In Scratch programming, the broadcast block lets you coordinate events, so that one event triggers one or more new events. That’s a bit of an obtuse explanation. What’s an event?

Let’s make up a quick example and assume you call me on the phone.

Event: You dial my number.

Message: My phone rings .

Event: When I hear my phone ring, I pick up my phone and look at the caller ID .

Event: “Oh, I know that number,” I think. I answer the call.

Message: I say, “hello.”

And on it goes.

The following Scratch video shows you the broadcast concept using an animated, fire and ice breathing dragon.  When the author clicks the “Fire” button, the dragon breathes fire (an orange flame). Click the “Ice” button and the dragon breathes the blue flame.  Not much different conceptually than making a decision about which phone call to answer.

The code snippets in the video are not readable,  but it does a good job of demonstrating the broadcast concept. I’m personally more enthralled with the actual animation of the dragon, which is one of the primary reasons for sharing.

Recently, @Moodlegirl followed me on Twitter (@mike_b), and as I was looking through tweets,  I found this Scratch video.