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Posted

Had my Microbit through the post today so have been playing a little bit this evening with it. Seems nice. I'm filming with the BBC tomorrow with 32 kids all using Microbits.

 

Should be interesting.

 

Anyone else got one yet?

 

Gareth

Posted
Nothing at our school yet... seems to have gone quiet.

 

  • BBC’s Micro:bit delayed until next year due to power supply issue
     
    The BBC's Micro:bit, a single-board educational computer that was meant to be distributed to a million Year 7 students in the UK this month, has been delayed until at least "after Christmas." This will come as a big hit for the BBC and for British schools: the original plan was for teachers to use the Micro:bit to help teach kids the basics of programming and electronics, but it seems unlikely that the computer will be built into this year's teaching syllabus if it doesn't arrive until at least three months into the school year.
     
    According to the BBC, the delay is due to an issue with the Micro:bit's power supply. The problem only "affected a small number of devices," but for obvious reasons (kids!) they wanted to make sure the devices were as robust and reliable as possible. The new plan is to send some Micro:bits out to teachers "before Christmas," and then to the million-or-so Year 7 kids (age 11-12) "early in the new year".
     
  • BBC says Micro Bit rollout will be delayed

Posted

Yes indeed. We have 8 of them here today (and mine in the drawer). They are pretty cool and the kids are enjoying using them. Keep an eye on the photos by following @techgwybgwyr

 

Gareth

  • 3 months later...
Posted

BBC Micro Bit mini-computer faces further delay

 

The BBC has again delayed its release plan for the Micro Bit.

 

The tiny computer was originally supposed to have been given to one million schoolchildren last October.

 

The corporation said it now planned to start giving teachers their own units just after the half-term holidays, to help them plan classes.

 

Last September, it revealed a problem with the power supply had caused a delay, adding teachers would receive the device before the end of 2015 and children "early in the new year".

 

But on Wednesday, at the Bett education trade show in London, the BBC said its timetable had slipped again.

 

"The main issue has been some fine-tuning," BBC Learning executive Cerys Griffiths said.

 

"We have created hardware, it's very complex, it's very sophisticated, it's very new.

 

"What we were really hoping for was that the teachers would get their devices before Christmas.

 

"But our commitment to teachers has always been that we would get them the devices first to give them time to play and get familiar with them."

Posted

What is really annoying about this whole Microbit issue is seeing other schools in their videos etc all enjoying with their devices. Heck - we've even filmed the Welsh films for the main website but they took all the Microbits back. I'm not even allowed one - and I was filming too.

 

Twitter is full of teachers that have been given devices - all going on about how cool they are. How have they been given them?

 

Why did they even bother advertising the device in the first place until they were sure it was working and going to be available?

 

Gareth

Posted
I got told that there's a copyright issue with the codebug at the moment which is the real reason it's been delayed. However, I was told that by a teacher, so not to sure about how true it is, but the codebug does look very similar.
Posted
I got told that there's a copyright issue with the codebug at the moment which is the real reason it's been delayed. However, I was told that by a teacher, so not to sure about how true it is, but the codebug does look very similar.

 

I'm sure some of the original designs looked like this but they do not look like this any more.

 

GJE

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

We have just received 3 for our teachers.

 

You connect it via usb and it appears as an additional drive. When you have created your code you save it as a .hex file and drop it onto the drive. This then makes the microbit come to life.

 

In Sept we are looking to make all usb drives read only unless they are encrypted by bitlocker. This makes the microbit useless for us unless we alter the group policy for the machines that will be used to connect microbits to.

Posted
anyone know how to connect it via Bluetooth to your smartphone? says on paper we got to look at the getting started website, but I can't find anything on it!

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