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About LinkBacksi was thinking of getting one for my 12 year old daughter as a good programming computer, are they any good?
i was thinking of getting one for my 12 year old daughter as a good programming computer, are they any good?
As a learning aid, something to be able to easily build software and learn principles, while actually being able to get it to do things, yes, I'd say so. It's not going to directly train her in marketable skills (though, at 12, plenty of time for that, obviously), but it should help set the foundations in place. And if she's got the type of mind that works the right way, it could well be lots of fun, too.
Put it this way. At 12, I'd have killed for a device like that. Instead, I wound up with BASIC and BBCX on an ICL mainframe .... back in pre-history.
paul3281 (10-11-2013)
I have one, and believe that they do help to introduce children to programming (it introduced programming to me). Having said this, most of the applications that are on the raspberry pi can be found on almost any other pc.
I use mine to integrate software with the real world, for example creating a program that creates a website on the local network and allows you to turn LED's on and off, from a smartphone. This is a great way to introduce programming, and I find it very fun. You can find several tutorials across the internet which tell you how to make different projects.
Also, they are extremely inexpensive, especially if you already have a micro-SD card, a smartphone charger and a monitor(the raspberry pi does not come with these included).
If you want to get your child into coding and the likes then the Pi is perfect as it is very versatile. As a cheap alternative to a computer though then I would strongly advise against it! The Pi is very complicated to start out and this can get increasingly annoying (especially if you don't know what you are doing!). Otherwise, the Pi is incredibly cheap so why not?! Go for it!
If your daughter would take to something a bit more hands-on, how about an Arduino board?
She can learn a bit of programming and also have the fun of wiring, plugging in modules and building a real project.
I think that (budget allowing) you probably want both an Arduino and a Pi. There are a lot of good tutorials for starting in Python on the Pi (or is that Pithon?!). The basic C required to run SIMPLE arduino projects can be learnt in an afternoon. When you put both of these together you have enough power to take over the world
In all seriousness I've played with a Pi for a couple of days, and they're not bad at all, especially the newer revisions for their price. The standard Raspbian is a decent linux distro that feels pretty well balanced around the machine, although if/when she gets used to Linux (you do have to pull up a terminal fairly often in my experience) then the ultra-geeky/customisable Arch Linux is also available on the platform.
I first learnt to code around the age of 10-11, continued learning for a couple of years (mainly java and obj-c). Nowadays I generally just use C++ and Python though. Last year I went back and almost learnt to code all over again, setting myself challenges in limiting the memory and execution time I was allowed to use for projects. In a lot of ways learning to work around these limitations makes a good programmer (I'm not one by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not my job either). You could probably even say that the Pi isn't limited enough to teach people good code etiquette, but as it stands I would rather future generations learned to write Python and C in a Linux environment than C# in a flaky copy of VS.
Does it/Should it be a Pi? Complicated question. Sure an old laptop from ~2005 would run a lightweight linux just as well, but I think the Pi probably has a community advantage, a plethora of ARM specific guides and it's personal appeal to me: dem GPIO pins.
IMO Probably Pi first, followed by an arduino a few months later if the Pi goes down well (the arduino does require a whole other set of skills on top of the programming, and the Pi will probably have to serve as its base anyway).
Good Luck!
I second the thought that I would have very much liked to have one at that age, although I guess I wouldn't really know what to do with it... Today things are a bit different.
Considering the broad uses of a RPI, I'd very much have liked one when I were younger. Just glancing at other people's creations online can serve as a stepping stone for a young mind. It's certainly a great device to inspire creativity.
Cheap, powerful(*) and almost disposable. Buy one
* may dissapoint windows users who are used to having stupidly powerful machines to run their bloatware.
I've had lots of fun teaching using codebugs (£15)
http://codebug.co.uk
Yes, it's visual block based, not "real text language"
but a great intro to programming.
Cool device, got on from the designer at the Liverpool Makefest.Originally Posted by mikerr
For 15 notes it's a great introduction into programming as it has buttons and flashy lights. All you need!
I think the question should include your competence, tenacity and available time....as your kid will undoubtedly need help or if stuck, will loose interest quickly I expect....I know my kids would.
They are spoilt by modern PCs, tablets and phones..... no real skills required to operate...or understand anything as to how they work.....but that leads to the old car and servicing debate.....ho hum...
David
If you aren't going to be connecting anything special to it (useful hardware general purpose IO port on the pi) a regular PC will do just as well. It will be overkill but you probably have a PC already so don't need to buy anything. A pi is great fun but you can use these learn to code tools on a PC too.
You know how much competent ARM and/or Linux specialists are paid, right?
Why not, my son successfully using it
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