Raspberry Pi a Mini Computer for Education and Fun

Computing in schools at least for the UK has lost it's way, rather than engaging with children, it has turned into a lesson on Microsoft Office and a few other applications.  Though that will be of use for most jobs it won't get anybody interested in the real workings of computers that will light the spark and create the all important electronics engineers and programmers of the future.

A lot of the technologies around today are because back in the 80s and 90s kids had to learn how to program and use a computer to make things happen. That lead them down the path to create bigger and better programs that has ultimately shaped a lot of the technology around today.

The computer industry recognises that children are leaving school without the computer skills needed to work in the electronics and computer industries, but if schools continue to teach just user applications this will become a problem. There are various groups that have got together to turn things around, one of these groups is the Computing at Schools working group or CAS. CAS aim is to promote computer science in schools with the support of industry partners and make the subject interesting and with greater depth in schools. To find out more about CAS see their website at www.computingatschool.org.uk

The Raspberry Pi foundation has the same goals as CAS and have come up with a low cost computer that gets back to the basics of computing to promote creativity through programming and electronics projects. The Raspberry Pi costs around £25 ($30) for the main board which should make it more attractive to schools than buying desktop computers for hundreds of pounds. The Raspberry Pi connects to a TV, uses a memory card instead of a expensive hard drive and is powered by a phone charger. In total other than the cost of a TV it should cost around £60 in total to get one up an running. It can use various operating systems but Raspbian is the recommend Linux distribution for best performance which is also free. Don't expect to use Windows on it as it is not possible.



Though the Raspberry Pi has been designed and aimed at schools and as an educational tool, thousands of programmers, engineers and enthusiasts saw the potential of this device as a low cost computer that could be the bases of many electronics and programming projects. Since it's release in May 2012, hundreds of thousands of Raspberry Pi's have been sold and a strong community of Pi owners have been building projects from converting software that is available on other platforms to making home entertainment systems, robots, automated systems, internet applications, games and security systems and many have gone on to start small businesses by creating cases, add-on boards and extra features  as demand for these features increases.

A Raspberry Pi is a good option for the home too

Scratch is a great way to get children interested in programming

Though essentially it is just a low powered computer that is not powerful enough to replace a desktop computer there are several good reasons to own one.
In a house with several people wanting to use one of two computers a Raspberry PI connected to a TV is a cheap alternative to buying a laptop or tablet computer. Linux is a powerful and secure operating system make the Raspberry Pi a useful option for using the internet. For example this blog is being written on a Raspberry Pi as the other computers in the house are being used for homework by my children.
The kids enjoy using the programming environment Scratch that allows them to make animations and interactive programs by dragging and dropping blocks of functions. This method allows people to learn the basic structure of programming without the need to learns a batch of commands. Scratch is available for desktop computers but there something more enjoyable using it together in front of the TV on a Raspberry Pi.  Once you make these things enjoyable then your children will learn more using Scratch than playing computer games. It could even make them want to create computer games in the future.


The Raspberry Pi can be turned into a home entertainment system that can play your high definition video files, show photo slide shows, play music, allow you to watch video content from the internet such as You Tube and NASA TV and catchup TV. For the UK this is the BBC iPlayer, the ITV Player, 4 on Demand and Channel 5 on Demand. Other worldwide demand channels are available. With the right equipment this can be all controlled from a Media Player remote control or a smart phone. You can also connect the Media Player to your home network and show videos, photos and play music from other computers currently switched on. There will be some configuration and set-up and probably research to get all these features up and running but for a small credit card sized computer this capability is far more convenient than using a desktop computer to do the same job and far quieter as no noisy fan is required to keep it cool.

The media centres available are all based on the popular XBMC media centre. Raspbmc, Openelec and xbian. Though they all have the same base they have slightly different performance and features but can all be installed onto a SD memory card which can be downloaded for free from their websites. Links at the bottom of this page.

Tell the world what you are doing with your Raspberry Pi

There are many resources, blogs, websites about the RPi distributed around the internet which can mean it takes some time to find what you are looking for.

There is a website called RaspberryConnect.com that has a web directory of websites arranged by category that can help you find what you are looking for easier.

If you have created a project or done something you like on a Raspberry Pi then  you can write about what you have done for others to see, this can also give them ideas on what they can do with their Raspberry Pi.

Anybody can write about what they have done, from children wanting to show what they have done using Scratch to commercial projects introducing us to their product, all are welcome and totally free to use.

Even if you have your own blog or website posting a free article or free web link on RaspberryConnect.com will help to make your site more visible to the Raspberry Pi community so like minded Raspberry Pi users can find you and possible collaborate with your project.

Features of the Raspberry Pi

There are two models of the Raspberry Pi available, Model A is aimed at educational use with no network port and one USB port and 256mb of memory.
Model B has 2 USB ports and a network port and 512mb of memory.

Basic Features of the Raspberry Pi model B:
Credit card sized board
An Arm11 processor commonly used in mobile smart phones and mobile devices
A powerful Graphics Processor capable of HD video playback and 3D games. 
512 mb of memory, which is ample for a Linux operating system
Two USB 2 ports
A SD memory card port, used for the operating system instead of a hard drive.

Requirements to get started:

Raspberry Pi 
At least a 2gb SD memory card
Micro USB mobile phone charger rated at 5 volts and at least 750 mili-Amps. 1 Amp recommended.
A mouse and keyboard. Using a wireless mouse and keyboard combination will use only one usb port.
HDMI or Video Composite cable to connect to a TV or monitor. A monitor will need to have a HDMI port.
A network cable to connect to a modem or router alternatively use a WiFi adapter.

If you need to used a USB hub to connect several USB devices or are using a WiFi adapter you will need to use a USB hub that has it's own power supply.
This is also the case if you want to use an external hard drive instead of a USB memory stick to store your data, videos, music and photos.

Where to buy a Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi's can be brought from RS Electronics and Farnell Electronics.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation who created the Raspberry Pi have lots of good information available on their site at www.raspberrypi.org including how to set-up the RPi for the first time and install the software.

Some useful web sites are:

Computing at School (CAS ) A group promoting computing in schools
Raspberry Pi Wiki general information
www.raspberryconnect.com user projects, web directory and software directory.
Scratch a fun program to help beginners get into programming
Media Centres for the Raspberry Pi
Raspbmc.com Openelec.tv Xbian.org

Manchester University promoting Raspberry Pi in schools

The Raspberry Pi can use several different operating systems which are installed onto a SD memory card.

Raspbian is the recommended Operating System based on the Debian linux OS.
Arch Linux is dedicated to devices running ARM processors
Risc OS was used by Acorn computers in schools in the 80s and now available for the RPi as a fast small OS.
Fedora Remix is a Linux OS based on Fedora
Aros for the Pi is based on Aros a recreation of the workbench operating system for the Amiga computer, updated for modern computing.
QT on Pi is a cross-platform application and UI framework for developers using C++ or QMT
Android this is in development so not fully usable but an interesting project