Raspberry Pi was founded with the goal of reducing the barriers to entry of teaching children to code.
The reason that the original Pi 1/2/3/Zero used standard micro USB was that this meant that a child could buy a Pi with pocket money and then re-use things that they already had around the house, such as a mobile phone charger, with minimal further money outlay.
If we are now arguing that to get the best performance out of a Pi 5, you need to buy a special proprietary power supply and can't just re-use an existing mobile/laptop charger (at least, not if you want it to perform at its specified speed) then we are now introducing a barrier to entry for children wanting to learn to code.
"Just buy our proprietary charger" is all very well for us IT geeks on decent salaries.
It is an entirely different proposition for a child of a working-class family in a tower block.
Are we still interested in teaching children to code, or are we just chasing the commercial IoT and adult hobbyist market?
Have we lost our way?
This is a classic example of why I've lost interest in organising Raspberry Jams. I used to host Cotswold Jam with 100+ children and parents every other month. Sure, Cheltenham sounds rich, and it is rich, but like Sir Clive Sinclair stating that for every 100 Spectrums used solely for games, there was 1 child who learned to code, maybe 100 of my attendees were rich kids, but there was always at least one "white working class" kid for whom I could see that the Pi was going to change his life, he could see he could get a decent job and get out of his godawful poverty trap.
Now instead of spending £35 and borrowing a charger/telly/keyboard/mouse from his auntie and uncle, that poor child needs to spend £100+ on bits to start his coding career.
Don't get me started on Micro HDMI, either... Precisely zero aunties and uncles have HDMI->MIcro HDMI cables or adapters. It's another barrier to entry for working class children.
Have we lost our way?
The reason that the original Pi 1/2/3/Zero used standard micro USB was that this meant that a child could buy a Pi with pocket money and then re-use things that they already had around the house, such as a mobile phone charger, with minimal further money outlay.
If we are now arguing that to get the best performance out of a Pi 5, you need to buy a special proprietary power supply and can't just re-use an existing mobile/laptop charger (at least, not if you want it to perform at its specified speed) then we are now introducing a barrier to entry for children wanting to learn to code.
"Just buy our proprietary charger" is all very well for us IT geeks on decent salaries.
It is an entirely different proposition for a child of a working-class family in a tower block.
Are we still interested in teaching children to code, or are we just chasing the commercial IoT and adult hobbyist market?
Have we lost our way?
This is a classic example of why I've lost interest in organising Raspberry Jams. I used to host Cotswold Jam with 100+ children and parents every other month. Sure, Cheltenham sounds rich, and it is rich, but like Sir Clive Sinclair stating that for every 100 Spectrums used solely for games, there was 1 child who learned to code, maybe 100 of my attendees were rich kids, but there was always at least one "white working class" kid for whom I could see that the Pi was going to change his life, he could see he could get a decent job and get out of his godawful poverty trap.
Now instead of spending £35 and borrowing a charger/telly/keyboard/mouse from his auntie and uncle, that poor child needs to spend £100+ on bits to start his coding career.
Don't get me started on Micro HDMI, either... Precisely zero aunties and uncles have HDMI->MIcro HDMI cables or adapters. It's another barrier to entry for working class children.
Have we lost our way?
Statistics: Posted by aoakley — Thu Jun 20, 2024 11:54 am