Programming Pi
July 8, 2013鈥擜 newly released, single-board computer, the Raspberry Pi costs a fraction of the price of an average laptop and helps users learn the basics of hardware, operating systems, and programming.
In an effort to help teachers weave computer science into their curricula, Associate Professor of and Associate Dean will host a workshop about the Raspberry Pi for local teachers from July 10 to 12.
鈥淔or basically $100, a kid can very conceivably have his own computer at home for very low cost [with the Raspberry Pi],鈥� Karn said. 鈥淎nd unlike some of the most expensive things that are kind of locked down, you鈥檙e only bound by your imagination. Whatever you can think of in terms of programming, you can do with this.鈥�
Able to function on five volts of electricity, or the output of a common cell phone charger, the Raspberry Pi is perfect for use in areas where electricity is unreliable or costly, or where there has been a movement toward solar energy.
鈥淲hen the original founders developed it, their goal was to make a computer cheap enough that it could be used in developing countries,鈥� Karn explained, 鈥渁s well as cheap enough that public schools that couldn鈥檛 afford to have computers for every student could go to this type of model.鈥�
Funded by the Google CS4HS (Computer Science for High School) program, the three-day seminar will be attended by 10 to 15 middle and high school teachers from the Washington, DC, area, and will be 鈥�80 to 90 percent鈥� hands-on, said Singh.
Karn and Singh will help the teachers, many of whom have a background in biology, physics, or a field not directly related to computer science, learn about hardware, operating systems, and computer languages like Scratch and Python. The teachers will also devise lesson plans that incorporate computer science and computational thinking.
鈥淭he idea is to [invite] teachers with any science or math background and to teach them some of the basic concepts of computer science, and then focus in on the actual disciplines that they teach,鈥� said Singh.
鈥淲e thought if we could convince traditional science and math teachers to add modules related to computer science or computational thinking, then their kids would also get exposed to computer science,鈥� she continued. 鈥淸The teachers] get to take the devices and materials home at the end, so they鈥檒l have the opportunity to work on it and extend it beyond what they do with us.鈥�
Karn and Singh are longtime friends and colleagues. In 2003, they met for the first time when Karn enrolled in a computer science course that Singh was teaching her first semester at Georgetown.
Together they decided to host a workshop last fall, when they accidentally ran into each other at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference in Baltimore. Their main goal, said Karn, is to encourage users to be more proactive and innovative with technology.
鈥淭he idea is to get everyone, but especially kids, not just sitting passively using applications that somebody else wrote鈥攗sing Twitter, using a web browser, using email鈥攂ut saying, 鈥業 could write the next killer app,鈥欌�� she explained.
鈥淲e鈥檝e gotten away from that. We did that back in the days of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, writing software, but now it鈥檚, 鈥楬ere鈥檚 a box, I just turn it on, and I don鈥檛 know or understand how it works, I just use it,鈥欌�� Karn continued. 鈥淭hat limits me by what someone else has said this thing can do.鈥�
Because the Raspberry Pi is low-cost and open-source, Karn and Singh also believe it gives people who have long been overlooked in the world of computing some measure of power and agency.
鈥淲hether it鈥檚 computer science, computer engineering, or bioinformatics, there are so many voices that are not being heard, particularly women and minorities. One of the reasons why we tried to focus on recruiting teachers from Washington, DC, is to get these voices heard,鈥� Karn said.
鈥淭hat really fits with Georgetown鈥檚 mission of social justice鈥攐f working with people at the margins and being inclusive.鈥�
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