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Microsoft touch develop and the BBC micro:bit

Published: 14 May 2016 Publication History

Abstract

The chance to influence the lives of a million children does not come often. Through a partnership between the BBC and several technology companies, a small instructional computing device called the BBC micro:bit will be given to a million children in the UK in 2016. Moreover, using the micro:bit will be part of the CS curriculum. We describe how Microsoft's Touch Develop programming platform works with the BBC micro:bit. We describe the design and architecture of the micro:bit and the software engineering hurdles that had to be overcome to ensure it was as accessible as possible to children and teachers. The combined hardware/software platform is evaluated and early anecdotal evidence is presented. A video about the micro:bit is available at http://aka.ms/bbcmicrobit.

References

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Thomas Ball, Sebastian Burckhardt, Jonathan de Halleux, Michał Moskal, Jonathan Protzenko, and Nikolai Tillmann, Beyond Open Source: The TouchDevelop Cloud-based Integrated Development Environment, MOBILESoft, 83--93, 2015.
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Quinn Burke and Yasmin B. Kafai. 2012. The writers' workshop for youth programmers: digital storytelling with scratch in middle school classrooms. SIGCSE Technical Symposium, 433--438, 2012.
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CAS: http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/
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Steve Hodges, James Scott, Sue Sentance, Colin Miller, Nicolas Villar, Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche, Kerry Hammil, and Steven Johnston. 2013. NET gadgeteer: a new platform for K-12 computer science education. SIGCSE Technical Symposium, 391--396, 2013.
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J. Liu, C.-H. Lin, P. Potter, E. P. Hasson, Z. D. Barnett, and M. Singleton, Going mobile with App Inventor for Android: a one-week computing workshop for K-12 teachers, SIGCSE Technical Symposium, 433--438, 2013.
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Orni Meerbaum-Salant, Michal Armoni, Mordechai (Moti) Ben-Ari, Learning computer science concepts with Scratch, Computer Science Education, Vol. 23, Iss. 3, pp 239--264, 2013
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Hadi Partovi. 2015. A comprehensive effort to expand access and diversity in computer science. ACM Inroads 6, (3) 67--72, 2015
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J. Protzenko, Pushing Blocks All The Way To C++, In Blocks and Beyond Workshop, Atlanta, Georgia, 2015
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  • (2024)Spools and Sparks: The Role of Materiality in Computational Making with E-textiles and BBC Micro:bitProceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium10.1145/3686169.3686182(1-11)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2024
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cover image ACM Conferences
ICSE '16: Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering Companion
May 2016
946 pages
ISBN:9781450342056
DOI:10.1145/2889160
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 14 May 2016

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Author Tags

  1. BBC micro:bit
  2. K-12 education
  3. cloud
  4. devices
  5. touch develop

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Overall Acceptance Rate 276 of 1,856 submissions, 15%

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Using Gamification Techniques to Enhance Learning in Primary SchoolEmpowering STEM Educators With Digital Tools10.4018/979-8-3693-9806-7.ch008(181-216)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2024
  • (2024)Development and Evaluation of an Internet of Things Project for Preservice Elementary School TeachersSustainability10.3390/su1617763216:17(7632)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2024
  • (2024)Spools and Sparks: The Role of Materiality in Computational Making with E-textiles and BBC Micro:bitProceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium10.1145/3686169.3686182(1-11)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2024
  • (2024)The role of momentary emotions in promoting error learning orientation among lower secondary school students: An intervention study embedded in a short visual programming courseBritish Journal of Educational Psychology10.1111/bjep.1268195:1(107-123)Online publication date: 19-Mar-2024
  • (2024)Science Teachers’ Technical Difficulties in Using Physical Computing and the Internet of Things Into School Science InquiryIEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies10.1109/TLT.2024.340696417(1849-1858)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2024
  • (2024)A Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis of BBC Micro:Bit Research2024 IEEE World Engineering Education Conference (EDUNINE)10.1109/EDUNINE60625.2024.10500601(1-6)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2024
  • (2024)Micro: bit programming effects on elementary STEM teachers’ computational thinking and programming attitudes: a moderated mediation modelJournal of Research on Technology in Education10.1080/15391523.2024.2402357(1-23)Online publication date: 11-Sep-2024
  • (2023)Experience with using BBC micro: bit in teachingObrazovanje i vaspitanje10.5937/obrvas18-4711218:20(33-44)Online publication date: 2023
  • (2023)Information and Communication Technologies Laboratory of Turiba UniversityACTA PROSPERITATIS10.37804/1691-6077-2022-13-76-8913:1(77-89)Online publication date: 26-Jul-2023
  • (2023)BJC SparksProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569842(451-457)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
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