Last week I got one of the PI kits + books, and am having a great time teaching my kids how to use it (and how to write games like the PacMan using scratch)
Of course that what my 7 year old really wanted was to play Minecraft on the PI, and although there is no 'official' release (even the 'unofficial version' was removed by the author), I was able to get it to work using the instructions at Raspberry Pi - Install Minecraft - leaked pre release
And the best part, was that I was able to get the Minecraft Python API to work (see Raspberry Pi - Minecraft API - the basics), so there was this moment where:
- 7 year old is playing Minecraft on Raspberry PI, connected to a 'World' created by my
- 9 year old who is playing Minecraft on an IPad
- me (on MacBook Air) connected to the Raspberry PI via SSH, programming Minecraft via its Python API (I was sending messages to the screen and creating blocks in that world)
Now that is cool :)
I think Raspberry PI is going to be huge (already is) since it will create an entire generation of kids with a much better understanding of what a computer is, how it can be programmed and how it can be used to create other things.
It is also a great way to promote the value of openess and sharing to a new generation that needs a couple 'moral compass' in their world :)
