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Nearly One Million Schoolchildren Will Start Receiving BBC’s Micro:bit Computer Today
TechWeekEurope ^ | March 22, 2016, 12:01 am | Ben Sullivan

Posted on 03/22/2016 1:42:25 AM PDT by Utilizer

across the UK today as part of digital literacy initiative

Almost one million school children across the UK will today receive their very own micro computer thanks to a “landmark” BBC initiative.

Every Year 7 student in England and Wales, Year 8 student in Northern Ireland and S1 student in Scotland will be handed, for free, a BBC micro:bit computer specially designed to help pupils learn to code.

The pocket-sized micro:bit is part of the BBC’s Make it Digital initiative, and aims to get schoolchildren and teachers alike of all abilities learn the basics of making computer programs by teaching them to code.

The initiative follows on from the BBC’s Micro programme that was introduced in the 1980s, and sees a partnership between the BBC and some of the world’s most notable technology companies such as ARM, Microsoft, and Samsung.

(Excerpt) Read more at techweekeurope.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: arm; coding; pocketcomps; programming
I am 100% behind this. :)
1 posted on 03/22/2016 1:42:26 AM PDT by Utilizer
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To: Utilizer

As people who watch ‘education’ in the United States have learned - whoever hands a kid a computer has control over what is in that computer...and that is not a good thing, at least if you’re a parent.


2 posted on 03/22/2016 1:51:24 AM PDT by BobL (Who cares? He's going to build a wall and stop this invasion.)
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To: Utilizer

How many of the students are children of jihadi Muslims?


3 posted on 03/22/2016 2:03:23 AM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: skr
How many of the students are children of jihadi Muslims?

How many of their kits will be 'lost' or gone missing by the end of the first month.

4 posted on 03/22/2016 2:11:44 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Utilizer
This is a great idea to get kids interested in coding, in STEM pursuits, but the downside is that in the wrong hands, it could be training camp material.

like so much else, it ultimately depends on the user.

I'd like to have one, and between me and the grandkids (and the great grands), I think we could have some fun. But then, we aren't diabolical enemies of Western Civilization, either.

5 posted on 03/22/2016 2:12:45 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Utilizer
Does anybody remember the disaster called One Laptop Per Child, or OLPC?


6 posted on 03/22/2016 3:14:13 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Utilizer

Are these computers going to be like the government supplied computers in Pennsylvania 2 or 3 years back where the schools could turn on the cameras and watch students bedrooms?
That program went so well, didn’t it? /s


7 posted on 03/22/2016 3:26:01 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (Slavery will continue to exist and thrive as long a Islam continues to exist.)
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To: BobL

I agree. I bet that there is a built in microphone, camera and means to track every keystroke a kid makes.

NO THANK YOU! I would buy my kid his own device.

whoever hands a kid a computer has control over what is in that computer...and that is not a good thing, at least if you’re a parent.


8 posted on 03/22/2016 3:26:01 AM PDT by Dacula (Southern lives matter!)
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To: Smokin' Joe

>>How many of their kits will be ‘lost’ or gone missing by the end of the first month. <<
I a sure they have GPS trackers in each device.

The question is whether the numbers of missing will be overwhelming.


9 posted on 03/22/2016 3:58:34 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (Don't mistake my silence for ignorance, my calmness for acceptance, or my kindness for weakness)
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To: Utilizer

Teaching children to write some code no more makes them programmers than teaching them algebra makes them mathematicians. It will take years to see the results but I will wager that the central planners will be clueless as to why their efforts and spending in the end yielded such pitiful results.


10 posted on 03/22/2016 5:07:46 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: Dacula
I agree. I bet that there is a built in microphone, camera and means to track every keystroke a kid makes.

NO THANK YOU! I would buy my kid his own device.

whoever hands a kid a computer has control over what is in that computer...and that is not a good thing, at least if you’re a parent.


Don't bet too much, it's hardly the evil spying item you envisage.

This is what they get...

I think it's a great idea to encourage kids to do actual programming as opposed to simply playing computer games. Also interesting for ARM since their company spun off from the staff at Acorn Computers in the UK, which made the BBC Micro computer around 1981 -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro

Also highy inter-twined with Apple. Wiki again -

Apple and Acorn began to collaborate on developing the ARM, and it was decided that this would be best achieved by a separate company. The bulk of the Advanced Research and Development section of Acorn that had developed the ARM CPU formed the basis of ARM Ltd when that company was spun off in November 1990. Acorn Group and Apple Computer Inc each had a 43% shareholding in ARM (in 1996), while VLSI was an investor and first ARM licensee

11 posted on 03/22/2016 8:04:09 AM PDT by az_gila
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