799 --> 00:06:59.863 to anime soap operas 00:06:59.863 --> 00:07:02.185 to virtual construction kits 00:07:02.185 --> 00:07:04.898 to recreations of classic video games 00:07:04.898 --> 00:07:07.167 to political opinion polls 00:07:07.167 --> 00:07:09.807 to trigonometry tutorials 00:07:09.807 --> 00:07:12.727 to interactive artwork, and, yes, 00:07:12.727 --> 00:07:15.511 interactive Mother's Day cards. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:15.511 --> 00:07:18.547 So I think there's so many different ways 00:07:18.547 --> 00:07:22.007 that people can express themselves using this, 00:07:22.007 --> 00:07:25.407 to be able to take their ideas and share their ideas with the world. 00:07:25.407 --> 00:07:27.969 And it doesn't just stay on the screen. 00:07:27.969 --> 00:07:31.736 You can also code to interact with the physical world around you. 00:07:31.736 --> 00:07:34.215 Here's an example from Hong Kong, 00:07:34.215 --> 00:07:35.622 where some kids made a game 00:07:35.622 --> 00:07:38.903 and then built their own physical interface device 00:07:38.903 --> 00:07:41.795 and had a light sensor, so the light sensor 00:07:41.795 --> 00:07:43.738 detects the hole in the board, 00:07:43.738 --> 00:07:45.938 so as they move the physical saw, 00:07:45.938 --> 00:07:48.178 the light sensor detects the hole 00:07:48.178 --> 00:07:51.134 and controls the virtual saw on the screen 00:07:51.134 --> 00:07:53.914 and saws down the tree. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:53.914 --> 00:07:56.023 We're going to continue to look at new ways 00:07:56.023 --> 00:07:59.079 of bringing together the physical world and the virtual world 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:02.007 and connecting to the world around us. 00:08:02.007 --> 00:08:04.240 This is an example from a new version of Scratch 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:07.863 that we'll be releasing in the next few months, 00:08:07.863 --> 00:08:09.913 and we're looking again to be able 00:08:09.913 --> 00:08:11.609 to push you in new directions. 00:08:11.609 --> 00:08:13.873 Here's an example. 00:08:13.873 --> 00:08:17.947 It uses the webcam. 00:08:17.947 --> 00:08:22.803 And as I move my hand, I can pop the balloons 00:08:22.803 --> 00:08:25.688 or I can move the bug. 00:08:25.688 --> 00:08:28.253 So it's a little bit like Microsoft Kinect, 00:08:28.253 --> 00:08:30.969 where you interact with gestures in the world. 00:08:30.969 --> 00:08:33.213 But instead of just playing someone else's game, 00:08:33.213 --> 00:08:35.455 you get to create the games, 00:08:35.455 --> 00:08:36.838 and if you see someone else's game, 00:08:36.838 --> 00:08:39.478 you can just say "see inside," 00:08:39.478 --> 00:08:42.372 and you can look at the stacks of blocks that control it. 00:08:42.372 --> 00:08:45.927 So there's a new block that says how much video motion there is, 00:08:45.927 --> 00:08:49.048 and then, if there's so much video motion, 00:08:49.048 --> 00:08:52.427 it will then tell the balloon to pop. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:52.427 --> 00:08:54.811 The same way that this uses the camera 00:08:54.811 --> 00:08:57.316 to get information into Scratch, 00:08:57.316 --> 00:09:00.323 you can also use the microphone. 00:09:00.323 --> 00:09:04.307 Here's an example of a project using the microphone. 00:09:04.307 --> 00:09:06.707 So I'm going to let all of you control this game 00:09:06.707 --> 00:09:08.953 using your voices. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:08.953 --> 00:09:25.409 (Crickets chirping) (Shouts) (Chomping) 00:09:25.409 --> 00:09:34.038 (Laughter) 00:09:34.038 --> 00:09:42.822 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:42.822 --> 00:09:45.427 As kids are creating projects like this, 00:09:45.427 --> 00:09:47.692 they're learning to code, 00:09:47.692 --> 00:09:51.626 but even more importantly, they're coding to learn. 00:09:51.626 --> 00:09:53.915 Because as they learn to code, 00:09:53.915 --> 00:09:57.235 it enables them to learn many other things, 00:09:57.235 --> 00:10:00.107 opens up many new opportunities for learning. 00:10:00.107 --> 00:10:04.491 Again, it's useful to make an analogy to reading and writing. 00:10:04.491 --> 00:10:07.431 When you learn to read and write, it opens up 00:10:07.431 --> 00:10:10.491 opportunities for you to learn so many other things. 00:10:10.491 --> 00:10:14.251 When you learn to read, you can then read to learn. 00:10:14.251 --> 00:10:16.439 And it's the same thing with coding. 00:10:16.439 --> 00:10:18.986 If you learn to code, you can code to learn. 00:10:18.986 --> 00:10:21.540 Now some of the things you can learn are sort of obvious. 00:10:21.540 --> 00:10:24.038 You learn more about how computers work. 00:10:24.038 --> 00:10:26.356 But that's just where it starts. 