Cheap, Card-sized Computer Teaches Kids How to Code

The new Raspberry Pi computer (£22, $33) is a credit-card sized device designed to teach programming code to children.

A simple, low-cost computer the size of a credit card has been released that is designed to teach children how to code — and it has taken educators and the UK tech industry by storm.

While it couldn’t be any simpler – it comes without a case, without a keyboard and without a monitor – the Pi is being promoted as being able to help reverse a lack of programming skills in the UK, writes the BBC.

Eben Upton, of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, said:

“It has been six years in the making; the number of things that had to go right for this to happen is enormous. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

The real task, however, is not about getting the Raspberry Pi out to that impatient crowd of enthusiasts. What matters is the kind of reception the device gets when it arrives in schools.

Rory Cellan-Jones, technology expert at the BBC, said:

“Massive demand for the computer has caused the website of one supplier, Leeds-based Premier Farnell, to crash under the weight of heavy traffic.”

This comes as the Department for Education looks to change the teaching of computing in schools – wanting to replace “dull” ICT with a greater emphasis on skills like programming.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said:

“Initiatives like the Raspberry Pi scheme will give children the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of programming.

“This is a great example of the cutting edge of education technology happening right here in the UK.”

Gove wants to see schools evoke the spirit of British computer pioneer Alan Turing, whose work in the 1930s laid the foundation of the modern computing industry.

“Imagine the dramatic change which could be possible in just a few years, once we remove the roadblock of the existing ICT curriculum.

“Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word or Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations,” he said.

While the £22 model has just been released, a cheaper £16 version will go on sale later in the year.

Comments

Bob Rose

March 5, 2012 at 2:09 pm

This won’t work! Kids must learn to write words fluently WITH THEIR HANDS if we are going to have universal literacy in the earliest grades.

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- Kevin
  
  March 6, 2012 at 1:51 am
  
  Bob, I’m sorry, but you missed the point entirely! This is to promote kids engagement with technology, which will be just as important going forward as basic literacy. There’s nothing that’ll get kids as excited as getting their hands on the circuits and chips right away. Build their knowledge from the bottom up! Anyway, kids shmids! As soon as this baby is available in the U.S. I am picking one up myself!
  
  Reply
Sean the Welshman

March 6, 2012 at 1:52 am

Umm, Bob? I think you misunderstood the point of this article. Having kids learn to read and write is no doubt important, but it has hardly anything to do with what this gadget is about.

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Jon D. Brit in Oz

March 7, 2012 at 3:36 pm

Bob, writing is a primitive form of communication and communication techniques are advancing, it also wastes time and paper. We are entering a paperless society, and we can send letters and pictures across the world in milliseconds.
Who wants to remain static, find a pen, write a letter, write an envelope, buy a stamp and the recipient waits a week on the other side of the world for the information.
No-one today wants an office full of filing cabinets filled with hand-written reports, and banks don’t want people filling out ledgers every day with numbers written by hand.
The day will come when paper and pens will only be visible in museums.
I am retired, I love the advancing technology and computer age, and I have no wish to linger in, or return to our primitive past.

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- Linda Brees
  
  March 8, 2012 at 3:46 am
  
  Jon, while I also love technology, the skills kids develop when they learn to write translate to other areas as well. I’ve read on this site that handwriting helps hand-eye coordination and hand-control and so on. No need to throw over the past completely: it still has something to teach us. However, it still shouldn’t be one or the other. Students should learn to write AND to code.
  
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Denise

March 8, 2012 at 9:37 am

More to the point, this artical is referring to getting kids back to the basics of coding…I read that as programming, a math a logic function. It has nothing to do with writing in pen or on computer. It isn’t a literacy skill, it is a math skill. Although literacy is necessary to work with this, math is more so. Kids are learning office technology but not learning what goes on in the background. Programming AKA coding, provides for a greater understanding of the practical applications of math and logic as well as opening a whole world that can be created, at least initially, virtually. Students already know there is more to the computer than typing a letter. Programming skills unleash that.

Reply
- Kevin
  
  March 9, 2012 at 2:49 am
  
  Bravo, Denise. Very well said!
  
  Reply