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For a few years it's been possible to rent low-end VPSs very cheaply from providers like Ramnode, Digital Ocean etc. That's what I've used for these kinds of tasks (and now my research group also rents a dedicated "bare metal" server, which allows us to run more demanding jobs). Last week Google's cloud platform began offering an "always-free" cloud instance (f1-micro) that would be sufficient for keeping alive simple server tasks. So on some level one could spare the hardware expense and just rent a (virtualized) server. That way you also don't have to worry about making sure it stays plugged in and connected. But compared to that, I see a few arguments in favor of providing students with RaspPis: 1. Even for free offers like Google's, one needs an account with the provider and a credit card. Students may not have a credit card or be justifiably wary of registering an account and providing billing information. There are plenty of horror stories of people thinking they were using AWS's free tier when really they were racking up a sizeable bill. 2. Arguably there's pedagogical value in not "abstracting away" from the hardware and relying on distant datacenters and corporate providers, but rather being able to see and touch the materiality of that which is doing the computing -- something which dev boards so beautifully expose. 3. When "spinning up" a cloud instance, one has to make a bunch of choices regarding the hardware and software configuration of the server instance: Which Linux distribution? What kind of storage? And then there's the work of configuring the OS, such as enabling auto-updates to ensure security patches are installed so your VPS doesn't unwittingly become part of a botnet. In contrast, RaspPis distributed to students could come pre-flashed with a hardened OS that includes a full development environment, including custom tools that may not be available in package repositories. Related to (3), does anybody know an education-oriented image one could use to flash dev boards for students? John From: Programming as Social Science (PaSS) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Thuermer G. Sent: vrijdag 17 maart 2017 12:24 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Raspberry Pi Hi Phillip, The Web Science course at the Uni of Southampton does exactly what you suggest. I only know this from the student perceptive, but basically all the students from various backgrounds have one module teaching them basic coding skills, computation in general, and Python specifically. Students are providing with a RPi to work with, and building a Twitter app was the coursework. Having done this as a student, I can say that it was a very good learning experience, and everyone was quite enthusiastic about it - both teachers and students! Best, Gefion From: Programming as Social Science (PaSS) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Phillip Brooker Sent: 17 March 2017 11:03 To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Subject: Raspberry Pi Hi all Something I'm a bit curious about; does anyone use Raspberry Pis or other similar microcomputers in their teaching or research? I've had one for a couple of years and have recently got another, but have only ever used them for non-work stuff - running one headless as a home server for a Facebook bot as well as other bits and bobs of scheduled jobs, and the other for code development (some of which is for work in a roundabout way) and games etc...but I've always been intrigued about the possibility to use them as a research tool, for things like scheduling web scraping/data collection tasks and so on. And equally, since RPis are designed for teaching purposes, I can see a potential for using them in the classroom as platforms for students to pick up some programming and Linux/bash. It's the kind of thing that is already very well provided for in computer science training - in my experience, CS departments have tonnes of these things just lying around that students can pick up and use for coursework and in class. So is it something we should be considering as a way of supporting social science students working with digital data etc? I guess I'm asking about this for two reasons really: 1) if anybody has any experience using RPis in research and teaching, I'd love to hear about it, and 2) to gauge if there's any interest in the idea and to figure out what to do from there (whether that's developing resources to support research and teaching, or getting in touch with the RPi Foundation to get on their radar, or whatever). Best wishes Phil