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Education Microsoft United Kingdom

700,000 Free Programmable 'Micro Bits' with LEDs Given to UK Schools (bbc.com) 54

Posted by EditorDavid from the bits-with-bytes dept.
It's an educational pocket-sized codable computer with a motion detector, compass, and other sensors. Wikipedia describes the micro:bit as "half the size of a credit card" -- (43 mm x 52 mm or 1.7 inches by 2.0 inches).

Now long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: If British schoolchildren aren't inspired to code by the tiny 5x5 grid of LED lights on the micro:bit single-board computer, well it's not for lack of trying. The BBC on Monday announced a partnership with Microsoft, Arm, and others that will offer a classroom set of 30 free handheld BBC micro:bits (about 700,000 total devices) and brand-new teaching resources to every primary school across the UK "to support all schoolchildren and teachers..."

The news follows January's announcement of the Micro:bit Educational Foundation's newest partnership. They teamed with US-based/tech giant-backed nonprofit Code.org to offer teachers computing resources to incorporate the micro:bit in Code.org's CS Fundamentals curriculum (aimed at children in Kindergarten-5th Grade).

Microsoft is a Founding Partner of both the Micro:bit Educational Foundation and Code.org, and back in 2015 Microsoft also partnered with the BBC to provide an estimated 1 million free micro:bits to every 11- and 12-year old in the UK. A 2017 research paper reported that after testing with 15 teachers, "primarily comments around engagement were positive." But one skeptical teacher offered some doubts about the appeal of a small relatively low-tech device to younger children. "I mean I think it's cute but I could easily see why you know a 4K mobile phone screen is going to hold more appeal than regular LEDs ... I think there is merit in that but I could see how people would understandably go where's the screen?"
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700,000 Free Programmable 'Micro Bits' with LEDs Given to UK Schools More

700,000 Free Programmable 'Micro Bits' with LEDs Given to UK Schools

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  • At eBay prices, the cheapest OLED products as a complete module and including shipping cost about $2 and the larger ones (128x64) are around $2.50. A 5x5 grid of LEDs would have been cool back in the 1970s when that's roughly how many elements handheld electronic game [amazon.com]s had, but right now it's kind of an inexplicable decision. For a few pence more it could have had a couple lines of text, and actually drawn meaningful graphics. With less than 7x7 LEDs it's hard to even represent a single text character well.

    I respect what they're trying to do, but I think they're trying too hard to do that instead of something that makes more sense.

    • At eBay prices, the cheapest OLED products as a complete module and including shipping cost about $2 and the larger ones (128x64) are around $2.50. A 5x5 grid of LEDs would have been cool back in the 1970s when that's roughly how many elements handheld electronic game [amazon.com]s had, but right now it's kind of an inexplicable decision. For a few pence more it could have had a couple lines of text, and actually drawn meaningful graphics. With less than 7x7 LEDs it's hard to even represent a single text character well.

      I respect what they're trying to do, but I think they're trying too hard to do that instead of something that makes more sense.

      You could do that but then programming becomes an exercise in loading bitmaps and fonts from file systems.

      LEDs do away with that. It's XY coordinates and data you can type in by hand.

      You're completely missing the point by focusing on "screen" though. The Micro-bit does much more than that.

      • You're completely missing the point by focusing on "screen" though. The Micro-bit does much more than that.

        If you go look at the examples on the micro:bit site, the majority of them utilize the LEDs. Also, you could quite reasonably provide functions that would make writing to the OLED as easy as setting some variables. There is a ton of capacity on board this thing compared to what it's being used for.

        • If you go look at the examples on the micro:bit site, the majority of them utilize the LEDs.

          The majority of them use the buttons, too. Shrug.

          You can get a screen for the Micro-bit if you want one: https://www.aliexpress.com/ite... [aliexpress.com]

        • My OTHER point would be that if you add a screen you instantly turn it into a little game machine.

          That's the complete opposite of what we be should be putting in classrooms.

