Investigating with Pi

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by Clive Darra

Today a group of students started investigating a Raspberry Pi (above). They were given no structure and no instructions apart from ‘see if you can work this out’. They weren’t even told what it was called. Within a short time, they had identified it and had worked out a vague idea of what it does. 30 mins in and they had worked out that they needed a screen, keyboard and mouse and were quickly able to source these (with a bit of negotiating) from the ‘surplus’ pile in the school library. Within an hour they had set it up, found a ‘how to’ video online and installed an operating system on the ‘Pi’. As we moved on to other learning this afternoon they boys were discussing who was going to set up an Edmodo space so they could share resources that they hope to find from home tonight. Another student in the group suggested setting up a Google Hangout for collaboration. Great discussions. Great learning.

Although they have barely begun, the learning in this task has been fantastic. The problem solving alone has been worthwhile. The group hit a snag this afternoon and without an ‘expert’ on hand the kids have had to discuss and plan ways to solve the problem without being ‘rescued’ by anyone.

‘Letting go of the reigns’ can be a hard thing for teachers to do. The idea of not being the expert is scary, but certainly opens up some great learning opportunities for students. Without a teacher expert to rely on the kids need to think deeper about problem solving, they need to be organised and they need to be creative in the way they learn. I look forward to seeing where the journey takes them.