I've been playing with Raspberry Pi and Arduino for a few months now. I've had a great experience looking at what others have done and copying their code to make things blink or move. I've had a blast seeing how younger students can learn to code using Scratch. I made this guy move around playing with the program and I felt very accomplished when I was done.
I learned how to do it using Kano. I will have a more detailed post in the coming weeks as I play with it more, bit I can say that I totally love it and see why kids around the world are signing up and learning to code using this wonderful piece of technology.
I wrote my own code and made 4 different lights blink on and off and repeat. I was able to make them speed up and slow down and I understood why. I am so excited and proud of what I was able to learn on my own. I've run the code and programmed my Arduino to take the humidity and temperature of my room and display it on the LCD. I've been learning on my DuinoKit. I picked it up online and love it. Check it out at DuinoKit.com. I will have a more in depth post soon, but I wanted to recognize the tool that really helped me learn.
The reason I have been doing all of this is that I like to keep busy and learn new things. This technology is more accessible than ever. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I never thought I would be able to build my own computer, 3D design a case, and run programs that I wrote. Heck, watching the movie WarGames made me a little worried that I would start Global Thermonuclear War by accident if I typed in the wrong code. Now, I have access to these tools and I want to learn them so I can share them with students and my son. I do not want Leo to be left behind because I chose not to engage in emerging technologies.
I encourage all of you out there to pick up something small and practice so you will feel comfortable sharing with your students.
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