Very interesting reading about the UK experience of "Hour of Code", especially finding this parent's BBC blog post about follow-up at home, using Scratch and App Inventor!

And, as you may remember, both Scratch and App Inventor come from the genius of MIT Media Lab, a really cool MIT tech laboratory truly on the cutting edge of "what's next" technology. Their artificial intelligence robotics and blended reality projects are pretty exciting; check out this TED video for some of the latest stuff they've developed. I find it inspiring to teach using products they create, beta bugs and all, because I find their platforms and creativity exude what preparing kids for tech that doesn't yet exist is all about.

Finally, talking about art imitating life, the 2014 Oscar nominated animated short, "Get a Horse", is a mind blowing way animation shows blended reality in action, stitching hand-drawn and computer generated images that literally jump to you. The opening act for "Frozen", I saw it sitting in the very first row of a theater and it's the most alive I've ever found animation to feel!