We can teach our children to tinker - right now!

By Mark Beets, ‎General Manager – ‎Entelect

I love to tinker. In business, we call this innovation, but that makes it sound like a means to an end. There isn’t an end when you are tinkering – you have a few parts in front of you and all the conceptual possibilities these represent. It’s the spark to create. I don’t believe you can teach tinkering. It’s something that’s part of you, something that you become passionate about. I do believe that most of us are tinkerers – we just don’t know it yet.

For me, the interest in software development as a career started at school, way back in the Eighties with a humble program called Turtle. It was a basic introduction to giving machines instructions: your choices made the little triangle ‘turtle’ move on the screen. It was marvellous to keep working on a problem until you could solve it, and this opened the world of engineering to me.

Today’s technology boom isn’t surprising: Thirty years ago, the personal computer and applications like Basic, Pascal and even the rudimentary Turtle awakened a generation to the possibilities of digital technologies, science, maths, design and even the arts. That generation is creating the breakthroughs changing our world today.

This is one of the reasons why I am fond of the Raspberry Pi platform. It was created to bring back those glory days of basic engineering principles and then surpassing them with a community of like-minded makers and builders. The Pi is a ground-swell revolution happening right under our noses. If you want a solid foundation for a technical future for your children, you should consider buying one for them.

The Pi is a tinkerer’s paradise. It can cost a few hundred Rand to get going and comes pre-packaged with all the tools and toys that aspirant tinkerers want. Not only is my childhood friend, Turtle, back in action, but it’s joined by other powerful experiences. Scratch is an easy drag-and-drop way to learn sequences, helping animate a cartoon cat on the screen, and Minecraft is a wonderland virtual world where children can learn about cause, effect and their roles as creators. But the Pi is powerful enough to build interesting projects. Home tinkerers have created home security systems, complete IoT (Internet of Things) platforms and even self-driving RC cars with the Pi.

My young daughters are big Pi fans. They play on it every day and I’ve bought some accessories that bring their work to life in the real world, like a small robot that follows their scripted instructions. It’s amazing to see their inventive instincts bloom. I’m actually a little jealous – we never had toys like this when I grew up!

The world needs tinkerers again. Children and adults who use the Pi have a chance to show their willingness to build something from nothing. That spark, to demonstrate their love for creating wonderful connected things. A Raspberry Pi costs so little and yet packs so many possibilities. It will certainly be noted as one of the technical and innovative marvels of our generation: A gadget that delivers the digital world to you on a shoestring budget.

Easy as Pi projects

Getting started with the Raspberry Pi is inexpensive, easy and fun! There are countless creative projects to tackle with the Pi and its growing range of accessories. Learning happens when we can see real-world results, so here’s a pick of Pi projects that the family can build and enjoy:

Media Centre

Contrary to its reputation as a haven for piracy, Kodi is one of the best and most versatile media centres ever made. It’s very easy to install on a Raspberry Pi too and can connect to any television with HDMI, while a smartphone can be the remote. A fantastic way to learn about operating systems.

Retro gaming console

They don’t make ‘em like they used to, so take kids back to the classic days of arcade and console games! RetroPie is one of numerous operating systems that turns a humble Raspberry Pi into a massive classic games machine. PC games are not excluded: the excellent DOSBox can run on a Pi, so you can play classic PC games too.

Security system / Motion sensor

Every security system is basically a camera connected somewhere down the line with a computer. A Raspberry Pi can do exactly the same job - all you need extra are the cameras. Even a webcam or one of the Pi’s own cameras (sold separately) will get everyone started and see results in no time. There are also exciting time-lapse projects you can tackle. 

Smart Speaker 

Being able to just talk and have your technology hear you is one of the great interactive inventions of recent years. Amazon’s Echo speakers, featuring the Alexa virtual assistant, are by far the most popular – and you can build your own speaker using Alexa! This is a slightly more advanced project, introducing you to the cloud and online services. But it’s still incredible and a great project to tackle.