The Pi-Chrome Project: Integrating Raspberry Pi's and Chromebooks

Purpose & objective

The purpose of this presentation will be to share a unique way that Raspberry Pi computers can be used in the classroom. The goal is to expose participants to a low-cost solution to help 9-12th grade students work with some advanced programming technologies. This solution does not require radical alterations to the educational institution's technology resources (i.e. can be accomplished with existing student laptops, Chromebooks, or desktop computers).

Upon completion of this presentation, participants will:

1. Have an understanding of how to access and use the free resource - The Pi-Chrome Project.

2. Understand the hardware requirements and setup of the pairing of the Raspberry Pi and Chromebook computers.

3. See how students can use this technology to generate web applications locally using Visual Studio code-server.

4. See how students can use this technology to explore and program IoT devices.

5. See how students can extend their web application knowledge to develop mobile applications.

6. Begin to conceptualize the vast array of projects that students can embark on using these materials / resources.

Outline

Detailed Outline w/ Projected Times:

1. Present high level description of the Pi-Chrome Project - pairing Raspberry Pi's w/ Chromebooks to learn several programming technologies (~1 minute).

2. Give a short personal background of self (~1 minutes).

3. Explain motivation for use - will answer why this is interesting, useful, and a low-cost solution for doing some powerful programming (~2 minutes).

4. Standards alignment - CSTA & ISTE (~2 minutes).

5. Materials review and estimated cost (~2 minutes). The focus will be on the Raspberry Pi end and the peripherals needed, as the assumption will be made that most high school students would have access either a Chromebook or PC laptop.

6. Describe where this resource is used in the Brandywine Heights High School Computer Science Pathway (~2 minutes). This gives attendees a point of reference for potential implementation in their curriculum.

7. Presentation of resource (~2 minutes) - The Pi-Chrome Project at https://www.pi-chrome-project.com

8. Description and demos of the major components of the project (~15 minutes total):
I will bring 3 to 5 Chromebooks to distribute to the attendees so that I can walk them through some hands-on
exercises involving the topics below. Participants that bring either their own Chromebook OR Laptop PC w/
Chrome (w/ the ability to install Chrome extensions, explicitly - "Secure Shell" extension) will also be able
to participate.

(a) Raspberry Pi OS (Ubuntu Server) Setup and logging in w/ Chromebook using Secure Shell extension.
(b) Using VS code-server w/ Raspberry Pi / Chromebook.
(b) Building dynamic web applications using the Django framework.
(c) Exploring Internet of Things programming w/ the Raspberry Pi / Chromebook.
(d) Converting a Django web application into a Progressive web application.

9. Reflection on successes and failures and next iteration in using this resource in my classroom (~1 minutes).

10. Questions & Discussion from Attendees (~2 minutes).

(Total time = 30 minutes).

Supporting research

Using Raspberry Pi Computers in Education - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8756967

Raspberry Pi and Rubber Ducks: Digital Pedagogy and Computer Anxiety in the LIS Classroom - https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=googlescholar&id=GALE|A698840748&v=2.1&it=r&sid=googleScholar&asid=1cf79685