Tell Your Kids … Learn Python (and JavaScript), Use a R-PI, And Fire Up Linux

Recently, I presented a Christmas lecture to schools, and had some an old friends to help me … Python, a R-PI and Linux. And so, I booted up my Raspberry PI (R-PI), and connected my CCTV camera, my Hue lights, and Wi-fi electrical sockets, and with a quick ssh I was in, and running my Python programs. For me, it feels like I am back in the 1980s, and when computing was fun. In a world of cloud computing and complex programs, I feel in complete control of my digital world. No Cloud, no Internet, no public wifi, no logins, no IDEs, no databases or no compilers to get in my way.

For all the fun of the 1980s, the PC came along and changed all that, and made computing more business like and serious. But now with Python, Linux and the R-PI, computing is cool again, and I can build my own digital world and learn every single time I type a line of code.

This is the world that our kids need to learn within, and where they see the world through code. So why do we teach them to run PowerPoint and order pizzas on-line, when we should be showing them how a temperature sensor works and how to turn-on a water pump? If you are…