About
JackBord-the ultimate solution for teaching and learning STEM
JackBord provides authentic, hands on, real world experiences to ignite young learners imaginations and innate curiosity and creativity in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, Electronics, Graphics, sought by educators world wide. We are on a mission to help young learners of all abilities into the exciting world of STEM.
JackBord's "out of the box" extensive suite of long life, robust, multifunctional electrical devices, sensors, servos, construction materials, software and learning materials require no prior knowledge to use.
Because Jack is dyslexic he needed to make devices difficult to break and "brick", and learning materials easy for learners of all abilities to use.
There is a JackBord for everyone, from the JackBord Basic, the Virtual JackBord to the JackBord Pro, with its powerful processors, numerous inbuilt sensors and remote capability.
Users can add external sensors built on JackBord's unique Universal Sensor Interface, pre built science and robotic kits using our own metal JacKano (or make up their own) and learn coding, data logging and analytics with JackBord's own Octagon programme-an easy segue to other programmes such as Python.
Whilst the user guides and numerous activities are designed for students of all abilities to learn at their own pace and place -and for educators to guide them whilst aligning to curriculum-there are structured activities and projects at various levels to guide teachers and users on their journey.
We encourage JackBorders to actively participate in the JackBord eco system by providing feedback for improvement and sharing their learnings so that we can curate and share with other JackBorders. We're all on this continuous learning journey together. That's STEM!
The possibilities are in the hands and minds of users.
The JackBord eco system
The JackBord ecosystem is made up of a number of component parts. The main parts are:
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The Boards
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The Dashboard
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ESP and the User Website
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The EMQX MQTT Server
The Boards
The Boards, or JackBords, come in 3 types:
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PRO
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BASIC
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Virtual
Running on the Boards are two main types of Firmware:
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Pinky - which runs all the programmes, network comms, system management etc
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Brain - which runs all the ports and I/O, etc
The PRO has both a Pinky and a Brain, the BASIC just a Brain, and the Virtual just a Pinky.
To use a JackBord BASIC, the user must also use a Virtual JackBord. However, a Virtual JackBord can be used stand alone, but it has limited I/O capabilities.
Connecting to the PRO and BASIC we also have a number of sensors, motors, etc. Controlling these is done via the Brain, often using programmes being run on the Pinky.
The Dashboard
The Dashboard is the main user interface for the user in terms of software. This is where they can send commands, write programmes and display outputs onto a screen.
ESP and the User Website
The user website is run by a bespoke Enterprise Service Platform. ESP acts as an administrative hub in the JackBord ecosystem. It is where we link users to JackBords. It is also our content management system for the user website.
The EMQX MQTT Server
MQTT is the main communication protocol used in the JackBord ecosystem, allowing us to connect Dashboard users to JackBords and to connect to additional services such as data logging and data processing.
The EMQX Server is the "broker" or intermediary that sits in the middle, directing the traffic.
User Experience
User experience is crucial to the success of JackBord. Our hardware offers an authentic, hands on, learning experience, and our user website and Dashboard wrap around that experience.
Therefore, the user experience needs to be considered holistically across all three of those components - the Boards, the Dashboard, and the User Website.
Our Mission is to remove barriers to learning, without removing learning opportunities.
Our Vision is to have a cohesive, consistent and intuitive user experience across the whole ecosystem, for users of all abilities and backgrounds, inspiring them into STEM careers.
Back Story
Jack Penman is a gifted educator and creative electronics engineer, and a TED Talks presenter who brings a rare and innovative vision to the challenge of teaching young and diverse minds.
His unique brain distills complexity into simple solutions. Jack’s difficulties and frustrations accessing the education that both interested him and suited his learning style has driven him to address the many problems facing all learners, particularly the neuro diverse and minority groups.
Drawing upon his innate curiosity, considerable knowledge, different way of thinking, and an ability to inspire others, Jack -with students and teacher colleagues- has created the JackBord -a system that is now is transforming the lives of many students of all abilities and backgrounds.
Purpose (the why)
We open a world of opportunity for curious young minds for careers in science, technology, engineering and more…..
Mission (the how)
To remove the barriers to teaching and learning STE(A)M subjects for young learners of ALL abilities and backgrounds
Vision
The enjoyment of learning
"Let’s deliver them a path that can take them to a variety of destinations, limited only by their imaginations.” Jack Penman, Inventor and founder