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Raspberry Pi: The Budget Computer Teaching Kids To Code

Huffington Post UK   First Posted: 29/02/2012 09:27 Updated: 30/04/2012 10:12

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Kids certainly know how to play with computers and gadgets, but few know they can build their own.

Raspberry Pi, the £22 computer, will revolutionise computer education in the UK and go on sale today.

Eben Upton from the Raspberry Pi Foundation in Cambridge told the BBC: "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."

A no frills, cheap as chips computer sold without a keyboard, monitor or casing, the Raspberry Pi will help kids learn programming skills, reversing what's deemed as a decline in tech skills being taught in schools.

The super cheap computers are so popular Raspberry Pi's website crashed. On the first day of sales, Raspberry Pi has limited quantities to one per customer. Schools will soon be able to buy in batches.

The first batch of Raspberry Pi is called Model B and features an Ethernet port and 2 USB ports.

Model A includes 256MB of RAM, but not the Ethernet or USB ports, and will go into production immediately.

Follow @Raspberry_Pi on Twitter.

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Kids certainly know how to play with computers and gadgets, but few know they can build their own. Raspberry Pi, the £22 computer, will revolutionise computer education in the UK and go on sale t...
Kids certainly know how to play with computers and gadgets, but few know they can build their own. Raspberry Pi, the £22 computer, will revolutionise computer education in the UK and go on sale t...
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moflard
199 Fans
08:43 PM on 03/01/2012
Given the history - can't wait to see kids discovering the joys of the first Elite/OOlite port to the new Raspberry.

YES I know it's more serious than that, but be honest how many of us learned code just to get those sprites moving across the screen?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ppenguinator
Life's too imprtant to be taken seriously.
211 Fans
 
06:37 PM on 02/29/2012
These are brillliant. I just wish they'd existed a few years ago.
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Brian Novotny
What happened to Democracy?
887 Fans
06:11 PM on 02/29/2012
This is probably good for the most part, however it could also raise another batch of script kiddies if not taken seriously
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SamsaHotel
7 Fans
 
04:08 PM on 02/29/2012
There are NO comments on this article? Seriously? People have no idea what news is significant and which is not. This is huge. The problem here is that middle aged end users see computers and technology as tools to make stupid tasks easier rather than as the communication and information revolution that it is. Some members of the establishment do understand what computing technology means for the future and they are terrified by it. Why? For the same reason they continue to falsely claim to believe in garbage like the bible: fear and willful ignorance. Kudos to this technology and to the next generation of programmers. The weak minded are correct to be afraid but they have no idea what they're supposed to be afraid of... let me help, it's change, truth and tolerance.
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