From the Raspberry Pi FAQ: "We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming."
I guess Coder is exactly the type of project the Pi was built for. Of course, you can install Coder on a "regular" PC or Mac but having a credit-card sized computer dedicated to a single educational task makes it more inclined to be played around with.
You give this to a little kid: he sees it like a toy, a powerful toy, with which he can develop "super-powers". It's less overwhelming than a full-size regular PC, and as a parent you can be assured that your kid won't mess up things, or launch a game because he got bored with coding.
I can see myself offering a Pi with Coder as a gift to anyone, even an adult, eager to learn coding. There are other projects similar to this one, but more focused on programming (Python especially), whereas HTML and CSS (and to some extent JS) is probably easier to grasp for beginners, especially because it's Web stuff.
The most valuable feature of Coder is how it looks. It's colorful and friendly, with a nice interface, which can be less obscure than a console.
By the way, I loved the introduction video. It reminded me of Google's own presentations. Then I realized Coder was made by Googlers.
I guess Coder is exactly the type of project the Pi was built for. Of course, you can install Coder on a "regular" PC or Mac but having a credit-card sized computer dedicated to a single educational task makes it more inclined to be played around with.
You give this to a little kid: he sees it like a toy, a powerful toy, with which he can develop "super-powers". It's less overwhelming than a full-size regular PC, and as a parent you can be assured that your kid won't mess up things, or launch a game because he got bored with coding.
I can see myself offering a Pi with Coder as a gift to anyone, even an adult, eager to learn coding. There are other projects similar to this one, but more focused on programming (Python especially), whereas HTML and CSS (and to some extent JS) is probably easier to grasp for beginners, especially because it's Web stuff.
The most valuable feature of Coder is how it looks. It's colorful and friendly, with a nice interface, which can be less obscure than a console.
By the way, I loved the introduction video. It reminded me of Google's own presentations. Then I realized Coder was made by Googlers.