We’ve just released the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s review for 2017, sharing everything we achieved last year and giving an overview of all the education programmes we run.
These days this starts with single board computers and goes way beyond, with clubs, activities and online resources for many thousands of young people, and competitions taking their creations as far as the International Space Station. You can read all about what we’ve achieved and what we are up to in the eye catching publication.
I’ve been leading the Foundation’s research and evaluation since the start of 2016, and this is the third of these publications I’ve produced. It’s interesting to look back on the differences since 2016, and how that reflects on the work we’ve done. We made a real effort this year to make the whole thing much more concise. When I joined Raspberry Pi we had a range of work from grant making to teacher training, but this conciseness I think reflects the focus we have now about strategy and the work we are doing. There’s still lots happening, and the new format gives a much clearer overview for readers of the different areas this covers.
The review is also much less narrative and much more focused on key outcomes and impact. Despite the fact it contains a lot more data than in previous years, it was probably the most straightforward version so far for my team and I to produce. Everyone in the organisation now has a strong focus on impact and data. For the 2015 review I had to do lots of work to find what I needed to illustrate our impact, whereas this year everyone running a programme had key data readily available as it is in regular use. Teams across the Foundation have been fantastic at developing how they collect and use data, and I’ve enjoyed collaborating with them on this. There’s still lots to do, and I’m working at the moment on becoming even more learning focused in the outcomes we measure ourselves against.
Using data is important, but it’s equally important not to lose the stories and the human touch. To that end, we’ve worked hard to get the stories of participants in our programmes into the annual review in the form of quotes and photos. I love how the enthusiasm of young people and educators comes across in these sections, and I’m currently thinking about how we make sure we share even more of this in future research work.
I’m pleased with how this publication represents all the great work that everyone at the Raspberry Pi Foundation are doing. It’s a privilege to do these reviews, documenting the progress and continuing to develop how we capture and share the impact we are having on people all over the world.
You can jump straight to annual review publication here, or find it and previous years on the Raspberry Pi Foundation site.
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