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Education has changed overnight

Words by Smiley Team

During the pandemic, when over 1.5 million children’s education has been disrupted, The Raspberry Pi Foundation has stepped in to make computing accessible for as many people as possible. 

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a global organisation that enables young people to be creators of technology, training them with the world’s largest network of volunteer-led after school coding clubs. The Foundation also trains educators to teach computing in the classroom environment, but are most well-known for creating one of the world’s most affordable computers - The Raspberry Pi - which costs around 35 US dollars.

Matt Richardson, Executive Director of the US-based team tells us that ‘Education has changed basically overnight’ and that in light of this, the Foundation has adapted how it operates in order to support young people across the world. 

‘We launched Digital Making at Home, a weekly content series to inspire and motivate young people to learn how to code and create with technology. Every week, we establish a theme and release new instructional videos for young people to code along with.’ 

The series is designed for anyone aged 7-17 working independently or with parents, carers or siblings. The project resources are available in up to 29 languages, allowing as many young people as possible to be involved. 

The Foundation is also working to help educators deliver remote virtual sessions, supporting volunteers to run virtual coding clubs and exploring ways to make the Raspberry Pi even more affordable and accessible. 

’Young people all over the world have had a massive disruption to their routines and ways of learning. It's with this context in mind that the Raspberry Pi Foundation team has worked tirelessly over the last few weeks to make sure we have an impact at a time when it's needed more than ever.’ 

You can find out more about how the Rasberry Pi Foundation is supporting its community during its time here and kids can explore the Digital Making At Home series here.

 

 

By Ellen Jones

This article aligns with the following UN SDGs

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