      • Next they should be bitching why the board doesn't have a sata port and usb-c.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Those OLED screens are not very robust either. They aren't like your phone, covered in expensive glass.

        • They're not as fragile as you would think, perhaps just because they're so small. They're durable and cheap enough that they're common on larger (e.g. 350+) drones, it's very nice to have a readout for e.g. battery and mode. Most FCs support I2C and/or SPI and the software generally already knows how to drive the most popular examples.

          • Most FCs support I2C and/or SPI

            Try updating an I2C screen at 60fps and see what happens.

            (because that's where this path leads ... along with slow uploads for all the graphics, etc.)

        • The $2 screens aren't tactile, either.

          (which would be the next item on the "let's bitch about how it isn't a smartphone" list...)

    • For educational stuff there's often more use in providing a simplified, more obvious mechanism rather than getting bang for buck in terms of features.

      To you it's obvious how the things connect. However LEDs are much more straightforward to understand than screens. The students will have done some basic physics and covered basic electricity, so by this time, they'll know a bit about turning on lights and have probably played with batteries, LEDs and wires.

      Now the program is "do this and it connects two wires

    • generally for students you don't want more LEDs than you have easily programmable I/O pins. Multiplexing is another level of understanding beyond the rudimentary. Feel free to plug a more complex display to the edge connector for a more advanced programming project.

    • I dunno, my kid really rather likes her microbit - and the 'retro' display is part of that enjoyment. It's got a little piezo beeper in it too - that could have been a full audio sounder too - but isn't.

      Sometimes constraining your choices makes you more creative - and that's exactly what this this is for. You're never going to use it as the basis of the next billion dollar startup's product, but it's a great toy for kids to learn about programming and microcontrollers. When they've outgrown it, there are al

  • "The BBC on Monday announced a partnership with Microsoft, Arm, and others that will offer a classroom set of 30 free handheld BBC micro:bits (about 700,000 total devices) and brand-new teaching resources to every primary school across the UK..."

    Doesn't the old saying go something like, "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product"? In the corporate world, children are a valuable, exploitable resource.

  • You want interest in coding? (Score:3)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Sunday May 21, 2023 @10:07AM (#63539679)

    Include a programming language with Windows that is fun and easy to learn. Microsoft did the world a huge disservice when they decided to strip the OS of a language. DOS came with GWBasic and later QBASIC. Hell, you could even assemble with EDLIN and DEBUG if you really wanted to. Many of the gray beards today (including myself) can trace their programming careers directly back to computers that either used BASIC as an OS or had a BASIC dialect included with the OS. Stop wasting money of these stupid feel good initiatives that produce terrible results. Those interested in programming, and more importantly have the mind-set for it, will use the included language and then move onto others as they outgrow it. Microsoft stopped shipping a language with the OS to dumb down their user base. It worked.

    • Kids can get a free, cross-platform editor from Microsoft, VS Code, which can be installed on nearly all popular operating systems. From there they can enjoy working with C++ - C# - CSS - Dart - F# - Go - HTML - Java - JavaScript - JSON - Julia - PHP - PowerShell - Python - R - Ruby - Rust - TypeScript. Take your pick, with intellisense and all kinds of assistants. If you want to go even "easier" you can download the full Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition and code in VB.Net, which is still alive and is

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Bert64 ( 520050 )

        But it's not there by default, they have to seek it out.
        Windows is also full of warnings (eg don't touch system files) that would serve to scare people away from experimenting.

        In the days of the C64, you turned the machine on and you were directly in a programming language. Using the built in programming language was encouraged, and safe because worst case you could reset the machine and get back to where you started.

