Two educational programming tools developed at Kent are now included in the country’s top-selling low-cost computer, the Raspberry Pi.
More than five million Raspberry Pis have been sold in the past three years, making programming more accessible for young people. The systems are used by more than three million learners every year.
The inclusion of Kent’s School of Computing programming tools, called BlueJ and Greenfoot, for the first time adds the Java programming language as an option, as an alternative to Scratch and Python. Together, they provide a way for beginner-to-intermediate users to experiment and get comfortable with Java.
BlueJ allows generic Java programming, including direct access to the hardware components of the computer while Greenfoot supports easy development of games and simulations.
Both BlueJ and Greenfoot are supported by learning materials and documentation, for programming classes in schools and for individuals.
The inclusion of BlueJ and Greenfoot on the Raspberry Pi makes the University of Kent’s free programming environments accessible to millions of new users.