Cambridge technology great ARM Holdings has hailed the launch of the new Micro:bit Educational Foundation as an historic stimulus to a whole new generation of young innovators in the UK and globally.

ARM co-founder MIke Muller, the company’s chief technology officer, was thrilled that the BBC micro:bit minicomputer – already successfully deployed in UK schools – was being enhanced by new features and rolled out into Europe, America and Asia.

He said at the launch of the new foundation: “Just as the BBC Micro inspired a generation of computer programmers and entrepreneurs, the micro:bit is set to take it to the next level, instilling a passion for technology in the innovators of tomorrow.

“By expanding the micro:bit’s functionality and enabling access to tools and resources for young people, educators and makers around the world, the Micro:bit Educational Foundation will create a proud legacy of digital creativity.”

New features including peer-to-peer radio communications are to be introduced; the foundation will also make extensive multilingual project and teaching resources available to encourage creativity and invention with technology at school, in clubs and at home.

Schematics and a complete reference design will be released to enable makers to innovate further. The Foundation is a not-for-profit company that builds on the huge success of the BBC micro:bit and aims to lower barriers to technology invention for young people, makers and developers globally.

The initiative will enable teachers, governments and educational organisations to fulfil their digital educational goals and help improve digital skills across the globe.

Over the last 12 months the BBC micro:bit partnership has distributed up to one million micro:bits to UK schoolchildren and launched a micro:bit website with four different code editors, along with hundreds of resources and supporting content for students and teachers.

Its impact is already being seen; since launching in March this year, users have visited the website more than 13 million times, used the code simulator nearly 10 million times and compiled code onto their devices close to two million times.

As a core part of the BBC ‘Make it Digital’ initiative, it is also helping to change attitudes by encouraging more girls into ICT and computing subjects and making coding and technology more accessible to children.

The Foundation will begin taking over from the original BBC micro:bit partnership from today in a phased transition, ensuring long-term support and expansion of the educational programme in the UK and internationally.

The creation of the Foundation was made possible by support from leading educational and technology organisations including: ARM, BBC, Microsoft, Nominet, Samsung and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Outside the UK, early adopters of the BBC micro:bit include Iceland and the Netherlands, with deployments now starting in schools. Availability will be extended across Europe during Q4/2016 with plans to roll out the device in North America and Asia in 2017.

There is interest from more than 20 countries, including Bangladesh, China, Finland, Norway and Singapore, to deploy micro:bit educational programmes.

The BBC micro:bit gives teachers and educational organisations an easy-to-use platform to teach STEM skills that align with their curriculum, enabling digital creativity and improving digital literacy.

For makers, developers and hobbyists, the micro:bit serves as a flexible platform for prototyping a wide range of applications and provides the opportunity to contribute to its further development.

The BBC will release schematics for the micro:bit in addition to a complete reference design from the Foundation. This will guide makers on how to get creative with designing technology such as wireless sensors.

As well as increasing the accessibility of the BBC micro:bit, the Foundation will support diverse applications that serve a broad range of educational purposes and target age groups and extend its capabilities, bringing exciting new features to users, such as peer-to-peer radio communications. 

Further development will continue in terms of building a strong library of resources for the micro:bit community, including adding international language support and developing localised educational curriculums.

The BBC micro:bit is available through a number of resellers. A full list is available at http://microbit.org/resellers.