The lack of digital materials is one of the toughest things about children’s online learning. On the other hand, digitalization creates opportunities for us to teach kids better and diversify our sources of income. One way to develop digital materials is to use Scratch. Scratch is a computer programming language developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. People across age groups (yes, even kids!) can learn how to use it to create online games, stories, and animations.
The Visual Capitalist reported that information technology topped the sectors that performed well despite the pandemic in 2020. The gaming industry also surged past movies and sports combined as the source of entertainment due to COVID-19. So if you can acquire coding skills for creating educational and therapeutic games, not only will you help children learn better but you might just land a recession-proof career. Apps are also scalable products so selling them can be a viable business. Be aware though that making profitable child-friendly apps is difficult. On the other hand, everything is hard! Between learning computer programming and unemployment due to the failure to upskill or reskill, choose to learn Scratch as the difficult thing that you must do. So try it for yourself! Click the links below to access Scratch tutorials (Disclaimer: I like the Scratch tutorials in these channels, but I don’t endorse all of their other content).
SCRATCH TUTORIALS
THE STATE OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
The Top-Performing Sectors in 2020, So Far by Visual Capitalist
Video games are a bigger industry than movies and North American sports combined, thanks to the pandemic by Wallace Witkowski, contributor at MarketWatch
Beyond Point and Click: The Expanding Demand for Coding Skills by Burning Glass Technologies
Can independent developers make money from children’s apps? by Stuart Dredge, contributor at The Guardian
(Photo by Felipe Viera)
Comments