British newspaper The Observer checks out the RaspPi and asks the question: “Will it encourage kids to teach themselves code, or just end up in the hands of nerds?” Hopefully both, as far as I’m concerned!
Since the RPi’s launch, it has had almost perfect press, and you would have to be a far more cynical hack than I am to scoff at its ideals. Its developers are six highly qualified Cambridge-based scientists, and its principles are pure of heart. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charity whose sole aim is to promote the study of computer science in schools; the Raspberry Pi was born from that aim. If the foundation had been a business rather than a charity, the original six could have retired by now.
The geek buzz around the RPi – let’s not forget it’s been around less than a year – has been phenomenal. Now there are events like the one at Cern held all over the place: Manchester, Machynlleth, Silicon Valley, Singapore. Called Raspberry jams (do you see?), and not officially endorsed by the foundation, they’re essentially just local people getting together and sharing knowledge about the RPi. Here at Cern, on the Swiss-French border, organiser Dr William Bell is concerned with the lack of computer science in local schools (his kids attend a French primary which, at the moment, doesn’t have a working computer for the children to use). Thus his jam involves teachers, kids and parents. Others have been more grown up, with lectures and demonstrations, people standing in front of large screens, making jokes in computer code.
[via WSJ]
If you’re interested in checking out the RPi, we have the latest model stocked in the Shed!
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