We’re sharing stories about amazing volunteers giving their time in Milton Keynes. This spotlight is on Zi Nhamburo, who is supporting the use of Raspberry Pi’s amongst parents.

Zi is a former student at UCMK passionate about ensuring that everyone has basic computer literacy. With mandatory computing now part of the school curriculum, he is concerned that parents will not be able to help the children with their computing homework. With that in mind he is starting to develop the Community Computing Literacy scheme which he hopes to develop into a social enterprise. Focusing around the Raspberry Pi, he is running a series of workshops across Milton Keynes to help teach parents basic computer literacy skills.

In addition to developing the teaching materials for the workshops, the project also involves surveying local schools about their computing provision and developing two demonstrator systems, highlighting the potential for sustainably-powered computers. Funded by Our MK, the first workshop took place in August 2016 and was attended by 7 people who stated they were highly satisfied and keen to attend further workshops.

Zi demonstrating a Raspberry Pi to attendees at the community workshop at UCMK in August 2016. Photo credit: Community Action: MK

Since being granted the funding from Our MK, Zi has worked closely with a team at Community Action: MK and run a series of 6 workshop for students at the STEM Club at MK Academy, which has been made possible by the Academy teachers, Mr Brian Serridge in particular. Zi has also been invited by The National Museum of Computing based at Bletchley Park to run regular activities at the museum, starting with the Christmas Bytes Festival this December.

Having recognized a demonstrable shortcoming in computer literacy in the population as a whole, Zi has decided to do something about it. He successfully navigated the Our MK funding process and started to develop a series of workshops which he will deliver for free. Such planning involves a large investment of time and great technical skill. While the idea of running workshops around the Raspberry Pi is not unique, Zi’s scheme is free, is focused on grass-roots participation, takes students of any age and experience, and still delivers materials which are interesting, informative and focused on a sustainability agenda. As such, Zi’s scheme is highly innovative.

Zi delivering a Raspberry Pi session to students at the STEM Club at MK Academy. Photo credit: Community Action: MK.

Find out more about Zi’s volunteering Community Computing project here.

Interested in volunteering? Get involved in with lots of roles available via Community Action: MK. Search our bank of MK Volunteering roles now to find your place and explore our new Volunteering Platform – Volunteer Connect. 

Happy New Year 2017!