One of the best things I do each week is run a code club at the library for the 8-11 year olds. I’ve been doing it about two years and have developed it from basic coding tutorials to a place where you can explore digital creativity.
We got given some grant money for extra equipment, and eventually, after months of unfathomable process, the kit arrived at the library. So I’ve been energised this week to configure it and prepare for the new term’s clubs which start next week.
We have chromebooks, raspberry pi’s and wacom tablets. The library networked PCs are restrictive in what can be installed and I frequently hit limits of what can be done in a browser.
I’ve been super impressed with the power of the chromebooks. They are Lenovo models with 8GB of RAM and cost barely more than £200. They support linux directly out the box, and just a few clicks enabled a terminal from which I could install VS code or anything else.
But there was more. By enabling a flag in the experimental setting screen, I could create multiple linux containers. So I created a second one to install the Unity hub which is a more complex environment. And the apps are all available as icons in the main menu, firing up the correct container to run the software.
The google drive is mounted as an external drive automatically in the image, so I created symbolic links to the home directory where code will be stored for individual students. So the power of local application environments connected to cloud storage for persistence.
I spent quite a while manually configuring applications and VS code extensions on the first chromebook – making notes as I went so I could reproduce the config on the other machines.
Then I saw the backup and restore function for containers. A game changer. Firstly, it means I can backup the image from the first chromebook and then copy it to the others, saving a heap of time.
But it will also be a quick way to keep build integrity once the children start using them. I can now allow them to explore and install whatever applications they like and if it screws up, I just restore my master image.
Very happy with the choice of chromebooks to support the code club. A combination of full developer capability, cloud storage and easy device management.
As a bonus, it’s also possible to install apps from the Play Store. So after plugging in the wacom tablets and downloading the sketchbook application, there was full digital drawing capability.
Can’t wait to get this kit introduced into the clubs next week.