Posted on 05/06/2011 10:58:31 AM PDT by ShadowAce
π Raspberry Pi Foundation
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409) which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing.
We plan to develop, manufacture and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer, for use in teaching computer programming to children. We expect this computer to have many other applications both in the developed and the developing world.
Our first product is about the size of a USB key, and is designed to plug into a TV or be combined with a touch screen for a low cost tablet. The expected price is $25 for a fully-configured system.
How would you use an ultra-low-cost computer? Do you have open-source educational software we can use? Contact us at info@raspberrypi.org.
Provisional specification:
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Okay, neat idea and all... but what’s with that rat’s nest of cables in the promo shot? Couldn’t they lay things out neatly to make it look less like a Frankenstein creation?
So... the $25 computer still needs a bit of work to be useful. Probably another $50 or so for a powered USB hub, USB ethernet adapter, USB keyboard, and USB mouse. Plus of course, an HDMI-capable display.
Still a cool idea, though.
We had raspberry pie last night. It was fabulous.
All of these “low cost” computing efforts purport to do something to aid in the education of ‘the chilruns.”
This one claims to want to assist in teaching children to “program.”
Well, I’m going to piss on the parade here. Most kids who don’t know squat about math make lousy programmers. And this device won’t do squat to teach children math.
In general, the best programmers and software jocks I know came from the era when we had to use batch processing on mainframes. This forced a programmer to desk-check their work, otherwise a card run would be wasted on things like syntax errors and easily found logic errors. Batch processing was to teaching programmers what single shot rifles are to teaching marksmanship. They force a person to actually *think* about what they’re doing, and then do it for effect.
I couldn’t agree more.
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