micro:bit Educational Foundation

Enable all children to participate in the digital world with particular focus on girls and those from disadvantaged groups.

The digital skills gap costs the UK economy around £63bn a year in lost income, the UK now needs at least another 745,000 digitally skilled workers each year and around 90% of UK jobs require digital skills to some degree.
The micro:bit, a small programmable device, offers easy entry to coding, making and digital skills acquisition. It has proven abilities to change perceptions of technology, especially with girls and low achievers, and broaden participation generally. It is a low-floor, high-ceiling device offering a simple introduction to coding while providing challenging onward paths for those wanting academic achievement and employment.
The micro:bit promotes collaboration, problem solving and communication at a low cost - a class set of 30 micro:bits is the same price as one £300 laptop. It is programmed in modern browsers on Windows, OS and Linux through a free website packed with resources and projects. The micro:bit can be programmed through a tablet and smartphone and there is a large ecosystem of add-on sensors, extension boards and kits including robots, cars and STEM resources.
In its first year, the micro:bit changed attitudes amongst UK students and teachers towards coding and ICT/computing. For students:
90% agreed BBC micro:bit helped show anyone can code
88% agreed BBC micro:bit helped them see coding wasn't difficult
A 70% increase in girls wanting to do ICT/Computer Science after using the micro:bit
For teachers:
85% agreed it made ICT/Computer Science more enjoyable for students
Half using the BBC micro:bit said now feel more confident teachers

There are other organisations that offer similar hardware but at a much higher price point such as Raspberry PI or educational training services but none offer both - as micro:bit does. Our advantages are:
Cheaper and better specced than the raspberry pi or other comparable devices
We have given away over 1 million devices to children with almost 2 million being used worldwide
We have the world's largest educational programme for teaching digital skills and engaging with teachers
We have shown impact in engaging programming skills in children
We are in 45 countries worldwide and getting ready for sustainable growth in more

The BBC micro:bit is a pocket-sized codeable computer with motion detection, a built-in compass and Bluetooth technology, accelerometer and magnetometer sensors, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, a display consisting of 25 LEDs,and two programmable buttons. The device inputs and outputs are through five ring connectors that form part of a larger 23-pin edge connector.It is programmed using Python or Microsoft makecode.
We use the technology to empower people experience the digital 'space' by making it accessible to all regardless of income, social standing, location or access to first world technologies.

We have three main goals starting in Summer 2018:
(1) 5,000 micro:bit school kits (1.5 million micro:bits) donated to eligible schools across the UK.
(2) Creation and implementation of an intervention program in key areas and a national program of teacher professional development and accreditation. The aim is to help create physical computing leaders across the UK.
(3) We will scale the Foundation to serve more countries worldwide.

Our 5-year vision is:
Enable and inspire all children to participate in the digital world, with particular focus on girls and those from disadvantaged groups.
Make micro:bit the easiest and most effective learning tool for digital skills and creativity.
Work in collaboration with educators to create and curate exceptional curriculum materials, training programmes and resources.

One plan is to build partnerships and raise funding to provide a combination of free kits and specific interventions in lower socio-economic areas. The free kits would be classroom sets for both primary and secondary schools across the UK.

We aim to empower and engage children aged 6 to 12, widen participation and bring children an equality of opportunity by allowing them to develop fundamental digital competences and skills, including coding; a cornerstone of future life chances. These children face obstacles to achieving this in the the form of low incomes, limited life choices, access to technology in the home and school and perhaps social standing or religious beliefs such as girls being denied the chances and opportunities of their brothers or other young male children.

We are effective in our aims as students stated in an impact survey:
90% agreed that micro:bit helped show me that anyone can code.
89% agreed that using micro:bit helped them learn more about coding/programming
87% agreed that using micro:bit helped me learn something new and feel comfortable with the thought of becoming more digitally savvy with a view to working in a digital economy.
70% more girls said they would choose Computing as a school subject after using the micro:bit - a massive uplift!
Also over 86% of teachers said it made coding and understanding digital skills within the digital economy easier for their students

The Foundation was legally established by the BBC with the support of our founding partners. These were The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), the BBC, ARM, Amazon, Nominet, Microsoft, The British Council and Samsung. Micro:bit Educational Foundation is a UK based organisation and redistributes the bulk of any surplus money generated into providing free devices to exceptional micro:bit educational programmes across the globe.

The Micro:bit Foundation growth strategy has two main aims, both of which mark a change from its launch strategy.
Deep instead of wide -- 2018 is about going deep instead of wide. 2017 was about 'launching' in the large number of territories wanting to have the micro:bit in their classrooms and clubs. This fed those desires and placed the micro:bit into the hands of a number of children and adults, however the Foundation was not been able to invest the time and resources to go deep into those territories. Our plan now is to provide real focus to those key areas of growth potential.
High touch vs low touch -- the resources of the Foundation mean we do not have the luxury of providing high touch investment and support for every territory. We therefore have to strategically decide which territories will be 'high touch' from the Foundation and which will be 'low touch'. For the 'high touch' territories we will invest a high level of time and resources to achieve maximum impact. For the 'low touch' territories we will seek nurture and support from charitable funders, corporate sponsors, resellers and location champions and other on-the-ground organisations.

Solve's support will be spent spreading 'the word' to get more partners and 'linked and matched' funding in the form of grants and sponsorship. We would also leverage the expert panel of judges expertise to become more nimble, agile and cost effective whilst scaling quickly without losing the quality of the product and educational teaching.

As an external risk we have a huge demand for our product (over 150,000 micro:bits per month) and educational services. We are managing this by ensuring that all production bottlenecks and shortages of raw materials such as silicon are identified and managed by our supply chain before they become an issue. Internally our main focus is on managing growth and remote working. The team is fully virtual and made up of employees, contractors, secondments and volunteers.