Raspberry Pi

21st Century Skills Innovation Library: Makers as Innovators

by Charles Severance, Kristin Fontichiaro

The Raspberry Pi is a small computer that allows almost anyone to learn about computer programming. Readers will discover new processes, integrate visual information with text, and and learn technical word meanings as they find out how the Raspberry Pi was invented and how makers are using it today. They will also learn how to set up and begin programming their own Raspberry Pis.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens

32 pages, Library Binding

First published August 1, 2013

About the author

Charles is a Clinical Associate Professor and teaches in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. He also works with the IMS Global Learning Consortium promoting and developing standards for teaching and learning technology. He also works for Longsight as Sakai Chief Strategist. Previously he was the Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation and the Chief Architect of the Sakai Project.

Charles teaches two popular MOOCs to students worldwide on the Coursera platform: Internet History, Technology, and Security and Programming for Everybody and is a long-time advocate of open educational resources to empower teachers.

Charles is the editor of the Computing Conversations column in IEEE Computer magazine that features a monthly article and video interview of a computing pioneer. Charles is the author of the book, "Sakai: Building an Open Source Community" that describes the early days of the open source Sakai project. Charles is also the author of the book, "Using Google App Engine" from O'Reilly and Associates and the book "Python for Informatics: Exploring Information". He also wrote the O'Reilly book titled, "High Performance Computing". Charles has a background in standards including serving as the vice-chair for the IEEE Posix P1003 standards effort and edited the Standards Column in IEEE Computer Magazine from 1995-1999.

Charles is active in media as a hobby, he has co-hosted several television shows including "Nothin but Net" produced by MediaOne and a nationally televised program about the Internet called "Internet:TCI". Charles appeared for over 10 years as an expert on Internet and Technology as a co-host of a live call-in radio program on the local Public Radio affiliate (www.wkar.org).

Chuck's hobbies include off-road motorcycle riding, karaoke and playing hockey.

Charles has a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Michigan State University.

Reviews

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of you who may not know, a Raspberry Pi is a minimal computer (no screen, no keyboard -- you supply those things yourself) that is very cheap, made so it's easy to purchase and do all kinds of things with it (while learning to program and manage a computer and how to make a computer do all kinds of interesting things in real life). This book caught my eye as a basic introduction to Raspberry Pis for kids, and my older two kids definitely caught on. I had to steal it back just to finish reading it tonight. They went to bed very late, talking to each other long after lights out about what they might do with one. So this book does a good job of giving my kids (who already know something about programming) an idea of what can be done with a Raspberry Pi.

It also does a good job of introducing kids (or an adult who is not familiar with Raspberry Pis) to what would be needed after you buy one to get it working and use it. After that, there's tons of material online for those DIY computer types.

[Nate Balcom · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short introduction to Raspberry Pi, but like most Pi books I’ve read a bit out dated.

[Bill Doughty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been wanting to learn more about (and eventually play with) the Raspberry Pi computer and was therefore looking for a quick & simple introduction. This is a kids' book, but it fit the bill nicely, and was the sort of thing I could easily polish off in a portion of my lunchbreak.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good introduction to Raspberry Pi; best probably for grades 6-8. It's rather short, but I think it provides enough background and simple steps to get started with it.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great guide for background and basic how-to when setting up your Raspberry Pi.