Art, Crowdfunding, Education, Games

Teaching literature with the Raspberry Pi

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Thanks to Helen over at the Foundation for blogging about this

Sarah Roman’s high school class in New Jersey, USA is currently studying Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In an effort to promote digital literacy within her class she is looking to finance a classroom set of Pis so that the kids can build video games around the subject of Dracula. The finance is being driven by an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign. Here’s what she says over on their campaign page:

…students will be able to: build an unique video game using Scratch and the Raspberry Pi; incorporate text, sounds, student-created graphics, and a unique user interface; create an inventive housing unit for the system console; and learn in an immersive, collaborative environment. I believe that accessing learning for students and allowing them to experiment inevitably strengthens their real-world skills and revitalizes the texts. In this case, students will creatively and critically think while gaining experience with 21st Century technology.

If you feel that this campaign is a worthy cause (I certainly do!), please head over to IndieGoGo and donate – even if it’s just $5 it will help them on their way to their $2,550 goal.

Art, Audio, Sensors

Vibration sensors tell a story using a Raspberry Pi

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Artist Catodo has created an art installation which uses vibration sensors to drive sound samples from a Raspberry Pi. Here’s what he has to say about it:

We created a geometric structure using ribbons of red cotton and we applied vibration sensors on it. If a visitor touch one of these ribbons, the vibration sensor activates a random audio sample. The audio samples have been recorded by a script read by the actresses Valentina Papagna, Laura Forlani and Lara Romano. We have divided the samples on three different sections of the script and applied on different ribbons. The result is a generative novel that follows a specific context but in a random way

You can read more about it over on his website.

Software

Cross-compile the Linux Kernel for the Raspberry Pi

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Compiling the Linux kernel on the Pi itself takes a long time – the Pi just isn’t built for it. However, you can ‘cross-compile’ it on a more powerful Windows, Mac or Linux computer thanks to a new tool from Adafruit – the Kernel-o-Matic. The Kernel-o-Matic uses a piece of software called Vagrant to do it. You can download the Kernel-o-Matic from Adafruit’s Github repository.

Networking, Tutorials

DIY Raspberry Pi VPN/TOR Router

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Anonymous browsing is all the rage nowadays, what with government snooping on the increase. Well now you can set up your Raspberry Pi as an anonymous router which shows up as a wireless hotspot which you then connect your desktop or laptop computer to over wifi. Take a look at this tutorial for how to do it. This tutorial is also useful for if you want to create a wifi hotspot for robotics.

Education, Making, Tutorials

DesignSpark Raspberry Pi classroom projects

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DesignSpark have published some good-looking resources for teachers to use in the classroom to help students learn about the GPIO. They are as follows:

They look good-quality documents with plenty of Fritzing circuit diagrams to help you. Each resource comes with worksheets for students and classroom notes for teachers.

Take a look at the resources here (the site is a little slow, so bear with it).

Events, Raspberry Jams

Southend Raspberry Jam – Saturday 21st February

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Southend-on-Sea Linux User Group are once again running a Raspberry Jam at the Tickfield Centre. This one will be from 10am-5pm on Saturday 21st February and will feature a great number of talks and workshops, including a talk on Astro Pi the recently launched Pi-in-Space project.

Southend is really turning into one of the top Jams in the country with it’s lively mix of activities, and they have a great venue which they use to maximum advantage. I thoroughly recommend going (I’ve been to two myself) and it’s definitely worth the trip to the seaside!

You can get (free) tickets to the event by visiting Eventbrite.