Skip to main content

Raspberry Pi – Teach, Learn, and Make

What is Raspberry Pi
In 2008, a few academics and technicians (Eben Upton, Rob Mulins, Jack Lang, Alan Mycroft, Pete Lomas, and David Braben) were discussing their concerns about declining interest in computer studies and engineering. Their idea was to develop low-cost microcomputer board, so high school as well as university students will get their hands dirty working with it!
The microcomputer is called Raspberry Pi, which is a credit card size board and it costs between $5 - $35 only. Raspberry Pi is an open source solution (both software and hardware) and can be found anywhere in the world.
The board was originally designed to be used by students to learn to programme. However, the scope is expanded to many other applications by engineers, professionals, companies, as well as educational institutes.
So far, more than 13 million boards are sold all over the world, making it the best-selling “General purpose computer” ever.

 Below the video is a quick overview of the board, and we will dive deeper in the coming posts.



References:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/about/
https://vimeo.com/90103691
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/9-things-wanted-know-raspberry-pi/
https://techcrunch.com/2012/10/14/raspberry-pi-the-small-computer-with-the-big-ambition-to-get-kids-coding-again/
https://www.raspberrypi.org/app/uploads/2015/01/Pi2ModB1GB_-comp.jpeg

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 29, 2017 at 7:26 PM

    Thanks for sharing about this great idea. I agree that the interest in computer engineering has decreased. This might be because students think the technology world is very demanding. I, myself would love to get to know more about the inside of the computer. I think this would help me in my career of teaching assistive technology because I will have more understanding of what is going on behind the scenes. I think this would be a good place to start to expand my knowledge.
    -Danielle Smith

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Abubakr AbdelrasoulOctober 30, 2017 at 11:48 AM

      Hi Danielle
      Raspberry Pi is now used in many applications, and possibilities are only limited by imaginations. As you will see in the following posts, there are many applications in different fields. One of the fast growing applications of RPi are the Inter of Things (IoT) which is believe is very relevant to teaching assistive technology.
      thanks

      Delete
  2. Abubakr AbdelrasoulOctober 30, 2017 at 11:47 AM

    Hi Danielle
    Raspberry Pi is now used in many applications, and possibilities are only limited by imaginations. As you will see in the following posts, there are many applications in different fields. One of the fast growing applications of RPi are the Inter of Things (IoT) which is believe is very relevant to teaching assistive technology.
    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownOctober 31, 2017 at 7:53 AM

    Hi Abubakr
    Thank you so much for sharing the information about the microcomputer board. Honestly, this technology and information is a kind of new for me. I think it will be an excellent resource for school when applying and integrating technologies in classrooms. I see this tool is very helpful and useful. I would like to read and learn more about it.
    Many thanks
    Rashed :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Abubakr AbdelrasoulOctober 31, 2017 at 5:12 PM

      Hello Rashed
      RPi is designed and manufactured to help students learn programming in a very affordable way, that is $20 - $35 only. Main target are high school students but even younger students can benefit from it. In future posts, I will write about possible applications that students can do or learn inside classroom, and it will give you more insights about this magical board!
      thanks for coming by!

      Delete
  4. assistivetechnologytanzania.blogsport.comNovember 19, 2017 at 6:10 PM

    abubakr, based on this programing tool, did you check the accessibility? can a person with visual impairment use it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Abubakr AbdelrasoulNovember 20, 2017 at 8:47 AM

      This is a very good question. However, I didn't check this point before, but thanks you draw my attention to it. I will check this point. Thanks so much!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning Management Tools (LMS)

There are many tools (soft and hard) that are used in elearning. Tools can be used to 1) prepare content (video, audio, tests, etc.); 2) As containers and management tools; 3) To access and consume the content itself. In my opinion, content containers and management tools are the most important and sophisticated ones. In this post, I will describe the Learning Management Tools (LMS), their features, and sample products. A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses or training programs. A typical example is the Black-Board that we are using at Syracuse University. Here are some reasons/advantages of using LMS: Managing users, courses, roles, instructors, and generation of reports:  This includes uploading courses and contents (text, video, audio, simulation, etc.), assigning roles (student, instructor, admin, etc.), and generate reports and statistics. Calendar generatio
4 comments
Read more

Types of elearning

Types of e-Learning: There are different terminologies and types for elearning. Defining these terminologies will help us understand elearning in a better way. Below are the main ones. -           Synchronous vs asynchronous elearning: Synchronous elearning is real-time learning, in other words, learning happens at the same time regardless of geographical location/s. There are different tools for synchronous elearning, like video conferencing, phone calls, chatting, VoIP tools, the Internet, etc. There are many advantages of synchronous elearning, i.e. learners can discuss and get immediate feedback (which means more personalized learning experiences). This provides a socialized way of learning as people can interact, see, and listen to each other. However, some learners might face disadvantages like the quality of communication channels, different time zones (2PM in US = 2AM in China!), time and availability restrictions and so on. On the other side, asynchronous el
4 comments
Read more

Raspberry Pi Hardware

In this post, we will spot the light on Raspberry Pi’s hardware components. Like any other computer or electronic system, Raspberry Pi consists of a processor, RAM, memory/memory slot, peripherals and I/O connections (USB, Ethernet Network, Camera, HDMI, I/O, etc.), and it continuously evolves over time. Specifications become better and the price goes lower. Before digging deeper, it’s good to mention that there are many different versions of Pi board, all of them are under five models, which are Model A/A+, Model B/B+, and Pi Zero. These models differ in their hardware specifications, and hence the capabilities. However, they all have processors, RAM, memory, and peripherals. In this post I'm will not talk about specific model, but rather we will have an overall idea about available specifications. The early models used Broadcom’s ARMv6 processors with 600 MHz speed. Updated versions used 900MHz speeds, and the newest versions used 1.2GHz processor’s speed. To make it eas
6 comments
Read more