About BlockTalk

BlockTalk is a platform to practice debugging common problems in student projects through interactive conversational simulations. On BlockTalk, teachers can engage in ten different simulations to talk to AI students about different challenges in their Scratch projects. We drew inspiration for these simulations from common challenges which learners experience when learning to create programming projects with Scratch. BlockTalk’s AI student currently runs on Open AI’s GPT-4o.

BlockTalk is free and available to the public, and we hope you consider trying it out! For additional resources on teaching with Scratch, we recommend exploring our Creative Computing Curriculum and Getting Unstuck Curriculum. Connect with our team and with other educators on X/Twitter at @HGSE_CCL, in the Teaching with Scratch Facebook group, or via email at BlockTalk@gse.harvard.edu.

BlockTalk was designed by members of the Creative Computing Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. BlockTalk was made possible with generous support from the Scratch Foundation and the Harvard Generative AI Research Program from the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

Karen Brennan

Faculty Director

Paulina Haduong

Postdoctoral Fellow

Brian Yu

Research Associate

Jack Mann

Research Assistant

Somto Unini

Research Assistant

Miranda Shen

Research Assistant

Bobby Gerami

Research Assistant