[Hampshire] raspberry pi and educational software
I was recently lucky enough to be involved in a development project in a remote community in Ethiopia which involved installing solar and batteries. Whilst we were there we visited the local school which had an "ICT" centre with a single PC and a further PC used by the staff. It was basically a large mud hut with a earth floor. Despite this the school had managed to get 25 students into higher education. I thought that they could benefit from a few raspberry pis. On the way back I met a German development economist who was working for the EU in Botswana . He said they were interested in a UK product "the raspberry pi". I promised to send him some background info about the raspberry pi and how it could be used in education which I know it must but haven't had experience myself. Can anybody suggest resources links that would be useful to pass on? I haven't started yet but can imagine somebody out there may have much more experience. Regards Roger -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] raspberry pi and educational software
On 14/03/2022 09:30, Roger Munford via Hampshire wrote: I was recently lucky enough to be involved in a development project in a remote community in Ethiopia which involved installing solar and batteries. Whilst we were there we visited the local school which had an "ICT" centre with a single PC and a further PC used by the staff. It was basically a large mud hut with a earth floor. Despite this the school had managed to get 25 students into higher education. I thought that they could benefit from a few raspberry pis. On the way back I met a German development economist who was working for the EU in Botswana . He said they were interested in a UK product "the raspberry pi". I promised to send him some background info about the raspberry pi and how it could be used in education which I know it must but haven't had experience myself. Can anybody suggest resources links that would be useful to pass on? I haven't started yet but can imagine somebody out there may have much more experience. Sounds like a fascinating and wholesome project! The whole Raspberry Pi web site is a valuable resource; they have a education landing page here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/teach/ The forums at https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/ has a plethora of people discussing the Pi and its numerous uses. The Magpi magazine, from the foundation, is also a substantial publication and an enjoyable read. As for third-party resources I expect there's some resource to be mind from the subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/ -- Adam Piggott, Proprietor, Proactive Services (Computing) https://www.proactiveservices.co.uk/ "If you outlaw encryption only outlaws will have encryption". Secure communication preferred: Matrix @adam-p:matrix.org, Signal Messenger, OpenPGP. OpenPGP_signature Description: OpenPGP digital signature -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
[Hampshire] (Very) Old Hardware
Hi all Does anyone know where I could buy some very old full AT server towers from? I'm talking about the sort that have at least 5 drive bays if not more i.e. close to being table height if placed on the floor. I'm guessing circa late 1990s as opposed to anything later - and they definitely need to be beige! They don't necessarily need to work - or even have the guts in them (PSU, mobo) etc. - they just need to look authentic. Sounds odd I know but my local Am Dram group are looking to put on a (very) home made production and need some props. Cheers Rob -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] raspberry pi and educational software
On Mon, 14 Mar 2022 at 09:39, Roger Munford via Hampshire < hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote: > I was recently lucky enough to be involved in a development project in a > remote community in Ethiopia which involved installing solar and batteries. > > Whilst we were there we visited the local school which had an "ICT" > centre with a single PC and a further PC used by the staff. It was > basically a large mud hut with a earth floor. Despite this the school > had managed to get 25 students into higher education. I thought that > they could benefit from a few raspberry pis. > > On the way back I met a German development economist who was working for > the EU in Botswana . He said they were interested in a UK product "the > raspberry pi". > > I promised to send him some background info about the raspberry pi and > how it could be used in education which I know it must but haven't had > experience myself. > > Can anybody suggest resources links that would be useful to pass on? I > haven't started yet but can imagine somebody out there may have much > more experience. > > > As you observed, they had managed to teach the students with just one PC. The main limitations in these remote areas is POWER Only if they have enough power, is it worth adding more screens and other electronic equipment. You still need a screen and keyboard to program a Raspberry Pi. I have used a sharpened rod of iron, placed in a fire, to do soldering before. Kind Regards James -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] raspberry pi and educational software
Hi Roger, I'll give an anecdote. The Raspberry Pi runs a hardware-tweaked version of Linux and I was surprised at just how well it performs and what's installable from the repositories. I bought one out of curiosity then, after a machine failure, put it into my home networks as a DMZ and postfix mail host as a temporary fix. system, load with "w" was 0 0 0, even with anti-spam running. Oh; right; let's try anti-virus filtering, too. Still around 0 0 0. Wow. Later I also added a squid proxy ... system load still modest. It stopped being a temporary fix ... it's still there. I would suggest they get one and try it for their wanted purposes. I think they'll be pleasantly surprised at what it can do. https://tutorials-raspberrypi.de/ https://www.makershop.de/raspberry-pi https://www.raspberrypi.com https://thepihut.com/ In a hot climate the standard Pi may well want some heat-sinking. I've used these cases: https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi-cases/products/aluminium-armour-heatsink-case-for-raspberry-pi-4 -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] (Very) Old Hardware
