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If tablets don't kill the desktop PC, this surely will. If the XBox doesn't take over the family entertainment center, this surely will. But it promises to do much more -- to let school-age kids actually learn about computers, something most of them have been kept from doing by most present-day computers.

http://www.crazyengineers.com/25-pc-to-encourage-school-children-towards-computer-working-261/

$25 PC To Encourage School Children Towards Working Of Computers

By Independent Source on May 12, 2011

There are millions of children around the globe who are crazy about computers, but the thing they are really crazy about is gaming, getting one of their job done easily or surfing net and Facebook-ing. But still there are few of them who wonder what could have made it so easy, compact, fast and friendly. They think they’ll be taught about it in school/college, but no, nowadays the school teaches skills to write a word document, make Power point presentations and basic computer skills. Some children are not even able to afford a computer and so they are not able to learn things they are keenly interested in.

David Braben, a well known game developer and his colleagues have developed a small and compact PC on a USB stick. It’s a computer on a tiny circuit board, containing a 700MHz ARM11 processor, 128MB of SDRAM, a USB port, an HDMI connection and runs OpenGL ES 2.0 which gives good graphics and a 1080p confirmed output. It also contains an SD card slot and performs general I/O operations. The PC costs only $25 for all this. You only need to plug it into a HDMI socket, connect a keyboard through the USB port and you get a fully working machine running on a version of Linux, however it seems Ubuntu is the one it ships with. This means it could be used to run office applications, web browsing and for gaming.

The computer looks like one of the kit computer of 80s that encourage users to learn a bit of programming. The makers believe that the school children are left ignorant towards the working of computers and are not encouraged to show some creativity, so this $25 PC will be easy to buy, understand and carry anywhere. It will also help students to understand the architecture of computer and inspire them towards their working.

This small, cheap PC will be distributed by Raspberry Pi foundation. The Raspberry Pi foundation is a UK registered charity which wants to put the fun back into learning computing. They plan to distribute an ultra-low cost computer to help children learn computer programming. The founders of Raspberry Pi are mostly from Cambridge’s technology sector. Their volunteer team of has to show that it is possible to manufacture a better working prototype for $25, so that the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) is also impressed. OLPC was successful in providing laptops at a cost of $100, but if this PC will be possible for $25 then the developers and government will come together to get this into the hands of every child who was not able to buy, use or understand properly. This PC can help the young people by giving a new look towards programming and computing.

Braben hopes that the device will be available within next 12 months. So it’s going to be very easy for a child to get a computer, use it accordingly, carry anywhere and to work on making computing simpler.