A million kids in UK are just now receiving their BBC micro:bit computer boards. This is a small but flexible single board micro-computer with a couple of buttons, some sensors and 25 LEDs in a 5x5 matrix. There are also connections for input/output signals and Bluetooth. Code can be written on your PC, then uploaded over USB to the micro:bit board to run.
The BBC is promoting 3 different building-block languages for programming, similar to the well known Scratch language on the Raspberry Pi. And they propose one much more sensible coding language.
I do not believe in these building-block approaches to teach kids to code. At the age of 11-12 kids, who will receive the micro:bit (free), can read and write. So why not teach them to program in one of the most popular written programming languages used today? It is useless to confuse them with "lego" block-type graphics when in real life they will have to write code.
The option that the BBC does offer is the Python language.
This is a GREAT solution.
Python is a widely used language today and will give the kids a start in writing real code, and also the possibility to move up to larger machines, like the Raspberry Pi, Linux and Macs which also support Python.
Micro Python
The Python on the BBC web site is an implementation called MicroPython that runs over the internet in your browser. But if you do not want to run it in a browser, which needs an internet connection, you can download and install a stand-alone version on your PC or Mac. I use a Mac so I have downloaded it from
ardublockly-builds.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/?prefix=microbitOther versions are there also for Windows, Linux and Raspberry Pi. The web site CodeWithMu has links to the Windows, Mac OSX and Linux versions, but not the R_PI version, although it says so....
For the R_PI I suggest to get it directly from the site above to your R_PI:
wget https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ardublockly-builds/microbit/raspberry_pi/muAfter you get it change the file mode to "a+x" and move it to the /usr/bin directory. You can then add it to the Desktop Main Menu > Programming.
On a Windows PC you have to install extra drivers to upload the machine code from your computer to the BBC micro:bit board, but the Mac does not need any additional stuff installed (Macs are so much better!). Just plug-in your micro:bit to a USB port and you're ready to go.
Go MicroPython!
So I strongly recommend anyone, whose kids receive the micro:bit board at school, to persuade them and their teachers to go for Python programming. It is well documented and there are plenty of examples at these web sites:
microbit.pythonanywhere.com/help.html or microbit-micropython.readthedocs.org/en/latest/If you follow these sites you will pick up Python in no time.
Peripherals
If you want some ready-to-go peripherals for your micro:bit - for example to build a robot!!! then go to:
www.kitronik.co.uk/bbc-micro-bit-accessories.html
Kitronic have a very good motor driver board for a robot's motors, and a light sensor kit for line following. They also have a micro:bit experimenters board for wiring up external circuits.
I wonder what the first Ham Radio apps will be for the micro:bit??? Suggestions???
No comments:
Post a Comment