Hello Rob. On Monday, 14 March, 2022, you wrote > Does anyone know where I could buy some very old full AT server towers from? > I'm talking about the sort that have at least 5 drive bays if not more i.e. > close to being table height if placed on the floor. I have a Supermicro SC-750 case that I'm no longer using, and a similar Addtronics case. The Supermicro looks like this: https://www.frostytech.com/articles/218/index.html You're welcome to have both for free, if you don't mind collecting from Romsey. Nick. -- Nick Chalk . once a Radio Designer Confidence is failing to understand the problem. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] (Very) Old Hardware
Hi Nick That's definitely the sort of thing, yes. I can't collect I'm afraid as I'm north of Manchester. If the group paid, would you be prepared to pack them up and I'll have them collected? Cheers Rob -Original Message- From: Hampshire On Behalf Of Nick Chalk via Hampshire Sent: 14 March 2022 10:52 To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List Cc: Nick Chalk Subject: Re: [Hampshire] (Very) Old Hardware Hello Rob. On Monday, 14 March, 2022, you wrote > Does anyone know where I could buy some very old full AT server towers from? > I'm talking about the sort that have at least 5 drive bays if not more i.e. > close to being table height if placed on the floor. I have a Supermicro SC-750 case that I'm no longer using, and a similar Addtronics case. The Supermicro looks like this: https://www.frostytech.com/articles/218/index.html You're welcome to have both for free, if you don't mind collecting from Romsey. Nick. -- Nick Chalk . once a Radio Designer Confidence is failing to understand the problem. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk -- -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] (Very) Old Hardware
On Monday, 14 March, 2022, you wrote > That's definitely the sort of thing, yes. I can't collect I'm afraid as > I'm north of Manchester. If the group paid, would you be prepared to pack > them up and I'll have them collected? Collection is not a problem, although I'll need to check if I have enough cardboard to pack them. Beware that, even empty, they're heavy - I'd estimate about 10kg each. Courier charges might be significant. Nick. -- Nick Chalk . once a Radio Designer Confidence is failing to understand the problem. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] (Very) Old Hardware
On Monday, 14 March, 2022, you wrote > Is that 10kg in total or 10kg each? I'll check and see how much the group > are prepared to pay. 10kg each. Those old cases were built like tanks. There's a good chance they'd need to be shipped separately, due to the size. So budget for two packages. I'll measure tha actual sizes today, but one reference gave the SC-750 as 670 x 210 x 440mm. Nick. -- Nick Chalk . once a Radio Designer Confidence is failing to understand the problem. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] raspberry pi and educational software
Hi, On Mon, Mar 14 at 09:30, Roger Munford via Hampshire wrote: ... > Can anybody suggest resources links that would be useful to pass on? I > haven't started yet but can imagine somebody out there may have much > more experience. My concern with the RPi would be it's reliance on relativly modern peripherals. HDMI monitors may be a little difficult to come by? USB keyboard mice etc should be easier but you might have to concider including a USB hub. One idea to concider is bundling RPi and a cheap projector together with keyboard/mouse etc in a case, as proposed here[1] for use in India. I wouldn't get too hungup on the laser cut steel case I'm sure locally sourced alternatives could be used. [1] https://hackaday.com/2022/02/02/a-portable-projecting-pi-for-education/ -- Bob Dunlop -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] raspberry pi and educational software
On Monday, 14 March, 2022, Bob Dunlop wrote > My concern with the RPi would be it's reliance on relativly modern > peripherals. HDMI monitors may be a little difficult to come by? One option might be a smaller display, like https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-7-touchscreen-display-with-frame or https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/hdmi-8-lcd-screen-kit-1024x768 For power, how about batteries and solar charging? Perhaps a combination of this: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/lipo-shim with one or other of these: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/high-capacity-lithium-ion-battery-pack https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/lipo-battery-pack and a solar panel: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/adafruit-universal-usb-dc-solar-lithium-ion-polymer-charger-bq24074 There are also switch-mode converters if a stable 5V is hard to come by: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/wide-input-shim Going back to displays, those above require 5V so the RPi and display could be powered by the same source. Nick. -- Nick Chalk . once a Radio Designer Confidence is failing to understand the problem. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] raspberry pi and educational software
> HDMI monitors may be a little difficult to come by? Not really (I bought one yesterday). Even if the monitor you want is DP only, you only need an HDMI→DP cable. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] raspberry pi and educational software
