Rory Williams
The BBC Micro was a computer launched at the beginning of the 1980s as part of the British public broadcaster’s Computer Literacy Programme. In those days, if you wanted to use a computer you pretty much had to do some programming, and it was mostly the realm of hobbyists.
So the Micro helped nudge computing into the mainstream. Eventually, for most people, using a computer became about learning to use software like spreadsheets and word processors, then the wide range of applications we see today, and the job of coding and creating those programmes fell to computer professionals.
Now we are entering a new era, when small devices with sensors are making it easy to code and create simple, one-off programmes that use the sensors any way you want.
You could buy a device already configured to turn on your house lights at a certain time, or to start recording from a CCTV camera if there is movement in your house while you are away. But it is getting easier to do this yourself with relatively inexpensive devices like the Arduino or Raspberry Pi, which can be hooked up to anything from light sensors to motion sensors and digital thermometers.
And with this revolution, the BBC is getting back into educating the next generation of schoolchildren by distributing a million inexpensive Micro:bits, an even more basic device that can be programmed and hooked up to other devices and sensors to do just about anything.
It’s not just about developing a “smart home”, but unleashing anyone’s imagination by putting in their hands the means to customise devices that communicate, or respond, in different ways to instructions or to changes in the environment they are monitoring.
This is the rise of the Internet of Things, and it’s not just things we will buy, but things we will create and modify ourselves, without being computer specialists.
But my point here is not about computing, it’s about the role of public service organisations like the BBC. Or, in our case, the SABC.
I don’t see what our own public broadcaster is doing that is different from other broadcasters to warrant the TV licence fees and taxes we are required to pay to support the corporation.
Shouldn’t the SABC be educating in ways that commercial stations cannot? If you read the SABC mandate, and certainly if you watch SABC programming, you’ll struggle to see any difference from other broadcasters (putting aside political bias). They are essentially there to provide “programming that informs, educates and entertains”. But, interestingly, they are also mandated “to carry out research and development work in relation to any technology relevant to the objects of the Corporation”.
This was probably written with reference to broadcast-related technology, but in the age of the mobile internet, it could be applied to many other things. Like the BBC, the SABC has resources and a reach that could be of immense educational benefit.
And goodness knows, our schools need all the help they can get. Children need to be inspired to learn by doing, to experiment, to observe, to dream not just of having a job, but of creating a better society. But being inspired is only the start.
With our abysmal failure to equip this generation of children with maths and science literacy, or even a reasonable high school education, they need a catalyst for helping them see how they can play a constructive role. There are many ways children can learn to see themselves as producers of a better future. It might be by encouraging them to volunteer with community-based organisations.
Or spreading ideas about active citizenship. Or demonstrating the meaning and value of “public” and how our society is steadily losing its appreciation of shared experience in shared spaces. These ideas pop up here and there on most media outlets, but how is the SABC moving beyond “showcasing” youth leaders and into the real development of individuals?
If the SABC is not going to take on its public role, it should hand over the reins to organisations that are willing, but are not resourced to do it on a large scale. (Like, I imagine, Cape Town TV.)
It’s a tragedy when people who would love nothing more than to build society are held back, while those who are paid to perform that role are failing us.
@carbonsmart