Using Raspi in the Classroom

Jim

Great to hear from you - one of the key design decisions was to make the system accessible to all ages and for all aspects of software and electronics interfacing.  Having agonised over storage solutions the SD card provides us with a single storage point (other than perhaps web/cloud storage/backup).  A student can be allocated an SD card and develop their code, they can possibly take it home, and continue work on their own RPi.  Unlike a conventional computer there is no memory of the last user and so the worst that is ever needed is to re-flash the card to get back to a 'pure' system so they can hack everything safely with a low downside risk for both them and system management.

We are at first base on the road to developing RPi for it's intended use, but over the next few months our focus will start to turn to the educational launch of RPi.

Thank you so much for all of your hard work, I think it is important to do what we can to help students become literate in writing code, just like English or math or music.  This is very exciting.

Jim Heffinger

Jim,

I'd like to reiterate what PeteL said, this project is in the very early stages,

and not ready yet for educational uses.  There is an educational release planned

for later this year, but all projections so far have slipped, so you would be wise

not to get your heart set on having something available in classroom quantities

for the next school year.

Quite a few people have gotten excited about the possibilities, but have had

their hopes dashed as the schedule has slipped beyond their need-by dates.

There is a huge amount of work to be done yet, including many things that

might not be obvious to you, such as FCC approval.

So by all means check back periodically to see how things are progressing,

but in the mean time don't stop looking at other alternatives.  A thumb drive

with a virtual machine image, or a "live CD" can serve much the same purpose

as the SD drive in the RPi in terms of isolating one user from another.

You don't mention how old the machines are that you would be replacing,

but if they are less than 15 years old, they will probably be faster than the RPi,

which is advertised as comparable to a Pentium II 300MHz (circa 1997).

A student's personal laptop would be perfectly suitable for learning Python

programming, and much less likely to run out of memory.

PeteL has been working on the project for a long time, so he is entitled to

say the project is at first base.  But from my perspective, the project is

still in the batter's box, the umpire is saying "play ball", the crowd is on

its feet, but the bat is still in China being reworked.

That's true, but even you understand that everyone on this project, both inside and outside the foundation itself, have given their time and effort for free whilst holding down a day job. In some cases donating significant amounts of hard cash to make this happen.  Charities don't work on commercial timescales with 100's of full time staff.  It will be ready for schools when it is ready if that's this year or next I'm not going to get too upset as long as it happens.

The issue we are trying to address will not be going away. If something better came along to achieve the goal we will all cheer from the rooftops and pile in to help. Classroom deployment is something that needs significant time and input from skilled educationalist to make sure it hits the mark. There are lots of them working on this right now in the background to support our aims. I can already tell that when Jim gets his RPi he will be making a positive contribution to our educational goals and the constructive feedback from people like Jim will be invaluable.

In terms of the critical win of raising awareness, it's already done that, certainly in the UK.

We also have element-14 (and RS) to thank for taking one of the biggest burdens off the Foundation, that of physical logistics AKA building and distributing RPi's. It's early days for them and has required significant changes to their business structures and re-deployment of resources. They are working as hard as they can to make this happen and it will make a tremendous difference.

I can already tell that when Jim gets his RPi, the first thing he will try to do

is plug in his M-Audio Delta 1010, if he can find the PCI bus, that is.

Then he will try to run Sibelius, if he can upgrade the RAM to 4GB.

Where did you find that information

Hi Jim,

Didn't mean to freak you out. 

Your username of "tunesmith" makes it pretty obvious you are a composer/arranger.

Your participation on an electronics forum makes it pretty obvious you are a techy.

Any composer/arranger who isn't a technophobe uses either Finale or Sibelius.

Your interest in the RPi indicates you seek out best value for your dollar.  So that

would probably tip the scales toward Sibelius, and probably E-Magic's Logic Audio

before that.  Your guitar avatar leads me to think you might use the fretboard window.

Most people on this forum are old enough to remember computing 20-30 years ago,

so you've probably had your sound card for a while.  The Delta 1010 was the best

value when it came out in 2000, with superior dynamic range, and a lot of musicians

still use it, although maybe you should check into motu, with its usb 2.0 interface.

Ha Ha, the Sherlock Holmes of the internet.

What are your musical endeavors.

Jim Heffinger

currently rehearsing a John Ferguson number.

also trying to put both hands together in a Gauraldi number.

Sacred to Peanuts - J

Jim Heffinger