Thanks for all your interest and suggestions. I was basically doing a bit of research for the German economist. I had always known that the prime aim of the raspberry pi was education and part of that was making it affordable so that those interested could get their hands on one and feel the magic that we presumably all enjoy. This is be very important for developing countries because they need an army of technicians to help overcome the challenges that they face. It seems to me that the raspberry pi, and associated educational software could be enormously useful. My almost accidental visit to the secondary school was quite inspirational. It was amazing to see them teaching a full curriculum under really tough conditions. Imagine doing chemistry or Physics without and labwork. I of course was interested to see the ICT center. I thought that the students would benefit a lot more if they had 5 - 6 raspberry pis so that each would have more keyboard time. However a colleague said that the powers that be might think that the raspberry pi is inferior to windows because that's what they use in Europe. The school had a couple of solar panels ,a charger, a 12V battery and a UPS with a normal PC attached to it. The solar set up was financed by Polish Development aid and I think it could be easily extended. They do get a lot of inappropriate stuff that they can't use because of the environment. They had a load of very slim continental plug sockets that would look great in a Swedish house but they are so hard to fit that they were just hanging off the walls. What they needed was something much more bulky with big screws and room to bend cables around. Something to last. James, the story about soldering with a heated iron bar sounded really interesting. Can you be tempted to flesh it out a bit? Regards Roger On 14/03/2022 09:30, Roger Munford via Hampshire wrote: I was recently lucky enough to be involved in a development project in a remote community in Ethiopia which involved installing solar and batteries. Whilst we were there we visited the local school which had an "ICT" centre with a single PC and a further PC used by the staff. It was basically a large mud hut with a earth floor. Despite this the school had managed to get 25 students into higher education. I thought that they could benefit from a few raspberry pis. On the way back I met a German development economist who was working for the EU in Botswana . He said they were interested in a UK product "the raspberry pi". I promised to send him some background info about the raspberry pi and how it could be used in education which I know it must but haven't had experience myself. Can anybody suggest resources links that would be useful to pass on? I haven't started yet but can imagine somebody out there may have much more experience. Regards Roger -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
Re: [Hampshire] raspberry pi and educational software
On 2022-03-14 17:42, Roger Munford via Hampshire wrote: Thanks for all your interest and suggestions. I was basically doing a bit of research for the German economist. I had always known that the prime aim of the raspberry pi was education and part of that was making it affordable so that those interested could get their hands on one and feel the magic that we presumably all enjoy. This is be very important for developing countries because they need an army of technicians to help overcome the challenges that they face. It seems to me that the raspberry pi, and associated educational software could be enormously useful. My almost accidental visit to the secondary school was quite inspirational. It was amazing to see them teaching a full curriculum under really tough conditions. Imagine doing chemistry or Physics without and labwork. I of course was interested to see the ICT center. I thought that the students would benefit a lot more if they had 5 - 6 raspberry pis so that each would have more keyboard time. However a colleague said that the powers that be might think that the raspberry pi is inferior to windows because that's what they use in Europe. The school had a couple of solar panels ,a charger, a 12V battery and a UPS with a normal PC attached to it. The solar set up was financed by Polish Development aid and I think it could be easily extended. They do get a lot of inappropriate stuff that they can't use because of the environment. They had a load of very slim continental plug sockets that would look great in a Swedish house but they are so hard to fit that they were just hanging off the walls. What they needed was something much more bulky with big screws and room to bend cables around. Something to last. James, the story about soldering with a heated iron bar sounded really interesting. Can you be tempted to flesh it out a bit? Different James, but I have used one that looks just like this including the tray. Copper tip on a steel rod. https://d3h6k4kfl8m9p0.cloudfront.net/stories/nyu8Phpc-br1CDdNVDkZkw.jpg Regards Roger On 14/03/2022 09:30, Roger Munford via Hampshire wrote: I was recently lucky enough to be involved in a development project in a remote community in Ethiopia which involved installing solar and batteries. Whilst we were there we visited the local school which had an "ICT" centre with a single PC and a further PC used by the staff. It was basically a large mud hut with a earth floor. Despite this the school had managed to get 25 students into higher education. I thought that they could benefit from a few raspberry pis. On the way back I met a German development economist who was working for the EU in Botswana . He said they were interested in a UK product "the raspberry pi". I promised to send him some background info about the raspberry pi and how it could be used in education which I know it must but haven't had experience myself. Can anybody suggest resources links that would be useful to pass on? I haven't started yet but can imagine somebody out there may have much more experience. Regards Roger -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --
