USAGE OF BBC MICRO:BIT APPLICATION FOR LEARNING PROGRAMMING

Abstract

Considers the use of the BBC Microbit educational microcomputer to introduce the basics of programming to pupils and students in non-technical majors. The paper presents a comparison of the use of single-board computers. The available visual programming environment, as well as a large number of input and output devices on a single-board computer board, makes it much easier to interact with the environment.

It is noted that the board can be programmed using visual block programming language, javascript or using Python. If you wish, you can load other systems into Micro:bit, for example, mbed OS and write in C++, but these are already opportunities for students of initial courses of technical specialties. It was determined that the board has an ARM Cortex-M0 processor, 256KB Flash ROM, 16KB RAM, 16MHz clock frequency. There is also BTLE support, a 2.4GHz peer-to-peer transmitter (101 channels), an accelerometer, a compass, a thermometer, and a line of GPIO pins. Even if there is no fee, there is a full-fledged simulator right in the browser, in which you can test all the functions of the program. Ready-made "blocks" are available to the student with many different functions: from simple input-output to sound reproduction or machine control. The board can be programmed using visual block programming language, javascript or Python. The Python programming language has a very simple, but simple editor, and the student can write the code independently.

The work shows that the BBC Microbit microcomputer allows to simplify the process of learning program algorithms through the use of a visual programming environment. And the use of functional extensions with the use of third-party modules provides additional opportunities for creating powerful software applications.