00:10:26.356 --> 00:10:28.951 When you learn to code, it opens up for you to learn 00:10:28.951 --> 00:10:31.196 many other things. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:31.196 --> 00:10:33.542 Let me show you an example. 00:10:33.542 --> 00:10:35.812 Here's another project, 00:10:35.812 --> 00:10:38.080 and I saw this when I was visiting 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:40.222 one of the computer clubhouses. 00:10:40.222 --> 00:10:43.242 These are after-school learning centers that we helped start 00:10:43.242 --> 00:10:46.004 that help young people from low-income communities 00:10:46.004 --> 00:10:50.083 learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies. 00:10:50.083 --> 00:10:52.878 And when I went to one of the clubhouses a couple years ago, 00:10:52.878 --> 00:10:56.603 I saw a 13-year-old boy who was using our Scratch software 00:10:56.603 --> 00:10:59.499 to create a game somewhat like this one, 00:10:59.499 --> 00:11:02.422 and he was very happy with his game and proud of his game, 00:11:02.422 --> 00:11:05.387 but also he wanted to do more. 00:11:05.387 --> 00:11:07.691 He wanted to keep score. 00:11:07.691 --> 00:11:10.767 So this was a game where the big fish eats the little fish, 00:11:10.767 --> 00:11:13.694 but he wanted to keep score, so that each time 00:11:13.694 --> 00:11:17.072 the big fish eats the little fish, 00:11:17.072 --> 00:11:19.611 the score would go up and it would keep track, 00:11:19.611 --> 00:11:22.123 and he didn't know how to do that. 00:11:22.123 --> 00:11:24.388 So I showed him. 00:11:24.388 --> 00:11:27.965 In Scratch, you can create something called a variable. 00:11:27.965 --> 00:11:32.092 I'll call it score. 00:11:32.092 --> 00:11:34.923 And that creates some new blocks for you, 00:11:34.923 --> 00:11:39.589 and also creates a little scoreboard that keeps track of the score, 00:11:39.589 --> 00:11:44.841 so each time I click on "change score," it increments the score. 00:11:44.841 --> 00:11:47.366 So I showed this to the clubhouse member -- 00:11:47.366 --> 00:11:50.067 let's call him Victor -- and Victor, 00:11:50.067 --> 00:11:52.869 when he saw that this block would let him increment the score, 00:11:52.869 --> 00:11:54.685 he knew exactly what to do. 00:11:54.685 --> 00:11:56.999 He took the block 00:11:56.999 --> 00:12:00.043 and he put it into the program 00:12:00.043 --> 00:12:04.236 exactly where the big fish eats the little fish. 00:12:04.236 --> 00:12:09.259 So then, each time the big fish eats the little fish, 00:12:09.259 --> 00:12:15.254 he will increment the score, and the score will go up by one. 00:12:15.254 --> 00:12:16.951 And it's in fact working. 00:12:16.951 --> 00:12:19.205 And he saw this, and he was so excited, 00:12:19.205 --> 00:12:20.884 he reached his hand out to me, 00:12:20.884 --> 00:12:23.433 and he said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." 00:12:23.433 --> 00:12:25.502 And what went through my mind was, 00:12:25.502 --> 00:12:28.544 how often is it that teachers are thanked by their students 00:12:28.544 --> 00:12:31.947 for teaching them variables? (Laughter) 00:12:31.947 --> 00:12:34.428 It doesn't happen in most classrooms, 00:12:34.428 --> 00:12:37.387 but that's because in most classrooms, when kids learn about variables, 00:12:37.387 --> 00:12:39.895 they don't know why they're learning it. 00:12:39.895 --> 00:12:42.766 It's nothing that, really, they can make use of. 00:12:42.766 --> 00:12:44.928 When you learn ideas like this in Scratch, 00:12:44.928 --> 00:12:49.031 you can learn it in a way that's really meaningful and motivating for you, 00:12:49.031 --> 00:12:52.021 that you can understand the reason for learning variables, 00:12:52.021 --> 00:12:54.063 and we see that kids learn it more deeply 00:12:54.063 --> 00:12:55.478 and learn it better. 00:12:55.478 --> 00:12:58.519 Victor had, I'm sure, been taught about variables in schools, 00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:00.707 but he really didn't -- he wasn't paying attention. 00:13:00.707 --> 00:13:02.990 Now he had a reason for learning variables. 00:13:02.990 --> 00:13:06.064 So when you learn through coding, and coding to learn, 00:13:06.064 --> 00:13:10.948 you're learning it in a meaningful context, and that's the best way of learning things. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:10.948 --> 00:13:14.403 So as kids like Victor are creating projects like this, 00:13:14.403 --> 00:13:17.187 they're learning important concepts like variables, 00:13:17.187 --> 00:13:19.315 but that's just the start. 