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 BBCs 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 BBCs Micro programme that was introduced in the 1980s, and sees a partnership between the BBC and some of the worlds most notable technology companies such as ARM, Microsoft, and Samsung.
(Excerpt) Read more at techweekeurope.co.uk ...
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.
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.
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.
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
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 youre a parent.
>>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.
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.
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 youre 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
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.