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Comment by msh | Hacker News Reader

I have a hard time understanding the educational value of the micro bit. It seems way to underpowered to do anything interesting educational wise.

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I think you underestimate how much having something tactile, with buttons and LEDs, can really shift how younger students perceive learning. I volunteer teach a group of 8/9 year olds an intro to programming class and the difference between teaching them Python using CLI-esque tools and making things light up on the micro:bit is astounding.

Is that age group the best age to learn? I notice they're targeting year 7/8/9 in the UK - is that high school?

The ages for education/schools in the UK:

     5-11    -> Primary School
    11-16    -> Secondary School
    16-18    -> Further Education (often called college, or Sixth Form)
    18-21/22 -> Higher Education (University/undergraduate)

Some secondary schools are large enough/have enough expertise to have a Sixth Form as part of it. Some children go to "preparatory school" until age 13 when they enter a secondary school.

Yes, in the UK high school starts in year 7 (age 11-12)

Maybe you are right, I am just thinking it would be harder to to get a program to do something interesting.

I think you have it backwards. It might be easier to print "hello world", but that's not interesting.

Blinking an LED? That's actually interesting. You can show your friends. You can put it in another toy. A child can do a lot with a blinking LED.

The Micro:Bit is significantly more powerful than the machines I learned to program on when I was a kid.

One if my children (12yro) was given a microbit by his school and got a lot of enjoyment from programming it. He was already into Python, but it seemed to me that a physical device made programming less abstract and it's limited power forced him to focus on essentials.

I learnt how memory works on a machine with a Z80. You don't need power for education, you need immediacy and tangibility.

https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tutori...

How do you figure that? The chips I learned low-level programming on were significantly less capable than the Nordic chip on this board.

I agree about being underpowered. But when it comes to education its more about software support and community.

I'd say the same and the first two generations of raspberry pi, but the community and price trumped all.

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