As a computing teacher, I love all new technology. Therefore the idea of a cheap simple honest computer which should be accessible to everybody excites me. For £22 you can get a PC which hooks to the internet and will run a simple operating system.
<a href=”http://blog.eduk8.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Raspberry-Pi-computer.jpg”><img class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-117″ title=”Raspberry Pi Computer” src=”http://blog.eduk8.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Raspberry-Pi-computer.jpg” alt=”” width=”1600″ height=”1200″ /></a>
Yet with the raspberry pi there is a retro feel to it too! Something which reminds me of my days of my first computer, a sinclair spectrum, basic raw computing power which you have to tussle with to help it to work. As the creators would like, I’d like to see this become a success. I’ve bought one, well added my name to the seemingly long waiting lists. I’m interested to see how this will develop but I like the large community following which it already seems to developed. I have watched many of the demos on you tube from the creators and others who are playing with python and linux distros to illustrate the kind of power that it will have.
I have a couple of points though; whilst in England they dropped the teaching of Computing Science from GCSE in Scotland we have always taught Computing Studies, including programming (we use VB6), and at Higher we teach Computing which includes a lot more programming and our option is AI which includes prolog too. Taking the British perspective I think it’s important to illustrate this small difference which exists here north of the border.
Also, how easy will it be for a youth to download and install the OS to a flash drive without access to another PC? This will determine how many of these devices don’t get used.
<a href=”http://blog.eduk8.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Raspi-Model-AB-Mono-1-699×1024.png”><img class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-118″ title=”Raspi-Model-AB-Mono-1-699×1024″ src=”http://blog.eduk8.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Raspi-Model-AB-Mono-1-699×1024.png” alt=”” width=”699″ height=”1024″ /></a>
To facilitate this I’d like to start a (Raspberry) Pi Club at school! We’ll just need to wait on the the devices being released in sufficient numbers.
When you see a young guy on youtube. <a title=”http://www.youtube.com/raspberrypitutorials/ ” href=”http://www.youtube.com/raspberrypitutorials/” target=”_blank”>http://www.youtube.com/raspberrypitutorials/</a> developing some stuff in Python it does beg that question – do we put too many barriers in the way of learning? If he can do it on his own, what could our lot do with some help? But for this to happen you need to de-clutter the curriculum beyond that which currently exists.
Anyway, I can’t wait for mine and I encourage you lot to get one too.
<p style=”text-align: center;”><a title=”http://www.raspberrypi.org” href=”http://www.raspberrypi.org” target=”_blank”><img class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-116″ title=”475px-Raspberry_Pi_Logo.svg” src=”http://blog.eduk8.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/475px-Raspberry_Pi_Logo.svg_.png” alt=”” width=”285″ height=”360″ /></a></p>
Want more information? Try watching some of the videos
<ul>
<li><a title=”http://www.youtube.com/element14″ href=”http://www.youtube.com/element14″ target=”_blank”>Element 14</a></li>
<li><a title=”Raspberry Pi” href=”http://youtu.be/jMlOiMXeeP0″ target=”_blank”>BBC Interview</a></li>
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