Take, for example, Scratch. It's a graphical drag-and-drop programming tool that takes out the risk of syntax errors. Just removing that little bit of frustration alone would have been an ...

The main problem with programming languages is that the really useful ones are a little too abstract for kids. BASIC or some scripting language is probably more appropriate, but there’s usually ...

Scratch saves its finished files in its own .SB format, but users can upload their finished products to the Scratch home page with the click of a button, a very Web 2.0 addition.

Today the free program is used in more than 150 countries and thousands of schools, with more than 1,500 animations and games uploaded to the online Scratch community each day.