Just recently, during the week of January 13 to 17, invited jointly by the Fundació Bofill and UdiGitalEdu, Prof. Bers spent a week at the University of Girona, visiting spaces such as UdiGitalEdu, CIRS, GAMAR, and FEP, and participating in discussions and work sessions with researchers, teachers, and policy makers.
Prof. Marina Bers is a world-renowned expert in Computational Thinking and the creator of tools such as ScratchJr and the KIBO robot, designed to introduce young children to programming both with and without screens. She has an extraordinary career as a disciple of Seymour Papert, a pioneer in Artificial Intelligence and Educational Programming.
With over 50 million users worldwide, ScratchJr is a free programming environment developed for children ages 5-7. With ScratchJr, children can learn the powerful ideas of Computer Science and Literacy through programming and customizing their own animations, stories, and games.
ScratchJr was created by the DevTech Research Group in partnership with Lifelong Kindergarten at MIT and the Playful Invention Company and now generously supported by the Scratch Foundation. In the past decade, DevTech created copious learning and teaching resources, researched learning outcomes with ScratchJr and its curricula, and worked with the global community to support the use of ScratchJr.
Mariona and Jordi: 6 Months at DevTech
It all started exactly a year ago when Prof Jordi Freixenet received a grant from the ministry to conduct a research stay at DevTech at Boston College. Jordi and Mariona (his life partner) spent six months working at DevTech and learning from Prof. Bers and her entire team. The experience was incredible, both personally and professionally.
Prof. Marina Bers was very generous and invited us from day one to her classes, ranging from undergraduate courses to those for master’s and doctoral students. Marina gives an undergraduate course called “Tech Tools for Playful Learning,” which includes around thirty students from two different degrees: education and computer science. The course was fascinating, with students conceptualizing and designing tools and methods to help children learn creatively using various technologies. We held multiple sessions in the maker space at Boston College (by the way, BC has two maker spaces: one for academic purposes and another for the broader university community). We also visited schools, so students could test their ideas in real-world settings, working with small groups of children.
The course for master’s and doctoral students was obviously more research-oriented, and it gave us the opportunity to read extensively and learn from the expertise of a great professor.
During our time at DevTech, we gained insights into how research is designed, planned and developed there. We became fully integrated into the team, participating in all the activities of the research group.
Currently, we have already started a joint research collaboration between UdiGitalEdu and DevTech focused on teacher training in ScratchJr and the translation of the CAL curriculum into Catalan, with direct collaboration from several schools in Salt, facilitated by the municipality of Salt through the Tekhné Chair. Specifically, 11 teachers from El Veïnat School in Salt are participating in a pilot program while also helping us refine the Catalan translation of the CAL curriculum. This research is expected to expand to include more schools in Salt.
Marina, the Queen of ScratchJr
The visit of Prof. Marina Bers to Girona, Salt, and Barcelona was both fascinating and intense. We were eager for Marina to experience firsthand our projects, our people, and the schools we collaborate with. We visited the CIRS, where Prof Pere Ridao explained various robots, research initiatives, and the creation of the spin-off company IQUA Robotics.
We held several working sessions with UdiGitalEdu to introduce our team and projects, allowing Marina to guide and advise us on future research. Additionally, we visited the FEP and the old town campus, explored the GAMAR, and participated in a seminar with other FEP researchers. We also had the opportunity to greet the Rector of the University of Girona.
Perhaps the most memorable part of her visit was our trip to Salt, where we visited El Veïnat and La Farga schools. The highlight of the week occurred when some children playing in the schoolyard approached Marina, recognizing her as the creator of ScratchJr. They asked for her autograph and crowned her “the Queen of ScratchJr.”
On Thursday, we traveled to Barcelona, where, together with the Fundació Bofill, we held an exclusive seminar with Prof Bers in the HUB Social Barcelona. The event explored a global perspective on how other countries have integrated computational sciences and the successful strategies implemented for teachers, schools, and children. Discussions emphasized the importance of computational thinking as a key subject to secure the future of all children in Catalonia, promote territorial equity through computational thinking, and explore innovative methodologies—with and without screens—to introduce computational thinking starting from age five.
At the seminar, Marina played a key role, speaking about pedagogy and technology, teaching children to code as a way to teach them to become well-rounded individuals, and sharing numerous examples and experiences of how ScratchJr and KIBO are used in different parts of the world. Following this, Jordi Freixenet presented the CAL curriculum in Catalan and took the opportunity to promote the Erasmus+ MARIAN project, the natural continuation of MonTech. Other speakers included Héctor Gardó and Carles Nieto from the Bofill Foundation, and Jordi Serarols, Deputy Director-General for Research and Digital Culture at the Department of Education and Vocational Training Generalitat de Catalunya.
As if that weren’t enough, on Thursday evening, the 78th ScratchEd Meetup Barcelona, “Special Marina Bers,” was held at the FAB Casa del Mig space—an incredible event (note that it’s the 78th meetup, and they meet once a month). The entire Scratch community of Catalonia had the chance to share projects, pedagogy, and technology with Marina. You can find a summary of this event in this Twitter thread: https://x.com/scratchcatala/status/1876636189475983581
