Sony Global Education Partners with Raspberry Pi
Sony
has announced its collaboration with Raspberry Pi for developing and spreading packaged solutions for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) and computer science education.
Sony Global Education has proposed the need for STEAM education, which develops the basic skills for Information Technology and the importance of training in the field of Computational Thinking. In preparation for the “coding education”, which has been mandatory in elementary schools in Japan, since the academic year 2020, the company has been providing educational services such as KOOV, a robotics coding kit and PROC, a hands-on digital learning content. As the so-called Society 5.0 (where IoT,
AI, and Big Data are utilised to create new value) is pursued, the company regards STEAM and computer science to be the core education curriculum for developing human resources with 21stcentury skills who are able to improve their ability to think, judge, express and solve problems proactively within a society that is becoming more complex.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation engages in spreading computer science education through different activities that include raising awareness of coding education, developing courses for educators, and managing communities. Raspberry Pi (Trading), a wholly owned subsidiary of the foundation, develops and sells “Raspberry Pi,” a series of single-board computers, which have over 30 million cumulative shipments worldwide. The “Raspberry Pi” series was developed by Eben Upton, founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, under his philosophy of “there is a value in knowing how things work,” with the purpose of providing many people with low-cost, easy-toprogram computers for STEAM and computer science education.
Throughout this business collaboration, both organisations, with the common purpose of spreading STEAM and computer science education further, aim to leverage one another’s strengths. As their first project, the organisations are in the process of developing educational content for the Japanese market, which is scheduled for release in the fiscal year 2021.