In an effort to help young people all around the world learn to code through physical computing, element14 has partnered with the Micro:bit Educational Foundation to manufacture and distribute over 10 million BBC micro:bit computers, which the company claims to be a significant milestone. 
The Micro:bit Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization that helps teachers inspire young minds with digital innovation. It was founded in 2016 after the BBC and a group of partners launched the first UK micro:bit campaign.
By producing and distributing devices globally, element14’s operations have aided the Foundation’s work for almost ten years. By doing this, more youth have been made aware of the opportunities in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
One of such kids is Josh Lowe, who participated in the first micro:bit deployment in 2016 at the age of twelve and began coding using the device. Using the skills he gained from making coding enjoyable, he created his own programming platform, Edublocks, which teaches block-based coding to text.
Josh, now a young adult, works for Anaconda, a significant AI and data science platform that purchased the programming platform he developed as a child.
The Foundation has reached an estimated 56 million students globally with the help of element14’s micro:bit distribution; this is only one tale out of millions. The Foundation hopes to serve over 100 million children globally by 2028 with element14’s ongoing production and distribution assistance.
The BBC micro:bit is intended to be straightforward and tangible in order to encourage young people to acquire digital skills and to appeal to pupils who might think that high-tech is not for them.
The Foundation specifically wants to give young people from different backgrounds chances that could improve social fairness and lead to the development of better technologies.
According to a 2017 study of students who had received micro:bits, 88% of respondents stated the device helped them realize that coding wasn’t as hard as they had previously believed, and 90% said it made them realize that anyone could code.
Half of teachers who have used the micro:bit reported feeling more confidence as educators, and 85% of teachers claimed it had improved their pupils’ enjoyment of ICT/Computer Science.
As it strives for its next distribution milestone of the micro:bits, element14 is dedicated to fulfilling the Foundation’s mission of inspiring every child to create a brighter digital future through its ongoing relationship.
Key Comments
Nursel Dogar, Global Single Board Computing Business Development Manager at element14, said, “Children who received micro:bits back in 2016 are now engineering students, developers and entrepreneurs. This year we reached the 10 million milestone. Many of these children are girls and from disadvantaged backgrounds who will be the engineers of the future. We are very proud to make such a positive impact, and we will continue supporting the Micro:bit Educational Foundation on their mission to ‘inspire every child to create their best digital future’.
Further Info on element14’s partnership with micro:bit: Click Here
Further Info on the many benefits of the Micro:bit Educational Foundation, Click Here.
