A novel educational platform, based on the Raspberry-Pi: Optimised to assist the teaching and learning of younger students

A novel 2-section educational learning environment was developed and is presented herein, together with the results of the first educational trial teaching Physics to 118, primary school, 10 year-olds. The present study is the proof-of-concept for a novel software platform, which has been designed and implemented for use with the Raspberry Pi hardware. The purpose of this platform is "education using ICT", as opposed to computer education, on which most other Pi-based projects concentrate. The Pi hardware is very small and of sufficiently low cost facilitating students to own for home use, in addition to its obvious use in schools, for which it is primarily intended. While the first section of the educational learning environment produced operates on the tiny Pi, the second section of the platform operates on an online server, and provides software support while allowing for administered exchange of educational material amongst educators — a novelty on its own. It incorporates rich text, multimedia, and custom applications. The first educational test presented herein proves the high suitability of the concept in the first place, and of the novel platform in particular. Although the target group of the present trial consists of primary school children, the ultimate target group of the platform (comprising the main research product of the present educational study) includes both primary and secondary education children. The platform would seem usable for teaching other subjects also, in addition to Science.