 Are you looking for some tech gift ideas that have a bit of depth, substance and meaning? Well, I've got a couple of cool tech gift ideas that doubles educational gifts for kids, boys, girls and students. Coming your way in just a moment. Hello world, Surfing Scratcher here, teacher-surfer programmer and on this channel I make how-to coding videos for curious learners and educators. If you dig in this content then consider hitting that subscribe button if you're around here. As always, check out the show notes down below by hitting that description button. That's where I'll put information that relates to this video plus anything else that I may have missed. Make sure you stick around until the end too because I'll share with you a few resources that you can use with these products to get you up and running. Today we're going to be looking at the making-making from Joylabs and the BBC Microbit. Now both devices are used to promote coding skills in learners. I've used these with my group of learners at the school where I teach. Particularly in grades 3 to 6, kids are super sparked when they see these coming out. What I really love about these devices is that it gets people thinking about the physical world. We're not just coding in front of the screen for coding's sake, we're connecting to the physical world and problem-solving the challenges that it throws at us. Alright, let's go check out our first device. When we unbox the Microbit we find that the Microbit is here in a protective sleeve. We've got some goodies underneath the cardboard. We've got a USB cable that we can use to connect the Microbit to our computer to download our programs. We've also got a battery pack with batteries included. We can use this as a power source to use the Microbit away from the computer. And there's also a safety guide in there as well that you can go and check out. Let's talk about some of the features of the Microbit. The Microbit has 25 individually programmable LEDs or light emitting diodes. It's really cool as we can use this to program text, numbers and images. We've got access to two buttons here on the front of the Microbit and a button and a B button. We can use a third button to press them at the same time. Down the base of the Microbit we've got 25 external connectors that we can use to connect extra sensors. The Microbit can reverse the LEDs here to become an input so it can detect some ambient light. The Microbit can also sense temperature. Now it's not the real world temperature, it's the temperature of the device and it measures its degree Celsius. It's not that hot. It has a built-in compass so it can detect the Earth's magnetic field. Only it gave you directions in life. Now to get a couple of Microbits you can use the radio so you can send and receive between the Microbits wirelessly. And lastly there's a Bluetooth antenna that allows us to connect to some other devices such as phones or computers. Alright, let's jump into the pros and cons of the Microbit. Really is an incredible price for what it can do. It has so many sensors that we can use out of the box. It's pretty incredible. I love those built-in LEDs because you can just display feedback immediately. Microbits got you covered if you're just a beginner so you can code using code blocks just like puzzle pieces or you can use a text-based programming language like Python or JavaScript if you're looking at something a little bit more challenging. I love that when you use the Maycode editor that you can switch between the languages so if you're just using the block-based language then you can check out what that looks like in JavaScript or Python. And it doesn't end just with the Microbit as you can go off and get some accessories to beat it up. Alright, let's talk about some of the cons of the Microbit. If you're using the Maycode editor then you have to download the hex file if you want to load it directly onto your Microbit. You have to do this every time. There is a simulator that you can use to test it out to get around this but it's a little bit annoying. If you're using Scratch then you only need to download the hex file once but the cost of that is that you don't have access to all the sensors of the Microbit. Out of the box is probably a little bit more learning required for the absolute beginner to get up and running but it's not insurmountable. I mentioned in the pros that you can get some accessories to expand the features. Now this can be viewed as a bit of a con as well. For instance the Microbit doesn't come with any alligator clips so you'll need to get those separate. Okay, let's go check out our next device, the Makey Makey. Got the Makey Makey and you'll notice it has this nice little sliding box for us to check out what's inside of it. Open it up and the first thing you'll find is the Makey Makey board. You'll see it has all the keys and all the earth connections. You can go check the website for more detail on that. The Makey Makey comes with some alligator clips which are very useful. Also got some jumper cables that you can use to connect to the back of the Makey Makey device. It has a USB cable so that you can connect it to your computer. There's also a quick start guide that you can read through when you open up your Makey Makey and there's also 20 also stickers that you can use to stick to your heart is content. Okay, let's talk about some of the pros of the Makey Makey. First up, it's so easy to get going with the Makey Makey. All you need to do is plug it into your computer and it's ready to go. You don't even need any coding experience as it works just like a keyboard or a mouse. Next up, the kit includes some alligator clips already to go which is super useful which means you don't have to go out and go buy them separately. It's all included. And there's already heaps of online resources out there to get you up and running with the Makey Makey to expand it. Just like the micro bit, the Makey Makey has the ability to be accessorised by adding some LEDs and some motors. Okay, let's talk about some of the cons of the Makey Makey now. It's slightly more expensive than the micro bit, but it's still really competitively priced. Remember, it includes those alligator clips as well. Now, when comparing it to the micro bit, it doesn't have out of the box as many sensors as it does, as it essentially is just pressing buttons. Cool, we've checked out both devices, but what can we do with them? Earlier in the video, I promised you that I'd share some free resources that would get you up and running with them. So let's go check those out now. I'm just going to jump over to the screen. First place you can head to is the surfing scratcher YouTube page. If you scroll down and check out the created playlist, you'll see that there's a whole bunch of tutorials here related to the micro bit and the Makey Makey. Also got some tutorials in here for the Make code editor, which you'll see in just a moment and also getting started with scratch three, which you'll also see in just a moment. Perhaps the most easy resource to get up and running is the scratch website scratch.mit.edu. We use this website to connect to both devices. Scratch is great too, because there is an online support. We've got some forums here and this particular forum is connecting to the physical world, which is all about the makey, makey micro bit and other devices. Scratch also has this feature called studios and studios are just collections of projects that users on scratch have made. I'll link to this one in the description below. This one is specifically to do with the micro bit and scratch three. If you're looking for a little bit more of a challenge, then head on over to the makeo.microbit.org website. Here you can use blocks, you can use Python and you can use JavaScript to code your micro bit. If you scroll down, there's also a bunch of starter tutorials here that can get your kids up and running with their device. A resource for the makey, makey is Instructables. You can head on over to instructables.com. Slash makey, makey. If we scroll down, there are a bunch of featured projects here and step by step guides of projects that people have done. So if you're looking for a starting point and some materials and all that sort of jazz, head on over to Instructables for makey, makey. Lastly, I've gone ahead and created a kit on kit.com for all the devices that were used in this video, plus a few more that are available to us in the Scratch extension. So go ahead and shop around for your best deal. So in conclusion, the BBC micro bit and the JoyLabs makey, makey are devices that teachers all around the world are using in their classrooms. So you're not going to go wrong with either. Time for a scratchy question. This is where I ask you the viewer about something that relates to this video. And this time, I want to know if you've come across an educational gift that's had some mileage that our community would love to know about. If you do, drop your answer in the comment section down below. Thanks for checking out these educational ideas. If you found some value, I'd appreciate if you hit that like button. And remember to check out the show notes down below in the description for links to the products and information that relate to this video, including the tea that I'm wearing. Educators, I've also got a link to the mailing list that you can find in the description down below as well. And that's where I'll send you some news and resources straight to your inbox. But until then, I'm off to go find a wave. I'll catch in the next one.