Unfortunately this seems like a drop in the ocean to me.
In January 2010 there were 24,605 schools in England alone [1]. Add more for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Then subtract the fairly small number of private schools. My guess is that that about 1 in 3 of UK schools will see even one Pi. And then, since the Pis are being given to pupils not the school, they have to identify the lucky pupil who gets to take it home. I wonder how that will work?
I'm not trying to be cynical, but is this actually meant to achieve anything that is related to education?
I don't know the full plan, but it makes perfect sense to start with a more reasonable number as an experiment; if it works, it'll be much easier to raise funding for the rest of the country. Even Google can't be expected to donate millions of $ (or £) straight up for something in it's infancy.
Just because it does not single-handedly fix computing education does not mean it is worthless - to make such an inference is a fallacy (I forget which one; there's a particular name. Essentially the-perfect-is-the-enemy-of-the-good). Helping 15000 people is better than helping 0.
At the end of the day, even the ocean is still made of nothing but drops.
I agree that helping 15000 people is better than helping none. My cynicism relates to how the Pis are to be distributed and what can be learned about whether this works in any educationally meaningful sense. If this is an experiment and the [geekiest|nicest|poorest] kid in a school gets a Pi to take home, how do you evaluate the educational outcome?
This announcement also exists within a political context (corporate tax avoidance), and occurred on the same day that Eric Schmidt made public comments about Google not being opposed to a more restrictive corporate tax regime in the UK. If it is a PR move then I don't have much confidence that there will be any follow-through aimed at achieving genuine educational improvements. To do this requires infrastructure and ongoing commitment.
For the record, I have three Pis and I think they are wonderful. My children are going to be using them at home soon and if they had access to them in school too then I would be very pleased.
I'm sure that there is a non-zero amount of PR to this, but Eric Schmidt gave a talk[1] in Edinburgh in August of 2011 where he specifically addressed shortcomings in UK IT education, so this has clearly been an issue for him before the current tax-avoidance story hit headlines.
In January 2010 there were 24,605 schools in England alone [1]. Add more for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Then subtract the fairly small number of private schools. My guess is that that about 1 in 3 of UK schools will see even one Pi. And then, since the Pis are being given to pupils not the school, they have to identify the lucky pupil who gets to take it home. I wonder how that will work?
I'm not trying to be cynical, but is this actually meant to achieve anything that is related to education?
[1] http://www.education.gov.uk/popularquestions/schools/buildin...