BBC micro:bit launch

  • Jessica Shaffner
  • Steven Woodgate
  • Olivia Lockyer
As one of major partners in the production of the BBC micro:bit, Microsoft Research was heavily involved in the launch at the end of 2015.

The Micro Bit project builds on the legacy of the seminal BBC Micro, which was put into the majority of schools in the 1980s and was instrumental in the careers of so many of today’s technology pioneers. Computing and digital technology has become ubiquitous since then, but for many, the emphasis has shifted from creation to consumption. The Micro Bit, and the wider BBC Make it Digital initiative, aims to help redress the balance.

The Micro Bit will be a small, wearable device with an LED display that children can programme in a number of ways. It will be a standalone, entry-level coding device that allows children to pick it up, plug it into a computer and start creating with it immediately.

It is designed to be a starting point to get younger children interesting in coding so they can move onto other, more complex devices in future. And the Micro Bit can even connect and communicate with these other devices, including Arduino, Galileo, Kano and Raspberry Pi, as well as other Micro Bits. This helps a child’s natural learning progression and gives them even more ways of expressing their creativity.