      • Right, someone new to programming is going to download and successfully set up an entire framework. I said offer something simple and fun with the default installation of Windows. Those interested will then outgrow it and seek out the alternatives you mentioned. Heck, there's even a modern implementation of QuickBasic called QB64 ( https://qb64phoenix.com/forum/... [qb64phoenix.com] ) that runs in Windows, OSX, and Linux that would be fun for beginners to play around with. There's literally hundreds of thousands of QBASIC so

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by vivian ( 156520 )

      Every computer, smartphone and tablet has a browser and a browser can open a local javascript file without even needing an internet connection. If you are interested in learning how to program, it's a great place to start - but most kids just aren't interested in programming. I started young on an Apple II, as soon as I had access to one in grade 7, and using basic, then assembly language - but my main motivation at the time was an interest in learning how to write games. Part of the reason why I was inter

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pjt33 ( 739471 )

        a browser can open a local javascript file without even needing an internet connection

        Yes, but. Nowadays, as a not entirely unreasonable security precaution, it may cripple local files. I've learnt the hard way that it's not worth trying to open non-trivial local files in a browser: it's less painful to set up a local Apache instance and access the local file through an HTTP URL. No doubt in a couple of years I'll have to also set up a private CA so I can open my local files through an HTTPS URL.

  • Sorts out those who are actually interested? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Art Challenor ( 2621733 ) on Sunday May 21, 2023 @10:15AM (#63539699)
    The paper is quite an worthwhile read. All the kids seemed to like the classes with the product. My reading of that is that it provides a valuable introduction. But most of the teachers just followed the online tutorials which seem pretty mundane. The best results were obtained by the best teachers who created real-world scenarios for the boards (no particular surprise there).
    I found this comment interesting:

    This sentiment of the device not being ‘exciting’ for all pupils was echoed by Jane who reported that two students opted not to take them home because they felt that they had exhausted the potential of the micro:bit already.

    Seems that Jane has two kids who want more. So the whole class needs the Micro:bit and two also need Raspberry Pi's. There are other interpretations - that these kids had no interest in the first place, I chose the more optimistic view. These are 11 and 12 year olds, I'd expect some of them to be be heavily into, say Minecraft.

    • The device seems OK, but the Commodore 64 and TS1000 that I first programmed.. those were very interesting too. I suppose I also learned machine language because they were 'underexposed' I'm not sure if that was a waste of time or not, however, I am glad I did it. I seem to have gotten a 'holistic' over all knowledge of computers because of that experience. Z80's.... 6502's... those were the days.... :-).
      • Likely labels you as one of the two who said "this is not interesting enough". 11-12 year olds with computers may already have exposure to programming, others may not, and this may pique their interest. There's no ideal answer. A teacher may set a kid on the path to enjoying reading by providing the right book, mutatis mutandis, this may be the same.

  • I got a micro:bit in a weird kit I bought from a thrift store for like $2. It's a UFO with some RGB LED strips. I haven't really messed around with it all that much after putting it together. I'll dig it out when I have time. Read: never

  • The BBC on Monday announced a partnership with Microsoft, Arm

    Embrace, now wait for Extend and Extinguish. This is Microsoft creeping further into schools. I live in the East End of London, schools are under continuous financial pressure, so they take free stuff from Google (slick Chromebook presentations to officials) and now this. Gives them a chance to liaise etc. make sure there's no hippy dippy open source stuff going on.

    However, given that it's a micro-controller at least there's no extra data gath

    • From the article: "But in order for the device to know what to do, you first have to make a code for it using a special website". I didn't visit the website, but I'm sure you're at least expected to eat their cookie in order to do anything on it.
  • I have several of these. The first version was nice but had too little flash for MicroPython and a normal length program. Version 2 is much better in this regard.

    Overall I would say they are reasonably capable and well suited for classroom use. The most interesting feature being the dead simple wireless networking stack. The biggest drawback, by far, is the obnoxious connector format. There is nothing better about their "alligator clip friendly" design than a simple female header would have been. Alligator

  • There must be a better option (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Crookdotter ( 1297179 ) on Sunday May 21, 2023 @04:01PM (#63540299)
    A pi pico with some kind of small OLED screen would be cheaper to produce and be more capable.

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