Can the Micro Bit inspire a million?

Is there a page with instructions on getting the "preview" Micropython running on the ESP chips? Is it possible to use the web terminal, or is that still in the future?

I'm teaching some 9-10 year olds about electronics. My next lesson will be about microcontrollers. I have bunch of nodeMCUs that I would like to use.

(I backed the Kickstarter, I just have not tracked down how to use the in development stuff)

I've been playing today with mu/MicroPython and loving every minute of it. Well done ntoll (and your contributors).

Example: taking kids home from a Scout camping trip. Long hours on the road, listening to the 13-year-olds talking and laughing and kidding each other. During a silence I spoke: "One day you'll all be older and have jobs and things: Miles will be a Judge; Mark a Senator; Andrew a concert musician; Nick a Scientist. And you'll still get to call one another PukeFace and FartBreath, because you will be old friends. Now is the only time in your lives you get to make your oldest friends; its too late when you've grown up"

They listened and laughed and thought about it, but I never guessed how much. Because, years later and at different times, they each came to me and mentioned it. Mark for instance said in High School "Joe, I'm not sure I can do this. I am taking history and in Debate, and studying everything I need to get into Law School. But its just not for me!" He went on to describe how he loved theatre and the arts, and how Politics was important to him but not as a career.

I told him to follow this dream! He is smart and very capable and energetic, and will thrive no matter what he puts his effort into.

Years later, he was struggling to live up to what I'd said in passing, in a car, on the way home from camping. Such a tiny bit of thrust...

As you say, we're so painfully overexposed to seeing cool stuff on a computer screen that none of it's cool any more. A child learning basic programming can't make anything that can compete with even the lousiest modern game.

But take that same basic programming and apply it to something that's physical, which you can touch and pick up and show your friends... now that's cool again.

Remember Logo, Papert's educational language? With the turtle graphics? You weren't supposed to drive a pointer around on the screen. You were supposed to use with a real turtle, driving around on the floor drawing pictures with a marker pen!

(Have these vanished completely? I could barely find anything on Youtube, except a few modern and rather inaccurate recreations. Here's a moderately crummy original video from the 70s talking about them, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTd3N5Oj2jk)

I'd argue that's a /good/ thing. If all children think of when they talk about computing are highly polished apps, it raises the psychological barrier to entry - and a limited platform also encourages consideration of the hardware and promotes hackery.

There's a school of thought that the UK tech industry is so strong today because of the limited nature of the Sinclair and Acron computers c.f. Apple & other US computers.

Creation is its own reward - and imagination is more powerful than any GPU.

Good. Microcontrollers vastly outnumber any other kind of computer. Embedded computers do some of the most important things in computing. Microbit is a gateway into this thrilling world. It's a magical device that makes ordinary objects intelligent.

The Microbit has an accelerometer and Bluetooth LE, but it has something much more exciting - GPIO pins with PWM and ADC that can be connected to with a crocodile clip. You can attach piezo buzzers, thermistors and LDRs, you can jury-rig a switch out of bits of foil or a potentiometer with a pencil.

There's a clear pathway of progression. Start with the graphical programming system, move up to MicroPython, then to C with Mbed. Start with croc clips and bits of wire, move on to a breadboard, then use the edge connector to breakout all 20 GPIO pins. Quick, simple exercises lead naturally to major projects.

If someone had given me a Microbit when I was eleven, I would have been delirious with excitement. It would have consumed every moment of my spare time. I'm certain that the Microbit will change lives.

The Micro Bit is way better than an Xbox in many ways. It's cheap: If you smoke it you won't be out hundreds of dollars. It's tiny: You can send it into space and use it on a small robot. It's simple: You can pretty much see everything on the board and understand it at a theoretical level with some studying.

It's like learning to drive in a go-cart before settling in to a full-sized race car. It's perfectly fine and a lot more fun since you don't have to worry as much about breaking things or killing someone.

As someone directly involved with the project I can assure you we worked very hard to make it boring, insipid and a waste of time. We see this every time we put the device in the hands of children who instantly fall asleep or complain about how it's "missing the point" and a "total fail".

Seriously, the world is a diverse place and I understand this perhaps doesn't float your boat, but you're wrong in every assertion you make.

Kids love it. Kids love writing Python (among other languages) for it. Kids see how this is but a first step to bigger things.

If but 1% of the million kids who'll get their hands on the device create something amazing then it's been worth it (despite vacuous posturing by nay-sayers).

You're welcome! :-)