I just heard an interview on BBC news about this with a teenager. He said: "You can interact with the code that you've written as opposed to just seeing it on

I just heard an interview on BBC news about this with a teenager. He said: "You can interact with the code that you've written as opposed to just seeing it on the screen, just seeing lines of code. You actually know what it does in real life ... as opposed to something like this, just seeing it running on the screen or on TV or something" I can sort of follow that logic. Devices like screens are so normalised now that they're considered part of the fabric of reality. Of course you could do something on a computer but it's a thing only on a computer. I remember making things happen for the first time on a BBC Micro as a child and being incredibly excited about that. Not least because seeing things on a screen was still at least a little bit novel. Ironically, I think that VDUs (that's what they were called at the time!) have come so far that the contemporary manifestation of novel is technologically* regressive. But so much more engaging. EDIT: Also it's small and cheap and everyone can have one without having to contend for / carry around keyboards and screens. EDIT 2: I thought I'd transcribe what was actually said: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060zq92 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060zq92 from 40:10 Lauren: "You can create animations but you can also set it up with your phone so you can press a button on the microbit it can take a picture or change to the next song and the fact that everybody else is getting it, it's not just one person, everyone's going to be learning at the same time so more people will be interested in it" Ross: "It's got a compass, an accelerometer. You can interact with the code that you've written as opposed to just seeing it on the screen, just seeing lines of code. You actually know what it does in real life you and you can take it round with you and wear it like this. So it's a lot more interesting a lot easier to play around with and you can see the effects of the code pretty quickly with something like this. As opposed to something like this, just seeing it running on the screen or on TV or something" * in terms of IO, not in terms of it having an ARM chip