A crowdfunding project that aims to make the Raspberry Pi available to children as young as six has reached its $100,000 (£62,000) goal on Kickstarter in just 18 hours.
While the idea of the credit-card-sized single-board computer has captured many people's imagination, in reality it is still relatively difficult to get a Raspberry Pi up and running if the user has never built a PC before. Kano aims to change that by providing a toolkit that is “as simple and fun as lego” to put together. The kit includes a wireless keyboard, a speaker, a customisable case, an HDMI cable, a mini-USB cable, a USB power supply, a WiFi dongle and Kano's customised operating system, as well at the Raspberry Pi itself, an illustrated guide to making a computer and an array of stencils and stickers.
The whole thing comes in a single cardboard box, and Kano claims that it can be used to build a computer, make games, synth music and learn to code. The process is designed to feel like a video game, so users can unlock challenges and level up as they go along.
Kano developed the kit by making computers with hundreds of children, teachers, parents, engineers, and artists around the world, and with the help of Raspberry Pi and Codecademy. The creators made and sold 200 prototype kits initially, but the new $100,000 funding will allow the company to broaden its offering to a much wider user base.
“There's enormous value to platforms like Kano which add hardware, software, peripherals and documentation to the Pi to make it more appealing to users who are under-served by the standard offering,” said Eben Upton, inventor of the Raspberry Pi. “I've had a play with early versions of the Kano software environment, and I think Alex and the team are doing great work making the Pi more accessible to younger and less technical audiences.”
Jonathan Molver, assistant headteacher at King Solomon Academy in Westminster said that Kano will be extremely valuable when teaching the new computer science curriculum that is coming in next year.
Source: The Telegraph