00:13:19.315 --> 00:13:23.165 As Victor worked on this project and created the scripts, 00:13:23.165 --> 00:13:26.417 he was also learning about the process of design, 00:13:26.417 --> 00:13:29.036 how to start with the glimmer of an idea 00:13:29.036 --> 00:13:31.942 and turn it into a fully-fledged, functioning project 00:13:31.942 --> 00:13:34.449 like you see here. 00:13:34.449 --> 00:13:38.489 So he was learning many different core principles of design, 00:13:38.489 --> 00:13:41.731 about how to experiment with new ideas, 00:13:41.731 --> 00:13:46.436 how to take complex ideas and break them down into simpler parts, 00:13:46.436 --> 00:13:49.426 how to collaborate with other people on your projects, 00:13:49.426 --> 00:13:52.877 about how to find and fix bugs when things go wrong, 00:13:52.877 --> 00:13:55.931 how to keep persistent and to persevere 00:13:55.931 --> 00:13:59.336 in the face of frustrations when things aren't working well. 00:13:59.336 --> 00:14:01.109 Now those are important skills 00:14:01.109 --> 00:14:03.977 that aren't just relevant for coding. 00:14:03.977 --> 00:14:06.804 They're relevant for all sorts of different activities. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:06.804 --> 00:14:09.972 Now, who knows if Victor is going to grow up and become 00:14:09.972 --> 00:14:12.896 a programmer or a professional computer scientist? 00:14:12.896 --> 00:14:14.708 It's probably not so likely, 00:14:14.708 --> 00:14:16.496 but regardless of what he does, 00:14:16.496 --> 00:14:20.200 he'll be able to make use of these design skills that he learned. 00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:22.784 Regardless of whether he grows up to be a marketing manager 00:14:22.784 --> 00:14:25.904 or a mechanic or a community organizer, 00:14:25.904 --> 00:14:28.360 that these ideas are useful for everybody. 00:14:28.360 --> 00:14:32.282 Again, it's useful to think about this analogy with language. 00:14:32.282 --> 00:14:36.638 When you become fluent with reading and writing, 00:14:36.638 --> 00:14:39.079 it's not something that you're doing 00:14:39.079 --> 00:14:41.039 just to become a professional writer. 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:43.736 Very few people become professional writers. 00:14:43.736 --> 00:14:47.304 But it's useful for everybody to learn how to read and write. 00:14:47.304 --> 00:14:49.399 Again, the same thing with coding. 00:14:49.399 --> 00:14:51.621 Most people won't grow up to become professional 00:14:51.621 --> 00:14:54.840 computer scientists or programmers, 00:14:54.840 --> 00:14:57.178 but those skills of thinking creatively, 00:14:57.178 --> 00:14:59.692 reasoning systematically, working collaboratively -- 00:14:59.692 --> 00:15:02.402 skills you develop when you code in Scratch -- 00:15:02.402 --> 00:15:07.224 are things that people can use no matter what they're doing in their work lives. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:07.224 --> 00:15:09.600 And it's not just about your work life. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:12.320 Coding can also enable you to 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:15.496 express your ideas and feelings in your personal life. 00:15:15.496 --> 00:15:18.169 Let me end with just one more example. 00:15:18.169 --> 00:15:21.296 So this is an example that came from 00:15:21.296 --> 00:15:25.764 after I had sent the Mother's Day cards to my mom, 00:15:25.764 --> 00:15:28.865 she decided that she wanted to learn Scratch. 00:15:28.865 --> 00:15:31.896 So she made this project for my birthday 00:15:31.896 --> 00:15:35.472 and sent me a happy birthday Scratch card. 00:15:35.472 --> 00:15:39.328 Now this project is not going to win any prizes for design, 00:15:39.328 --> 00:15:42.303 and you can rest assured that my 83-year-old mom 00:15:42.303 --> 00:15:46.540 is not training to become a professional programmer or computer scientist. 00:15:46.540 --> 00:15:49.512 But working on this project enabled her 00:15:49.512 --> 00:15:52.178 to make a connection to someone that she cares about 00:15:52.178 --> 00:15:54.986 and enabled her to keep on learning new things 00:15:54.986 --> 00:15:57.418 and continuing to practice her creativity 00:15:57.418 --> 00:16:00.593 and developing new ways of expressing herself. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:00.593 --> 00:16:04.804 So as we take a look and we see that 00:16:04.804 --> 00:16:07.368 Michael Bloomberg is learning to code, 00:16:07.368 --> 00:16:10.018 all of the children of Estonia learn to code, 00:16:10.018 --> 00:16:12.218 even my mom has learned to code, 00:16:12.218 --> 00:16:13.990 don't you think it's about time that you might be 00:16:13.990 --> 00:16:15.902 thinking about learning to code? 00:16:15.902 --> 00:16:18.095 If you're interested in giving it a try, 00:16:18.095 --> 00:16:20.531 I'd encourage you to go to the Scratch website. 00:16:20.531 --> 00:16:22.556 It's scratch.mit.edu, 00:16:22.556 --> 00:16:24.378 and give a try at coding. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:24.378 --> 00:16:28.496 Thanks very much. (Applause)