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Raspberry Pi

Post 1

Bernadette Lynn_ Home Educator

Is your Raspberry Pi project ready to go through the motions of being sub-edited? It would be nice to have it go up as soon as possible, now the thing has been launched.


Raspberry Pi

Post 2

Ancient Brit

Isn't computer training/coding in schools and education the main purpose of Raspberry Pi ? F78332?thread=3544044#p110572675


Raspberry Pi

Post 3

Bernadette Lynn_ Home Educator

The article mentions that it was developed for use in schools, that it was inspired by the BBC Micro, that the developers hope that it will inspire schools and children to learn and teach programming - doesn't that cover it? What else do you think needs to be included?


Raspberry Pi

Post 4

Ancient Brit

The article is OK but why was it written ?
Why has the device sparked so much interest ?
Links to computers that were around at the time of the old Beeb are made but none to the Beeb itself and the 'language' that drove it. The Raspberry Pi can be seen as another chapter in the history of the old Beeb. BBC Basic is still built into the Risc OS that has evolved from the early connection between BBC and Acorn, as has the ARM chip.
So much was/has been done in the education field with the old Beeb and BBC Basic. A link to that work is provided here :- http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/bbc/index.php3
BBC Basic was the driving force behind the obective of 'Computer Literacy' and that early User Manual provided a basic introduction. :- http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/bbc/doc/Welcome.pdf


Raspberry Pi

Post 5

Ancient Brit

If the Raspberry launches with Linux alone will it excite the Newbie ?
One thing the old Beeb did was to ease to the Newbie into programming.
http://central.kaserver5.org/Kasoft/Typeset/BBC/Contents.html
The problem for me was that I never did understand the connection between BASIC and MACHINE CODE the true language of the computer.


Raspberry Pi

Post 6

AlexAshman


I think I've covered the educational side of things sufficiently for an introduction. I wouldn't worry about Linux putting people off - current distributions come with graphical interfaces and don't require any specialist knowledge to run the educational programs that will be bundled.


Raspberry Pi

Post 7

Ancient Brit

The old Beeb didn't need specialist knowledge to use it once you got a compatible tape recorder and TV. There was little or no software just a simple tape to give you a welcome and wet your appetite. In a short time there was ample software to suit most requirements. The clever ones broke the rules of engagement. smiley - biggrin


Raspberry Pi

Post 8

Bernadette Lynn_ Home Educator

http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F48874?thread=8291112 Peer Review thread for your articles. Would you care to comment? I think there's at least one thing which needs to be addressed but I'd like your input on it.


Raspberry Pi

Post 9

Bernadette Lynn_ Home Educator

I think the HDD bit needs to be changed (sorry I didn't realise before putting it into Peer Review, you can probably tell I'm not as competent in the hardware field as I could be).

I would suggest something along these lines:

Where you originally wrote: "A lot of computers still make use of a Hard Drive Disk (HDD), which is a stack of discs that spin inside a little box, with data being written and read from the discs using laser beams. Everything saved on a hard drive is kept as zeroes and ones, and so the computer reads a '0' or a '1' depending on whether each bit of the disc reflects the laser or not."


I would replace it with something like: "A lot of computers still make use of a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). A stack of discs called platters are coated in a thin layer of magnetic material, mounted on a spindle and spun at speeds of up to 15,000rpm. Each platter is divided into millions of tiny regions, each of which is a magnetic dipole which represents either a 1 or a 0 depending on its orientation. Read-and-write heads mounted over each disc can detect (and change) the orientation of each dipole."


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