An iPad, a Laptop and a Raspberry Pi 4

Why we don’t give every child at school a Raspberry Pi (RPI) is beyond me. It would allow every child to see the power of software and learn operating systems, Python programming and electronics. As Computer Science at school slips every year, we may be losing another generation of technologists. In Scotland, for example, Computer Science is not even in the Top 15 subjects at school.

To me, the RPI is the answer to making software engaging for every child, and opens up learning in an almost infinite number of possibilities. From the days of the classic BBC Micro, I’ve always been a fan of standardising the platform for learning coding, and in creating shared resources. With the magic of Git, we have a device that can be set up in minutes and can be used anywhere.

The RPI is a device that fits in your pocket but can be set up to be whatever computer system you want. There’s a simple SD-Card transfer for all your files, and with a simple command-line interface command of “sudo apt install”, you can have almost every piece of software that you would ever want. There’s no silly Microsoft Windows running on it, and no overblown graphical interfaces … it is the computer as it was meant to be. And, if you add the power of GitHub, you now have a place to store code, and which can be easily downloaded onto the device.